Comments

[arabaliozian]

Sunday, July 12, 2009
*****************************************
THE POWER AND THE GLORY
******************************************************
One way to explain our status as perennial underdogs is to say that our ruling classes have spent more time, energy, and resources fighting among themselves and collaborating with our oppressors than serving the interests of the people. The reason why I think as i do is that I have an instinctive loathing of all power -- be it the power of emperors, kings, sultans, popes, ayatollahs, bosses, commissars, and revolutionaries, especially failed revolutionaries who end up doing more harm than good, after which they waste the rest of their allotted time on earth rewriting history, brainwashing the people, and portraying themselves as heroes and our victims as martyrs. And what is even more outrageous, they are believed by some. And whenever a dissenter comes along – and our literature has been one of dissent – and explains things to us honestly and objectively, we either silence him or ignore him, sometimes we even betray him to the authorities, the very same authorities that have dehumanized us.
“Mart bidi ch'ellank / esh bidi menank.”
*
If I knew how to pray, I would go down on my knees and say:
“O Lord, I implore you from the depths of my heart,
help me to see that so far
everything I have said, written, and thought
has been wrong, and that our leaders
have been men of vision and humble servants of the people,
and all our dissidents have been
no better than the scum of the earth.
For thine is the power and the glory.
Amen.”
#
Monday, July 13, 2009
*****************************************
A SIMPLE APOLOGY
******************************************************
Allow me to introduce myself: “A.B., Armenian scribbler.” Which in our environment stands for less than nobody. And worse. In the words of one of our national benefactors, speaking to an elderly writer and teacher who had dared to contradict him: “I hire and fire people like you every day.” And yet, every statement I make is carefully analyzed by some readers as if a single wrong word in the wrong place would mean the total collapse of their inner world and the disintegration of the Homeland.
And what is it exactly that I have been saying? Simply this: I don't believe everything I am told by our sermonizers, speechifiers, and fund-raisers who operate on the assumption that the more they flatter us the more generous will our contribution be to their cause.
If I have been wrong, what has been my greatest mistake? Only this: to think that if my aim is to understand what's happening to us, I prefer to learn from our writers, most of whom worked for minimum wage or even nothing, unlike our bosses, bishops, and benefactors, who as far as I know have at no time been dependent on the charity of swine.
And now, may I share with you some of the things that I have learned:
From Movses Khorenatsi I have learned that our decline as a nation began in the 5th century A.D. (see his LAMENTATION).
From Yeghishé I have learned that in a divided nation, both the dividers and their dupes are destined to bite the dust.
From Naregatsi I have learned that it is a waste of time blaming others for our misfortunes and blunders. We should instead examine our conscience.
From Baronian and Odian I have learned that our religious and political leaders are not our “betters” but our worst.
From Zohrab I have learned that a free press is a key ingredient in every healthy community.
From Zarian I have learned that cannibalism and Christianity are mutually exclusive concepts.
To those who say my selection of writers is biased and reflects my preconceptions and prejudices, and that there are many others who have been more positive in their assessment of our past; I say, yes, I agree. From Hagop Oshagan I have learned that a writer with a family to support will say anything to please those on whose goodwill he depends for his survival. And the sad truth is, such writers have always outnumbered the dissidents.
If I am a pessimist, it may be because so is our literature, but not to worry: for everyone who thinks as I do, there are hundreds perhaps even thousands who produce the kind of verbiage whose sole intent is to flatter our bruised egos and to convince us into believing we are in good hands and we never had it so good.
“Mi kich pogh oughargetsek.”
*
When asked by a friend to respond to some of his critics, Orson Welles is quoted as having said: “Cannot imagine what you expect me to write...beyond simple apology for having been born.”
#
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
*****************************************
PROJECTIONS & CONJECTURES
******************************************************
Armenians bore the hell out of me –
their stiff-necked dogmatism,
their addiction to brag,
their pathological preference for comfortable lies
and their phobia of painful truths;
their endless internecine conflicts,
their deep insecurities which find expression
in loud-mouth (borodakhos) arrogance...
Relax! I am not talking about you, gentle reader.
I am talking about myself when young.
I have no doubt whatever in my mind that,
unlike me, you are a noble specimen of humanity
and butter wouldn't melt in your mouth,
or anywhere else for that matter.
*
A nation that has been lied to consistently
will be inclined to believe only liars.
*
You cannot speak in praise of capitalism
in a communist country and vice versa.
It is a risky business
discussing democracy with fascists;
and nothing can be as hard
as trying to reason with dupes of propaganda.
What could be more subversive
than a lecture on atheism in a cathedral,
or a speech on human rights in an Armenian community center?
*
I don't study history in order to enhance my self-esteem.
I study history to understand my fellow men and myself.
Anyone who studies history for any other purpose
is doomed to understand nothing.
*
Armenianism is an “ism” like any other ism.
It should be carefully analyzed and not adopted as a belief system.
*
More blood has been shed in the name of patriotism
than any other ideology or religion.
If patriotism means loyalty to one's nation
and disloyalty to the rest of mankind,
I want no part of it.
“My country, right or wrong!”
should also stand for “My country, rich or poor,”
and “My country, in peace or war.”
A true patriot living in self-imposed exile is an oxymoron
(with emphasis on the last two syllables);
and a warlike patriot who is unwilling to kill and die
speaks with a forked tongue.
#
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
*****************************************
OF CABBAGES & KINGS
******************************************************
As an underdog, I identify myself with underdogs of all nations and I loathe all murderers and rapists even when they call themselves Alexander the Great and Suleiman the Magnificent. How “Great” was our own Dikran to his victims?
*
Once upon a time I had an insatiable curiosity about Armenians. I read and reviewed books – sometimes as many as three at a time – in which Armenians were mentioned. Not any more. I have had enough of their subservience to authority, that is to say, to bearded cassocks, empty suits, and fat-bellied slobs.
*
It is not “white man who speaks with a forked tongue,” but power. For centuries the average dupe believed kings ruled in the name of God. And when the Czars (Russian for Caesars) were replaced by commissars, things got from bad to worse.
*
The historic evidence seems to suggest that when men rule, it is more likely that they do so in the name of the Devil.
*
How do you convince the average Armenian who has been brought up to believe he is smarter than the smartest “hria” that his political IQ hovers somewhere between +1 and 0?
*
Orson Welles: “Magic is directed almost entirely to men. Women hate it – it irritates them. They don't like to be fooled. And men do.”
#

