Read and Wake Up!

WAKE UP AND READ!

 

We all know the age-old saying “One does not become prophet in his own country.” The average Azerbaijani can easily turn this saying into the motto of his life, for he even recognizes local pop stars only after they achieve a success outside their homeland. Such an attitude towards each other deeply ingrained in our national character. Here is an example of from our national unconscious folklore: “Foreign country to travel, homeland to die” Do we, even without realizing it, perceive our own country as a cemetery? Well, and if for one reason or another a person was not able to travel abroad, then what, it turns out that he is a cemetery watchman or even a corpse?

 

In Old Ahmedli, where I lived a significant part of my life, a family of mullah lived in the cemetery. They married their eldest daughter to a Pakistani tenant and were very happy about that, repeating tirelessly: “She married a foreigner, a foreigner!!!”.

 

But we have no right to be proud of the desire to live not in a society, but in a community. In the “Essay on Contemporary European Philosophy”, Merab Mamardashvili warns against the danger of community life and psychology through the example of fascist Germany. An eminent philosopher convincingly proves the following: the idea of people existing and governing themselves without a separation of power (“One people, one führer”) results in the insane Führer infecting and charging his whole nation with his madness.

 

I doubt that somewhere in the depths of our conscious, we understand that we are dead. As Maardashvili says, we are born for the first time and we live like meat machines. We fear Most of all the “rebirth”, awakening, resurrection for the true life of the spirit and the intellect. Can’t Jalil Mammadguluzade’s “Dead Men” be read from this angle either?

 

Birth injury – the first and the most severe injury. But most injuries can be overcome with the help of three practices: critical thinking, moderate cynicism, and a sense of humor. I will quote one long standing joke, which easily dispels this unknown – the birth to a new, real life:

 

“Twins are sitting in the womb. One asks the other:

– Do you think there is something anything outside?

“I don’t know,” he answers. “No one has returned back from there yet.”

 

Nobel laureate, poet and critic Thomas Stearns Eliot has a wonderful saying: “Patriotism begins with the faithfulness of the profession chosen for itself.” “Patriotism begins with the loyalty you have for the profession you have chosen for yourself.” I heard something similar, but adapted to local realities, from one of my teachers when I was a student at the philosophy faculty of the Baku State University: “They tell me, give someone`s mark, he is a good guy. It’s not hard for me, I can do it, and it doesn’t matter whether he is a good guy or not. There a lot of good guys near the metro exit. The country does not need good guys, but professionals.”

 

I mean that, as raw material, we, Azerbaijanis, are extremely talented. I swear! Let’s stop crying, beating our own so that others would be afraid. If we compare ourselves with our Turkish brothers, our innate creativity, which does not manifest itself only in commercial affairs, becomes apparent. In fact, all we need is a little diligence and awareness, which would help polish our wild talent and integrate it into modern realities.

 

It is thanks to our awareness that we can reveal our nationwide impostor syndrome, when it seems that all your merits and successes are not worth mentioning, that they are a matter of luck or the fruit of fraud that is about to be revealed. It’s thanks to our awareness that our nationwide impostor syndrome is revealed, making it feel like your merits and successes are not worth mentioning, that they are a matter of luck or fraud.

Psychologists say that this syndrome starts developing in us since childhood: parents either overpraise the child or in every way deny the importance of his every word, thoughts and actions, which results. In this case, even an adult person vaguely feels the image of dissatisfied parents.

 

Learned helplessness does not make us better. Neither do ingratiating and belittling our merits. We are responsible for the way we build our own destiny in order to live a life without anxiety?