In the last thirty odd years, Sakartvelo has kept making absolutely unaffordable waves, from the renowned, vociferous slogans of the late 1980s and early 90s about kicking the autocratic Russia out and bringing the democratic West in, to the recent and still ongoing oppositional indoor-outdoor dramatics to block a controversial bill from passing into the country’s legislature. Whether this nation is capable of doing politics in calm, balanced, but still heard-by-the-public tones is a perpetual unanswered question that generations will likely be forced to continue asking for many years to come. Yes, you can read it at the very least as a sign that we are still breathing and moving, the silver lining of a dark cloud of sorts, but meanwhile, our overstrained political nerve is being stripped to the bone, and it hurts.
Making waves was perhaps okay in the recent boisterous revolutionary past, but today, it feels almost wild. Making waves might make sense in a particular historical circumstance, but certainly not at all times, because the contemporary style of making politics purports logic rather than emotion. Calming down and taking care of business as usual, at least occasionally, as is being done at this time by the current Georgian government, might be more meaningful. Georgia has already made many attempts to remove itself from the long-standing, stinking quagmire it is in by means of making habitual political waves, some of them in vain and some right on point, but always without contemplating slowly and wisely every step needed on the way to freedom, security and independence.
Everything today directs us toward giving deliberate thought to where we stand now and where we might soon find ourselves with the gigantic strides humankind is making towards new goals and ends. And the time has arrived, it seems, when keeping a low profile could be more beneficial than going out in search of trouble, as we did under every previous government, from that roaring era right after the halcyon days of socialist irresponsibility, imposed soviet security, weird communist stability, quasi freedom and feigned independence.
Back then, to the greatest chagrin of the thinking part of Georgia, the most common disposition of our national mind and body was to roll in political waves; waves that were ferociously poised to gobble up our dreams of a better life and thrust us in terrifying thuds against the sociopolitical wave-breakers we were trying to build to fend ourselves from the nightmares of the past. But, behold, we are still around by some divine miracle. Finally, we can stand firm and stable, building our lives as best we possibly can.
Sadly, though, the old tendency to intermittently upset the applecart with our irrational decisions still persists, mostly on a public level, sporadically stirred by those who want to be in perpetual vicious and uncooperative opposition to the presently ruling forces. And our well-weathered people still need some additional training to hear the voices on both sides so as to discern soberly between good and bad, positive and negative, rational and irrational.
The current happy Western presence, and the fortunate absence of the northern-directed dictatorial force, in Georgia, has created a tangible opportunity for us to proceed along the golden median between the two, keeping away from waves and uproar so as to have a chance to invest ourselves in useful labor; to finally become well versed in the priorities, and not get caught up in the waves.
Op-Ed by Nugzar b. Ruhadze