[Hetanos]

Is anyone out there really interested to know that the Battle of Avarair is Mamigonian propaganda? It never happened.

Any on-line references to that line?

[Երեխա]

Buddy he cannot give sources to that. (If self citing is not accepted as a valid source)

Not having any other source than Armenian makes Ara believe that is was a Mamikonyan propaganda.

Well maybe it was. Who cares buddy?

In Ara's wold everything is bad. Pundits, charlatans, were all over us for thousands of years. Everything is being destructed. Nothing is holy. S H I T is all around and so on. You read his words for couple of days and you get sick. Even if you were feeling good before.

Ara: You know what I noticed last times reviewing Canadian papers? They try to focus on good things. I am stressing Canadian press because you say you are Canadian too on your website. You say you live in Kitchener.

So it's a matter of sunny side. It's hard times. People suffer from job losses, from lack of opportunities, no food for babies, cant have one, etc. and F U C K I N G them yet with another (being even true) dark stories is just not that good.

You see I used word "good". In your world of "everything is relative" I guess word "good" should be explained.

"good" is that makes life go on. The famous quote by Hippocrates:

"As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least, to do no harm"


Oh my dear Armenians' "doctor".

Now what you do is you DO harm. Your nihilism is "no good" for people, especially in this hard times.

Can you think of some good?

In your values (if you ever had one) everything is relative. Family values are. Good and bad people are. God is. Everything is. You claim the truth is not relative but even this was a battle for different views in philosophy. So even this is relative.

But... We have one great tool in our hands: Statistics

The world has seen lots of nihilists like you. And all of them (including you) had one or more following medical conditions

1. had terrible childhood (remember young Canadians calling you Turk's brew or silly Tamirlan being bitten by his older buddies ?)
2. have no family or stuck in not having what ordinary people call family
3. all claiming that other people live in lies and they are not since they know (or started to know) the truth even though the ordinary people are happy and live longer
when claimants suicide themselves (remember Nietzsche?)

