Diaspora Adrift

The traditional diaspora, in its turn, continues its degradation, with its institutions becoming mere shells of their former selves.

The churches have assumed a new social role, shedding their traditional missions. Throughout history, wherever the belfry of a church arose, a school was built adjacent to it. On the East Coast, the church has completely shirked that responsibility and our clergy members do not opt for a change. On the West Coast, the picture is not very different; the Diocese only has a single school, while the Prelacy sponsors a network of schools mostly on a utilitarian agenda, to indoctrinate a new generation with political dogmas.

The diaspora survived for centuries because of its institutions and charismatic leaders. Today, it is hard to pinpoint leaders who can command the overall respect of the diaspora and mobilize communities for a noble cause.

We have not yet succeeded in galvanizing the million-plus-member diaspora into a political force. While politics — domestic or foreign — determine our existence and destiny, we have a tendency to resist the issues, instead depoliticizing the community with an atavistic fear inherited from the Ottoman times. Many local and community agendas could be achieved by engaging in the democratic process of this country.

There is an indifference, a sense of ennui, with regard to the loss of some values and institutions. No one is alarmed by the loss of the language. It is true that the spirit can carry us some distance, but language has an important traditional value; it is the key to our heritage, to the sources of our history. Responsible people rationalize that language is doomed to be lost, sooner or later, so why struggle, why worry — let it happen sooner rather than later.

The centennial of the Genocide is around the corner. The US Armenian community has yet to chart a course. No one is outraged that the Genocide Museum project failed because of our general apathy and perhaps also because of a political conspiracy. The Russian-Armenian community has become the largest Armenian Diaspora, though it is still in its infancy, with almost no schools, just taking pride in putting up new churches.

Ironically, there are more Armenians in Russia than Armenia, but the community is still in a flux to define and to determine its identity, to be useful to itself, to the world Armenian community and especially to our ancestral homeland.

Facing disaster, we live in a Panglossian world. The French philosopher Voltaire published the classic satire of the Age of Enlightenment, Candide. In the book, the protagonist, Candide, is the disciple of Dr. Pangloss, whose optimism won’t be dampened by any disaster. Armenians around the world live in that Panglossian world, the motto of which is: “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.”