Catastrophes of Armenian Masculine male chauvinism - concept of Strong Armenian Male figure
The Armenian SuperMan – Sherlock Holmes – Astronaut – Masculine - Macho Man
The catastrophes of Armenian Masculine male chauvinism and concept of Strong Armenian Male figure
The goal of this article is not to produce a sensation of humiliation or demoralization within us Armenians as a nation, a sense of degradation or loss of national pride, NO, the result will most probably cause a sentiment and emotions of pain, a sort of regret and self-blame on a national level, and to feel pain I consider a sign of healthy patriotism and domination of national pride, absence of feeling pain I consider absence of national conscious, for pain is a sign of life, while those who read this article and do not feel remorse and pain, agony, that means that they are paralyzed on a national level.
This article might contain also aspects of humor, through sarcasm, but it is not an article which is meant to mock or ridicule, undermine, no, humor here exist as a means, not a target and purpose or goal, the goal of this article is an attempt to try to raise awareness.
As a child on elementary level my favorite section was Armenian history, it always excited and inspired me, made me feel extreme joy and pleasure, because as far as I remember, Armenians won battles there, the only rare occasions where Armenians were defeated was during the battle of Avarayr in 421 (Vartanants) and the chapter that I always hated, the surrender and end of Ani kingdom
Apart from that, during my elementary days, I was filled with so much joy, spiritual and mental pleasure and enthusiasm, Armenians won battle after another, inside Armenian history books, I still remember one story, this time Armenians faced difficulties, so this time only, as an exception, chose to use cunning tactics to enter the enemy fortress, but that only a one-time event, Armenians kept winning, and I told this story verbally with so much passion to my lady teachers, who sent me to other classes to tell the story to other teachers, and stars filled my chest
All this is natural for childhood, it is ok to hear stories of victories which will fill you with a sense of national pride, pride, victory and glory were the trademarks of a childhood Armenian history book
But if you say what is wrong with boosting Armenian self-confidence, pride and high morals, nothing, as long as it evolves and matures as we grow and mature, and with our age advance our sense of realism pragmatism and practical attitude must also evolve
There is nothing wrong with a positive approach and attitude, but when it develops to a sense of living in a world of fantasy, where we suppose that we are invincible, flawless and perfect, and there is no need to work on improving ourselves since we are that great, our catastrophes begin, and this is how they began actually, if you ask me, when we consider that we have no need to reform or work on improving ourselves, optimism is fine, but in a practical realistic word, and I say this as a programmer, we must always assume the worst and prepare for it, that is how we form our immune system and security
All this constant approach has driven a lot of Armenians to an excess state of stubbornness, blind confidence, blind extreme attitudes and approaches, not only on self confidence level, but to a level of stubborn ego which transformed to vanity, vain-glory, lack of flexibility and absence of tolerance
When so many wise elderly warned that it is time we realize we are indeed weak, they have been met with condemnation and accusations of hurting moral
Look at our history books, our political spectrum, and our institutions, do we practice self-criticism, do we acknowledge our shortcomings and that we made a mistake, we are human, have not the political debate inside the Armenian diaspora and inside the republic based on blaming the other side?