So what's the point Ara?

Let's admit that everything is as bad as you always mention. But people need light in their lives but not darkness that you spread. You are some 73 years old. Statistics shows that you left somewhat 10 years to go.

I understand you. 73 years old single male is already a sad story which makes your life dark. But buddy here mostly young people that have somewhat 60 years still ahead.

Again those numbers are statistical, I wish you live and write at least 200 years and F U C K brains of some 7 more generations and in contrary I wish all the other readers (including me) of this forum to die at 25 so that you will feel yourself happy (if you know what happiness is).

Well Saroyan's writings were propaganda, he portrayed Armenians not as they were/are in reality.

C'mon my doctor of Armenians who "heals" by "killing"

You know what's the problem buddy? You forgot (if you ever knew) what is the ordinary life of billions of people is. Work, home, family, circles like this.

And work, home, family already contains a portion of stress, some people are stressed at one point of this cycle, some of them at multiple. and people need disress, light in their lives to live on. So they come home, read Saroyan's LIES about themselves and sleep with smile for the next day routine.

Now as I said you are near the last stop of your live train and being mad on that, having nothing in your live except last 60 years of S H I T in your books what you do is try to continue your destruction till the day you die.

You know what I imagined now?

You as a life insurance agent

[Hetanos]

Erexa, it was bitter. I like what Ara writes -- it's morbid, and mostly true. Now, you suggest him to help people "living in denial and concentrating on the bright side"? It's just another approach. And it's not very honest approach. He probably writes what he feels -- so what's the fuss about? It's a free country, right?

[arabaliozian]

Originally Posted by Hetanos

Any on-line references to that line?

my source is a mekhitarist monk and medievalist scholar.

[arabaliozian]

Thursday, July 16, 2009
*****************************************
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT
******************************************************
Shortly after Henry Fonda asked for a divorce from his wife, she killed herself by slitting her throat with a razor – not my favorite method of vacating the premises.
He once explained his multiple marriages by saying: “If I made penetration, a proposal was the next step.”
*
Joan Crawford on Otto Preminger: “Otto is a dear man, sort of a Jewish Nazi, but I love him.”
*
Lee Marvin to Marlon Brando: “I'm thinking of changing my name. To Marlow Brandy.”
Brando: “I think I'll change my name, too. To Lee Moron.”
*
A critic to Charlie Chaplin: “You never have any interesting camera angles.”
Chaplin: “I don't need interesting camera angles – I am interesting.”
*
Ernest Borgnine begins his autobiography by quoting a chestnut vendor's sign that said: “I don't want to set the world on fire, I just want to keep my nuts warm.” He adopted that as his “philosophy,” he writes.
In his old age he once sat on the knees of a Wal-Mart Santa Claus and said: “I would like a blonde,” and the Santa replied: “So would I.”
Unlike his movie image, Borgnine comes across as a harmless and lovable fellow. He has something nice to say about everybody, except Shelley Winters, which is understandable.
*
Orson Welles on Anthony Asquith: “My God, he was polite. I saw him, all alone on the stage once, trip over an electric cable, turn around, and say 'I beg your pardon' to it.”
#
Friday, July 17, 2009
*****************************************
THE TROUBLE WITH HONESTY
******************************************************
The trouble with being honest is that you will never know how many people will get hurt. But that's all right as long as you are one of them.
*
It happens to me more or less regularly: I try to solve a problem but I am not sure if I can. I go ahead anyway on the grounds that doing something is better than doing nothing, and trying is better than giving up – and by the time I am through, I have created more problems for myself.
Moral: The most important thing to know about digging a hole is to know when to stop.
*
A Turkish friend once said to me: “Why is it that you and I agree on everything except the Genocide?” The only answer I could come up with was: “Probably because we have been brainwashed by two different sets of propagandists.”
*
Speaking of disagreements: Have you ever noticed that whenever you successfully demolish a bureaucrat's arguments, he says, “Let me check with my supervisor.” And when he comes back, he does so with a decision that is invariably against you.
I have lost more arguments against invisible and non-existent supervisors than anyone else.
*
German saying: “A dog knows his master, but not his master's master.”
*
Nothing comes more naturally to victims of a great injustice than to inflict minor injustices on their friends.
*
One of the most incomprehensible things about human beings is their willingness to subject themselves to the verbiage of speechifiers and sermonizers.
#
Saturday, July 18, 2009
*****************************************
THERE IS NO BUSINESS LIKE...
WRITING FOR ARMENIANS
******************************************************
Do you really know how I feel when I write?
I feel like a nun promoting virginity
to an audience of bordello madams and pimps.
*
In their efforts to make me see the light,
my critics succeed only in reinforcing my convictions.
I probably have a similar effect on them.
But then, my aim is not to change anyone's mind
-- I am not a miracle worker –
but to let our Jack S. Avanakians know that
they can't fool all the people all the time.
*
I know they read me because they correct me.
As for those who insult me,
I don't take them seriously.
Anyone who takes a dislike at me
will insult me without reading me,
and even when he reads me,
he will make no effort to understand what he reads.
On the contrary: he will go out of his way to misunderstand me.
*
Do you know why I never run out of things to say?
Because I use my enemies as my muses.
#

