Beyond East and West - about Sense and Nonsense of a differentiation
Individualism as an Ideology of the West
 Perspectives of Individualism in Republic of Armenia: Myth or Reality.
(Astghik Hakobyan)

	Category of individualism is questioned to be either a western ideology or a reality.  To my deep conviction it can’t be defined in absolute terms.  Unification of ideology and reality comes to form what I’d name a certain individualistic lifestyle. If the culture of west can be characterized with certain individualistic features, then the ideology of individualism indeed has somewhat turned into societal reality  and if not , then it is still an ideology.  
	
	Ideology plays an important role in many fields of human activity and has therefore  been dealt with directly and indirectly in a vast number of studies .  However there is no generally accepted definition  of the term even in the various branches of social and political science.  Ideology plays a shaping role in development and functioning of each social sphere.  It may encourage or discourage a certain policy, decision making process, human behavior or lifestyle.  The final goal of ideology is an agreed  rearrangement of some element of the relationship. There is no doubt, that ideology is a quite strong factor  in shaping  the certain form of social organization.  And it certainly is an identity defining feature.  There are forms of social organization (customs, manners) developed  by human race in the conduct of its everyday life.  
	
	Considering the cultural aspect of an ideology.  History and the certain processes of development have made a rich inheritance (customs, manners, style and modes of behavior, values, norms, etc.) .  To describe this unique richness first the anthropologists used the term “culture”.  Latter includes certain modes of thinking, behavior, set of well settled norms and deep values.  Culture is defined both as a social and anthropologic term. It is quality of not individuals, but of society of which individuals are a part.  Each culture is unique complex of attributes subsuming overly area of social life. It shouldn’t be mixed  with innate personality let alone with “national character”. Culture impacts its way of life into its members through acculturation. In this sense ideology becomes turned  into  a certain  set of communication modes and lifestyle.  And in order to  define whether the west is individualistic in reality  one should (1) understand the process of individualization and (2)  compare the following set of striking features that the individualistic cultures are characterized with.  
		
	Considering  the fundament of the individualistic ideology.
	As an ideology, individualism was founded in Europe.  The essence of it was the combination of the idealism and law.     The first basic social claims which characterize the fundament of individualism were the claims for right to religious freedom, political freedom and other basic freedoms. The implication of that fundament into social reality is believed to be Human Rights establishment  in Europe.  It was built on supremacy of individual and was a real step towards making the Western individualism a societal reality.  From Europe  the individualistic values were transmitted to the United States with first pilgrims, who brought with them the English Magna Catta; Bill of Rights and established it as a law in the Virginia Colony. And that was the era of 1600s.  That’s how early this ideology started to emerge into western reality.  
		
	Talking of the mechanisms and forms of social organization.  
Industrialization processes were followed by  process  of congregation into cities.  Then  the objective need to compromise on individuality  was evident and it was a real need for societal living.  The key to individualistic ideology was the depending upon the “self” (not the family, group or community).  Rights of the individual became defended by law and the stress of the policy was towards the education, development and activity of the individual in the first place and then on the community. Constitution put a tremendous amount of stress on individuality. The latter gave freedom of religion, speech and other  freedoms to all the citizens. The  individual in industrial and later in a capitalist country was protected by economic policy. The right to private enterprise and private businesses was enhanced.  Politically  the individuals had equal access to the right of participating in the decision making processes indirectly, enforced by elections, dominance of law. Socially - the idea of the welfare state came to protect the individual socially. The individual (not the family or community) was counted the smallest element, atom of the society.  “The healthy and developed  individuals will make a healthy and developed society”, “Every citizen has equal rights as well as responsibilities”,  “The state works to benefit the individual” these were the basic expressions of the individualistic ideology.   
	
	So summarizing I could tell that the development of individualism both as an ideology and  a reality was a process of  Bottom - Up mode.  First came individuality then the compromise of it.  
	
	Now about the more striking features of an individualistic culture. Individualistic culture is defined by predominantly verbal and explicit style of communication. They hold freedom, the development of the individual personality, self-expression, and personal enterprise and achievement as supreme values.   Individual rights, not duty to community are paramount . The society is independent, individualistically minded. There is dominance of law. There is rule of law. The state does things to benefit the individual. Typically, members of individualistic society belong  to many different groups and associations, each catering to a different set of needs professional, religious and recreational.    Personal relationships embrace all these areas of activity.  Families are nuclear. The personal orientation is  on interests of the individual.  Individual is identified  on the basis of his/her own affiliation and his/her  needs defined in terms of individual interests.   Interpersonal, as well as professional relationships are built on mutual understanding and respect as an individual (at least in the gender relations it is a western reality).  Family relations are basically egalitarian.  The individual mentality also involves orientation to their goals and specifically towards their personal endeavors accomplishment. There is another  concrete feature of an individualistically minded society and that’s the consciousness of individual interest and individuality.  

