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Monday, December 20, 2010

Georgian Liberal?



There is a kind of dualism in Tbilisi, the sense of you’re either with us or against us...

It has been increasingly hard to find my place. I’ve been searching for my group and I haven’t found it. I feel like a teenager again. You know, confused, trying to figure basic morals.

The more time passes, the more I understand what I’m against. Collectively, no one is against everything that I’m against. I guess we all have to compromise different things with the different groups of people.

I don’t know, parties, drinking, pot, singing, swearing, that’s fine, I like that deviant attitude. But, after a while, you realize that it is kinda fake. All things are kinda fake, so that’s not a tragedy. However, being pretty flexible, one still has some inner core morals, otherwise, it would be impossible to navigate the world. So what should I do, when the so-called liberal society clashes with that core?

My first problem is that I do believe in God. Lately, I found that if I say it aloud, many “friends” look at me exactly as traditional Georgian guys look at me when I say that I have no problem with gays. I guess acceptance is the problem on both sides; it is just that it happened that my view coincides with one of them.

The second thing is that I see childish, teenage rebellion, which is too late for anyone who is not 15. I see lies and cheating (I am not against free sex. I am not against open relationships. But I am against dishonesty), displaying intimate info on Skype and that kinda stuff. All this shit makes me feel mature and damn it, I hate to feel mature when I am only 25! I want to feel younger, not older, smarter and preachyer! I find myself in a position of a know-it-all, giving advices and shaming people.

There’s stuff in my new life that I don’t want my old friends to know. But, after I’ve met so many new people last year, I realize that despite our differences (some got married, some are employed, some are home, some are conservative, some are environmentalist..), that is the group of people that I feel most comfortable in. I might keep some of my ideas to myself, but whenever I am with them, I feel safe.

Thus, I don’t know. Maybe there is no my place in this country of change. Maybe my only place is my home. Maybe I need to accept everyone as they are: sexist, racist, cheating, orthodox, atheist, fun, boring, intelligent, snobby…

Dochanashvili wrote: “we all have our city, sometimes we just don’t know about it”.

I can’t find my city.

pics: a cozy lamp art I saw in Kiev this fall.

4 comments:

  1. Isn't life all about perennial seeking of your place?

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  2. ici ra ari problmea hcevntan adamianebs yopen tetrad da sahavd , sul ragac kategoriebad, erti sakcielit da azrit ayalibeben adamianze stereotips. da ar sheudzliat agikvan adamiani rogorc gansxvavebul azrta ertoblioba, mravaleferovani adamianebi maatvis miugebelia imito rom aseti adamianebis eshiniat mgon

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  3. p.s da kidev is avicydebat rom adamianshi yvelaze momxibvleli da girebuli aris misi individualuroba. amitom ar arsebobs adaminis saxeobebi an klasifikaciebi rogorc es aris mcenareta da cxovelta samyaroshi : )))

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  4. This should be posted on the back of my boook that there is no my city:))) thats the thing that troubles me all the time. My cities are always somewhere outside my country and I am tired of discovering new cities and new lives, I too dont want to feel like an alien or whatever.
    Thanks for posting this. Hope it makes some peopolel look inside.

    ReplyDelete