Time to meditate a little: the ultimate goal is overall happiness, not just membership in any civil organization or military bloc, no matter how fine and righteous those international institutions look and sound. And there are so many ways, both good and not so good, in which to achieve that ultimate goal.
We are living in a doubting and competitive world, within which very few decisions made were or are absolutely perfect. Anything we try to do to improve life on earth needs to be double-checked and scrutinized, because most actions undertaken so far, in our thousands of years of history, have not done very much good to the Earth or humankind, especially our wars and the ways we have treated Mother Nature.
Our little Georgia is certainly a part of the bigger world around, and, naturally, we are among the makers of those decisions and the undertakers of those actions. Life goes on, and we carry on making new decisions and carrying out new actions, but there is never enough certainty that those decisions and actions are optimal. For instance, do we know exactly what kind of political decision and which model of political behavior will work as 100% optimal in the geopolitical, social and economic situation that Georgia has lately found itself?
Political science has not yet prompted us, with reasonable certainly, as to what might best suit this country and nation. None of us in the field of liberal arts or science has so far come up with the fundamental research, and the answers thereof, to timely instruct the Georgian people how best to behave, what measures to take, or what favorable directions to choose so as to make progress. The generations come and go without any persuasive or knowledge-based guidelines for our making our way toward a better future. This is why we have incessantly watched those huge crowds in the street again and again over the last 30 years. Most of our national time seems to have been spent outdoors, with placards, flags and slogans supported with loud calls for something, understood only by one part of the nation, the rest remaining in permanent doubt and suspicion.
Grassroots-level discussions, whether live at our kitchen tables or virtual on the internet, no longer make sense. People, in general, do not know where Georgia belongs and what the Georgian people need to do to achieve the ultimate goal, which is happiness. After all, the great Aristotle bequeathed to us humans that happiness is the only goal that makes sense in life. And in seeking to know how to achieve that ultimate goal, people need intellectual help from wise and educated researchers who know it better because they are wiser and more educated than we, the rank-and-file in the street. And the flip-side of the coin is that, having received those scientifically-founded recommendations, we, the people, must also be ready to listen and act accordingly. The Republic can no longer rely on popular slogans, loud calls and hysterical demands to go in this or that direction. The republic needs scientifically corroborated plans of action to move forward.
Time is passing, and this country shows no ability to get out of the situation, caught between the anvil and the hammer as it is. Some powers pull us to where life is presumed to be better, and others try to drag us back to a well-known déjà vu of an already experienced lifestyle. And the participants in the ceaselessly ongoing show try to guess where they want to end up. It has not been counted with precision where the majority of those participants stand, but the guesswork never ends. All those sporadic emotional public breakouts seem to be accidental, and the wise men of the nation, if there are any left, stand in solemn silence, afraid of being turned into pariahs or the plain subjects of derision. After all, life’s not so bad when you’re sitting safely sheltered, making no sudden moves, in the sweet and serene haven of “status quo,” is it?
Op-Ed by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