	So, as you see, individualism can be interpreted by more than one aspect. Definition whether this or that society is individualistic or not  can’t be absolutely.  The ideology of individualism has emerged into western culture and for that there are hundreds of factors that have developed and, why not, transformed through the history.  And  in order to answer to the question is individualism a western reality I would answer -  to the extend the following features correspond to those of Western modes of thinking, lifestyle, values and overall culture. From eastern perspective the west is individualized to a high extend, at least with the comparison of the eastern more extreme traditional cultures.   And it is evident that in this sense Armenia is only on its few steps toward individualism.
	
	Next will be the description of Armenian reality.  The brief description of modes of thinking, lifestyle and culture developed during centuries are compared with those of  western society.  And the comparative analysis will allow to comment and make conclusions about how has the individualistic ideology implied its values into Armenian society and to what extend is Armenian society communal or  individualistic.
	
	Armenian culture can be attributed as “communal”.  This term is opposed to the individualism by an American social scientist Raymond Cohen.  In his book “Negotiating across cultures”(Cohen, 1991) he argues that origins of communal culture are to be sought in the historical predominance of the rural community.  Now how does it imply to Armenia?   
	
	I’ll make short historic excuse, with more emphasis on culture in order to be argumentative about the description of the Armenian communal mentality.
	“Armenia is a museum under open air”.  This description is quite typical for Armenian architecture.  Indeed, the architectural map of Armenia is exceptionally  full of monuments and memorials ( along with many other values of course).  Each of them comes to symbolize a battle, represent a heroism or commemorates  the glory of victims.  Armenians have had a long and somehow sad history.  Due to its geographic locations the Armenians have constantly been a subject of Turkish, Roman, Persian, Arabic as well as Tatar and other invaders.  So in order to maintain its geo-ethnic existence Armenians had  no other choice than get unified round one idea and that is the survival of nation, through maintaining  the Armenian language, religion, traditions and in other words the Armenian Cultural heritage.  This just was a  paramount condition for existence. Most of the battles fought were named by the community, village or family name of  the warriors who lived close to the border.  In the absence of statehood Armenians until creation of the first Armenian Republic (1918-1920)  were organized in Principalities.  So the need for partnership among the communities was tremendous for survival and security.  The military entities were the villages/provinces.  Constant Pressure caused Armenians to think of togetherness as of the only means of survival.  Psychological factors of the outside threat and the existence of common enemy were other unifying  factors.  Community has been the number one defense group in all senses.   It caused an individual Armenian to think about safety of the family, the family thought about the community / province.  The communities thought about the nation.  So these two  factors were quite influential in forcing Armenian to get united round a certain set of ideas, symbols, values, language and religion (Armenian Apostolic Church).  Here is where the fundamental orientation toward the community was founded.  The Armenian secular nation marked by language, shared culture and history and territorial homeland was embodied in the first  Armenian  Republic (1918-1920).   And even ironically, was preserved in the rhetoric, if not always in the practice of the Soviet republic (1920-1991) that succeeded it.  The Soviet period implied territorial identification of entire Armenian nation, spread all over the world with Eastern Armenia.  This was particularly important  in reinforcing the notion of nationhood, reintegrating Armenians from the rest of the Soviet Union, the Middle East and elsewhere into the tiny republic around Yerevan, developing and subsidizing and industrializing the country, spreading mass literacy and learning  in Armenian, institutionalizing Armenian culture in its acceptable Soviet version, and providing all the aspects of nationness to the Armenians of  Transcaucasia except full sovereignty within their state and self- determination of their future.

	The Soviet period most empirically identified Armenia with the territory of the republic.  Soviet Socialist ideology in combination with subconscious community minded Armenian ideology developed into another unique mixture.  The orientation toward prosperity of the Sate in accordance with Armenian mentality became  an era of work, orientation towards the state and the state benefited from that implication.  There was a trend in Soviet period to homogenize the minority nations of the Union around majority, that is “Slavonic” value system.   Finally, Gorbachev’s  reforms allowed us to have a realistic look at our past history and to begin certain  reform in economical and political organization  which  later brought to a totally different processes.  However,  those  processes at the end of 1980s and the second Armenian Republic prove the powerful existence of the ethnic consciousness (which in fact for 70 years was in a latent form).  The second Armenian Republic became a nation state and the inner needs of nation to manifest the Armenian culture, language, religion and education, which were artificially overshadowed by the implication of the Soviet policy were brought into reality.  Armenia developed into a nation state.  And the ancient people constituted on the basis of a shared culture and history were enhanced with the right to political self-determination, control its territorial homeland and perhaps even independence.  The rise of nationalism (in positive sense) held that only sates that represent the will of the people constitute  as a nation are legitimate and such multinational federations as Soviet-style lack that legitimacy.
	
	The second Armenian Republic or the current independent Armenia is a de-jure democratic state .  The constitution enhances people with basic democratic freedoms: freedom of speech, religion and equal access to social resources, such as education, leadership, health and law.  The government is elected . People are given economic right of enterpreneurship.  The transmission to market economy has promoted the free competition.  
	
	However, the seventy years of Soviet Ideology and the ten years of the western ideological impact haven’t been totally able to suppress the Armenian  culture: a communal culture.  