[arabaliozian]

Originally Posted by Երեխա

Buddy he cannot give sources to that. (If self citing is not accepted as a valid source)

Not having any other source than Armenian makes Ara believe that is was a Mamikonyan propaganda.

Well maybe it was. Who cares buddy?

In Ara's wold everything is bad. Pundits, charlatans, were all over us for thousands of years. Everything is being destructed. Nothing is holy. S H I T is all around and so on. You read his words for couple of days and you get sick. Even if you were feeling good before.

Ara: You know what I noticed last times reviewing Canadian papers? They try to focus on good things. I am stressing Canadian press because you say you are Canadian too on your website. You say you live in Kitchener.

So it's a matter of sunny side. It's hard times. People suffer from job losses, from lack of opportunities, no food for babies, cant have one, etc. and F U C K I N G them yet with another (being even true) dark stories is just not that good.

You see I used word "good". In your world of "everything is relative" I guess word "good" should be explained.

"good" is that makes life go on. The famous quote by Hippocrates:

"As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least, to do no harm"


Oh my dear Armenians' "doctor".

Now what you do is you DO harm. Your nihilism is "no good" for people, especially in this hard times.

Can you think of some good?

In your values (if you ever had one) everything is relative. Family values are. Good and bad people are. God is. Everything is. You claim the truth is not relative but even this was a battle for different views in philosophy. So even this is relative.

But... We have one great tool in our hands: Statistics

The world has seen lots of nihilists like you. And all of them (including you) had one or more following medical conditions

1. had terrible childhood (remember young Canadians calling you Turk's brew or silly Tamirlan being bitten by his older buddies ?)
2. have no family or stuck in not having what ordinary people call family
3. all claiming that other people live in lies and they are not since they know (or started to know) the truth even though the ordinary people are happy and live longer
when claimants suicide themselves (remember Nietzsche?)

So what's the point Ara?

Let's admit that everything is as bad as you always mention. But people need light in their lives but not darkness that you spread. You are some 73 years old. Statistics shows that you left somewhat 10 years to go.

I understand you. 73 years old single male is already a sad story which makes your life dark. But buddy here mostly young people that have somewhat 60 years still ahead.

Again those numbers are statistical, I wish you live and write at least 200 years and F U C K brains of some 7 more generations and in contrary I wish all the other readers (including me) of this forum to die at 25 so that you will feel yourself happy (if you know what happiness is).

Well Saroyan's writings were propaganda, he portrayed Armenians not as they were/are in reality.

C'mon my doctor of Armenians who "heals" by "killing"

You know what's the problem buddy? You forgot (if you ever knew) what is the ordinary life of billions of people is. Work, home, family, circles like this.

And work, home, family already contains a portion of stress, some people are stressed at one point of this cycle, some of them at multiple. and people need disress, light in their lives to live on. So they come home, read Saroyan's LIES about themselves and sleep with smile for the next day routine.

Now as I said you are near the last stop of your live train and being mad on that, having nothing in your live except last 60 years of S H I T in your books what you do is try to continue your destruction till the day you die.

You know what I imagined now?