Take a look at our National Assembly sessions since 2021, the most if not only exclusive topic is exchanging blame and accusations on who caused the catastrophes
Look at the diaspora publications and you will find that for decades it focused on who should be blamed, and those tens of years have not been enough to make a scientific realistic objective discussion on what kind of mistakes our grand-grand-grand-fathers did since maybe 10 generations
Come visit the Opera square in Yerevan, the busiest machine is a punching machine; people stand in line and punch the ball, to demonstrate how mighty their fist is
Look at our revolutionary songs, “go and tell the sultan that life is so precious for our soldiers”, “Istanbul will become a sea of blood, Horror filled the hearts of the ottoman army”, but if we follow that pattern, we will start to ask the natural question, if our “fedayi squads” were so much more superior to the Ottoman Army which was terrified, what went wrong that we ended in a genocide, then our leaders must have been so low in political intelligence to a level that a terrified army committed genocide on the Armenian nation
That was more than a century ago, but have we changed anything in modern history
“We have the strongest army in the region”, “our brave Armenian masculine soldier is superior to the coward enemy”, “new war – new territories”, until the 44 day war came, and for 43 days the propaganda was that we are winning
I remember a poor reporter lady asked the military spokesman, expecting him to comfort us all with an assuring answer, “but we saw videos of the enemy entering our land”, the spokesman gave a rebuking answer “Don’t you trust our army”, and the poor girl felt embarrassed, how could she have the audacity to ask such a question, which questions the might of the Armenian soldier masculinity, we had forgot that modern war since centuries, does not rely on the masculine character of the fighting soldier, but the more advanced military technology and the expertise to use it
This issue is not only political and on political leadership level, it has to do with the Armenian character – regardless if eastern Armenian born in Armenia or western Armenian inside the diaspora or a returning citizen
It has to do with the stubborn tendency of “we know it all”, especially Lebanese Armenians, and” we have figured it all out” in Armenia, just listen to any argument in Armenia, everyone declares that his conclusion is based on the “well established guidelines that have been stamped and verified as a fact” by international standards, but no one has ever heard of the location of those guidelines
Once I commented my opinion on the social media wall of a well-known conspiracy theorist USA Armenian citizen, he replied that “That is your opinion and not a fact”, which astonished me, “of course it is not a fact, sir”, I replied, “who can ever claim in politics that his idea is a fact, of course it is an opinion and a relative point of view”, I said, and this surprises me
It is also an Armenian, Lebanese Armenian and also a Lebanese tradition to live in an imaginary world of “super cool, superman”, where we want to tell stories that seem exiting, one huge above 120 kilo guy told this story that when the Dora explosion took place, he was thrown from one door to another door in Azirian club, and (with a strange coincidence the only thing he was directed to was the exit door, not a wall) and when he opened his eyes he saw two others next to him all three holding hands
I wanted to enjoy humor, I told the story to a Lebanese Arab Christian, I told him that this is impossible, because I was also on the roof of my house near Hadjen of a 4 floor building, and if that was the case - I would have certainly flied in the air, fallen and died, he laughed and immediately followed with a story of how 40 other kids chased him when he was a child and he prevented them from reaching him by throwing stones
This character becomes more sharp, a lot of Lebanese Armenians are military experts, political analysts, and they know the darkest secrets, they will tell you which political figure is CIA, KGB, Freemason, Illuminati, which Armenian political figure is an agent of Daesh, they will tell you the most hidden secrets of freemasonry, despite never attending, and if you are that unwise to try to explain to them, you will surely make the most crucial mistake of the night
A week ago, a Lebanese Armenian “military expert” announced the “incredibly high number of Azeri military casualties during the one day assault on Artsakh, it was twice the number of the casualties Baku announced in the 44 day war”, can you argue with him, he concluded that, “The number was that high because the attacker always gives much higher casualties”
I had a guest from abroad, and one of our Lebanese Armenian friends “explained to the visitor the constitution of the country he was coming from- explaining that in that country those who come from abroad and are indeed of the same nation, are forbidden from working jobs that require skilled expertise”
I say this not to produce mockery, but this has become a crisis, a crisis that Vahe Berberian represents in one of his plays, the Armenian typical stubborn male chauvinism “Baron Garbis”
We have to pay attention, this stubborn attitude and mentality is driving us to political ignorance, no wonder today we have blind following situation, easy to manipulate masses, lack of tolerance, extremism, ignorant extreme stubborn political following and conviction where the final result is disappointment, antagonism, absence and failure to communicate and understand each other, failure to listen to each other, it’s that Armenian ego by the masses and vanity by the leadership, antagonism, and a nation with so many defeats
And the first thing to do is realize, we are neither Superman, nor Votto van Bismark
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