The Amazing Contradictions of Georgian Society

OPED

Georgia is a paradox of its kind, containing numerous curious contradictory elements within herself. For example, this is a country of both ancient civilization and amazing current unruly wildness. Our history and cultural heritage amazes an interested foreign eye to the utmost, but we also surprise it with our habit of turning the country into a literal garbage bin: partying in the lap of the nation and proudly making ardent wordy toasts to the millennia-old Georgian history yet leaving the refuse on the spot where we just pigged on our wonderful Georgian cuisine.

Let me put down some of the most conspicuous and stunning elements of our national character that are coming into a flagrant contradiction with each other: great ancient culture vs. propensity to live in physical garbage; good-Samaritan care for others vs. unbridled aggressiveness; language sugariness in personal communication vs. malicious vituperations behind the back; benign human nature vs. political cunning and cruelty; perfect ear for music and inborn lilt vs. rowdy yelling in public; democratically working mind vs. monarchic attitudes; modern way of life vs. medieval brutality; panegyrics vs. backbiting; desire and readiness for good life vs. maliciousness of rules of the game; wisdom in words vs. stupidity in action; desire to be a strong and numerous nation vs. no preparedness for cultivating ample progeny; ardent patriotism vs. craving to live somewhere else; adherence to Christianity vs. offhand deceitfulness; elevated spirituality vs. voracious appetite for mundane triviality; love for animals vs. indifference to the mess our pets make in the streets; admiration of Tbilisi in toasts vs. crippling it architecturally; adulation of Georgian females by Georgian men vs. their avoidance to marry them; love for sports vs. addictiveness to tobacco, alcohol and drugs; carrying crosses on the neck vs. not reading the Bible or living by its precepts; going to school vs. not getting an education; heart full of love vs. heart full of hatred; respect for the time which is passing vs. indifference towards the passing time; ideology of a virgin vs. proclivity to dress and behave like whores; being ambitious vs. having no courage in life; living an overly urbane life vs. being excessively gauche and vulgar.

This is only part of all the contradictions we as a people bear inside us, and this is only the ones that have occurred to me momentarily. In fact, we are terribly bothered by them psychologically. These contradictions are tearing us apart and we have no idea what kind of a role they are playing in our everyday life. This is a condition which needs therapy but we hate seeing a shrink because we think we can easily survive without any therapy. Wrong!

As a matter of fact, I needed to make this spacious introduction only because I wanted to clarify the notion of democracy as it is working on our national soil and the way it relates to the dictatorial Georgian character. My impression is that we are not even near to what genuine liberalism means and what real democracy represents. In the electoral campaign, they are working though. Formally! All of the candidates for parliament membership are overly liberal and democratic before they are elected, using all kinds of words and phrases and promises thereof that purport their liberal and democratic character, but as soon as they find themselves at the helm, they change overnight like they were touched by a magic wand. They just want to rule! And rule dictatorially. And if they are not allowed to, they go berserk. Where is this discrepancy in our political behavior coming from? Could this be based on our overly contradictory nature I have just tried to describe?

I might have an explanation, although it might hardly sound serious. Here it goes anyway: we are nearly all brought up in a family situation where Tamada – a toast master – persists as a clearly dictatorial figure. This fact sits deep in our tradition. Any Georgian can be a Tamada and wants to be a Tamada. And if you like to be a Tamada, then a dictator is in your blood. I know you will laugh at this kind of interpretation of our dictatorial character but if we give a second thought to this extraordinary analytical escapade, we might come to believe that there could be something rational in the suggested judgment.

Nugzar B. Ruhadze