Armenia lacks critical thinking -- It's a conspiracy, man!

Every time I come to Armenia, I notice significant changes such as new buildings and tunnels, people's style of clothing, additional tourists, and the ever-changing nightlife, with bars and clubs opening, older ones closing.  Throughout all this visual bedlam, the one constant that remains is the lack of critical thought in people's opinions and beliefs.  Practically every conversation eventually leads to the discovery or uncovering of a conspiracy.  Rumors heard, snippets read aloud in hushed tones, biased newspaper clippings that are obviously skewed, all lead to some incredible beliefs.  It's quite a shock to realize how little reality and rationalism has to do with someone's piecemeal worldview.  It's one thing to have a theological discussion about reality, and what constitutes one's personal choices in their lack or strength of religious belief, but it's a completely different animal when people can't seem to tell the difference between evidence and unsubstantiated rumor(s).  As long as some gathered data points fit into a predetermined grid, further strengthening the skewed core, and dismissing all points to the contrary, Armenians become enamored with subjective perspectives.  Their convictions to these irrational beliefs are only strengthened through time.  Yet, as soon as something shakes their perspective, and their beliefs suddenly change, the fact that they had such strength in conviction is easily forgotten and discounted, only to be replaced with something else of equal or greater conviction.  It's like an infinite cyclical process that seems to have no visible means of ending.

Most heated, unsubstantiated, and irrational discussions tend to focus on Armenia's lack of power in the world.  To the population at large, it's always due to external forces, and internal ones that have sold out to those outside forces.  As is often the case in global politics, external forces are an unavoidable constant.  It's how you deal with those forces and organize to strengthen against fragmentation that determines your perceived strength.  Further, a little perspective wouldn't hurt the situation either.  The fact that there's still a country, no matter how small, still called Hayastan, after at least 2600 years of intermittent boundary recognition is an amazing feat of luck and nuanced political maneuvering.  Armenians have gone from tribal rule (3000 years ago), to monarchy (intermittently from 2500 - 600 years ago), to theocracy, to communism, and now, emerging Democracy.  Trying to explain all this from a rational perspective does not sit well with people's biased opinions.  Nationalism itself is a touchy subject and attempting to show through evidence that there is no such thing as ethnic purity, and all that happened to unify a certain group of people that we now call Armenians is a common language at some point in the past, tends to be dismissed at best, and considered treacherous and offensive at worst.  Many academics who have attempted to maintain critical thought have been ostracized and considered traitors.

A very enlightening conversation with other diasporans has made me realize that this lack of critical thought has not gone unnoticed.  Once aware of the extent to which it's exercised, almost every single conversation seems to retain some element of it.  To be fair however, it's not as though there's just one substantiated explanation for everything.  As was so eloquently explained by a very intelligent political scientist, critical thought however isn't limited towards identifying just one interpretation of a given subject.  There may indeed be numerous equally valid interpretations that must all be carefully analyzed.  As more evidence comes to light, the likelihood of these various interpretations shift accordingly.  Some strengthen as others significantly weaken.  As an example; the people who built the Egyptian pyramids are now known to have been paid Egyptian workers, some skilled, others laborers, but all doing it out of state sanctioned necessity.  For a significant amount of time, leading up to mide to late 20th century, due in no small part to Biblical perspectives, the pyramids were thought to have been built by Hebrew slaves.  It's understandable that the lack of physical evidence, such as archaeological records, limited perspective and scope.  Since the only account for a significant amount of time was that of the Bible, other perspectives were non-existent.  However, as more information came to light and as as Egyptian records were uncovered, it became clear that there might be more to this story.  Soon enough, with substantial archaeological discoveries, it's become increasingly clear that only one interpretation is truly substantiated.  Not all modes of thought that involve such interpretations can be so nicely cleared, but it's only through evidence, critical thinking, and by extension, the scientific method, that we can form a worldview with a healthy perspective.  Did you hear that Armenia?