	The pure communal culture is described with the following striking features.   The style of communication is nonverbal and implicit.   The primacy of the extended family, clan or castle have constantly rigid stratified forms of social organization.  Individual is identified  on the basis of group affiliation and individual needs defined in terms of communal interests.  And much of the elements of the communal culture can strongly be observed in Armenia , in today’s modes of communications. Family still is considered to be the atom, smallest particle of the society.   There is a term that is worth to be mentioned: the concept of “face saving”. Face is one’s standing in the eyes of the group. It must be preserved at all costs. Elaborate mechanisms have involved to protect not only one’s own face, but also that of others. The authority of the community is superior to the authority of the individual.  The individual makes contributions to benefit the community.  The individual in his/her turn is identified on the basis of group affiliation and individual needs are defined in terms of communal interests.  Conflicts of different levels are not resolved by resort to formal processes of law, but by mechanisms of communal conciliation, concerned less with abstract principles of absolute justice than those in the individually minded society.  Communally minded persons give importance of the face and are highly sensitive to the effect of what they say on others.  Language expresses the mentioned cultural features.  As a social instrument a device for preserving and promoting social interests as much a means for transmitting information.  Directness and special  contradiction are much disliked.  It’s hard for speakers in this kind of culture to deliver a blunt “no”.  Language performs on the whole an informational rather than socially lubricative function.  There is an endless number of  proverbs  stressing the importance and privilege of the family, reputation and community. 
		
	Hence,  in opposition to the individualistic culture,  the communal modes of communication is build by the scheme Up - Bottom and that means that authority comes  from the community to the  individuals.  More on the description of the Armenian traditionalism and community orientation will be reported in the next presentation by my colleague.

	 Meanwhile I would like to talk about the cultural changes which have been occurring over the last 10 years after the independence.  For Armenia, as a basically communally minded society, to survive independently of  regional, imperial hegemonies, it must build strong, legitimate, democratic, authoritative (not authoritarian) states based on the rule of law. By authoritative states I mean states that have authority, that is legitimate power, that rule through acceptance by the population in accordance with legal norms.  Armenia has long and rich traditions of a fluid, integrated, synthetic, cosmopolitan shared culture that needs not just to be revived, treasured, but also modernized as a far more appropriate form of civilized modernity for this country  in the twenty - first century.  
  	
	Since the declaration of Armenia as an independent country as mentioned above Armenia has taken the course of democratic development.  Much has changed in our society since then. The processes of modernization have emerged into all spheres of social reality: politics, economy, culture, art, music , literature, Mass Media etc.. 
Due to undertaking of a democratic course of development Armenia has become open to all kinds of  collaboration with number of countries all over the world.  
The processes of globalization have come to fulfill the gap between the communal and individual cultural elements. The active intercultural communication has given the result of making first steps towards the input of individualistic mentality into the Armenian culture.  But these are just the few first steps. Shifts toward the individually mind are evident especially in the youth. They are the ones more effected by the current investment of the western culture.  Along with the native values and traditions which are basically implied in the families, they get acculturated/socialized under the influence of western movies, they listen to western styles of music, watch Western channels, programs, study  English, French or German as the third language after the native (Armenian) and Russian.  The innovative fiction as well as the scientific literature they read is in English.  The access to internet is another strong mechanism for changing the modes of thinking.   The middle and older generation however is more conservatively minded.  There is a kind of opposition to inputting  western social norms and values from the old generation’s side. As for them, Armenians are not ready yet for that type of  value system.   The extended form of the family, which is more typical for the communal societies, has basically shifted towards the nuclear. The patriarchal modes of gender relationship is still to be changed, though.  
	
	It is well known in social sciences  that  cultural changes are the most time -  consuming processes of transformation and change. So, it definitely is to take time for such and ancient culture as the Armenian to change.
	
	Investment of a new ideology and order of law does not necessarily mean to input  a new culture. It won’t happen overnight.  Just the opposite, the culture needs to be prepared for a certain order and the changes will be evident gradually.  The newly inputted values and norms of democratic society are somehow adjusted to our society and by saying democracy the Armenians do not necessarily understand what the westerners do.  Intercultural communications, free flow of Mass  Media, internet and intense cooperation are doing their job in shifting the pure communal understanding and stereotyping of the Western individualism.  New values start to find their usage in our society. However the  mentality has not changed yet. Such ethics as trust toward the government, just and fair elections, trust towards the court and just court processes still are to be built.  Rise of individual activity and mass  involvement in numerous social associations still is to be observed in the future.  In my opinion the economic development is another strong factor to build shifts toward  individuality.  It will bring economic security and well being to the individuals and hence, more social competency  and social freedom and independence of the  to the individual from the community.  

L I T E R A T U R E     U S E D

1.  ‘’Negotiating Across Cultures”, Raymond Cohen, 1991
2.  “The Transcucasus: Prospects for Regional Integration”, Yerevan 1997
3. “Cultural Legacies or State Collapse?  Probing the Postcommunist Dilemma”, Stephen Holmes, 1996