You as a life insurance agent

i doubt very much if armenians look up to me for light, or darkness, for that matter. i assure you i have no influence whatever on dupes and imbeciles.
if you find lies more liberating than truth, i have no intention of standing between you and your illusions. ignore me and enjoy your life and identity as a smart armenian who knows better what's good for the nation.

[arabaliozian]

Sunday, July 19, 2009
*****************************************
WHO IS A GOOD ARMENIAN?
******************************************************
A good Armenian is first and foremost a good human being.
In that sense, a good Turk is a better Armenian than a bad Armenian.
A good human being, even if he is a Turk,
contributes to a pool of goodness
without which evil would triumph.
*
Who is a bad Armenian?
A bad Armenian is one who says “Yes, sir!”
to his superiors on the grounds that
they know better.
*
Some of the worst crimes against humanity
were committed by men who obeyed the laws of the land
and believed everything they were told
by men who were convinced God or truth to be on their side.
And they believed that because they could not tell the difference
between God and the Devil, or between truth and lies.
*
Eleventh Commandment:
Thou shalt not believe sermonizers and speechifiers
who pretend to know better
but whose superior knowledge is nothing
but a vipers' nest of lies, superstitions, and prejudices.
*
To me, the quintessential bad Armenian is he
who not only divides the nation
but pretends to do so not to satisfy his ambition
but to save the nation.
Now then, name a single Armenian
who has done less dividing and more uniting.
*
If our dividers are bad,
what about those who support them in the name of patriotism?
Are they good or bad Armenians?
They can't be good.
That much we can say.
But are they really bad?
Hard to say.
At best they are misguided dupes.
At worst, they are fools
who have not yet learned to think for themselves.
Or, as the German saying has it:
“They are like dogs who know their master,
but not their master's master.”
#
Monday, July 20, 2009
*****************************************
JERKS
******************************************************
The world is full of them, and you will find them in the most unexpected places. If you don't believe me, listen to far better men than myself:
Arnold J. Toynbee: “Private intellectual enterprise, unlike private economic enterprise, lives by co-operation not by competition.”
One of our white-haired elder statesmen (may the Good Lord have mercy on his soul) once warned me that our academics form mafias and if you are not a member, they treat you like an unwanted interloper trying to muscle in their territory. We have a genocide mafia; we have a pro-Oshagan mafia...speaking of which: once many years ago, I tried to organize a pro-Zarian mafia, sinner that I am (as 19th-century Russian novelists liked to say); but I was successful in recruiting only one member, who turned out to be a quisling and defected to the Oshagan side. I felt betrayed then, but I am grateful to him now. The world can do better with one less jerkoff.
*
Toynbee again: “I am convinced that irreverence, where irreverence is due, is one of the cardinal virtues.”
In other words, when our “betters” behave like our worst, it is our patriotic duty to treat them with contempt rather than respect.
*
Toynbee: “It is always easier, both intellectually and morally, to debit one's ills to the account of some outside agency than to ascribe the responsibility to oneself.”
Or, it is easier and more convenient to play the blame-game than to examine our conscience. Naregatsi's LAMENTATION may be said to be an extended dramatization of this idea.
When an eminent 20th-century British historian agrees with an 11th-century Armenian mystic who has been compared to Dante and Shakespeare, it is as sure a thing as money in the bank.
*
What follows is my real favorite:
Toynbee: “In the life which Man has made for himself on Earth, his institutions, in contrast to his personal relations, are the veritable slums, and the taint of moral obliquity is still more distressing in the least ignoble of these social tenements of the Human Spirit – for instance, in the churches and the academies – than in such unquestionably malignant institutions as Slavery and War.”
Chekhov once said, “There is no fool like an academic fool.” And according to an Armenian proverb: “If a beard were a sign of wisdom, goats would be philosophers.” To put it differently: Don't believe everything you are told even if the teller is a bishop or a professor – especially an Armenian bishops and an Armenian professor.
#
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
*****************************************
REVIEWING THE SITUATION
******************************************************
Optimism is unjustified when it ignores or covers up the seriousness of a problem on the erroneous assumption that what needs to be done it being done because we are in good hands.
Pessimism is also unjustified if it leads to defeatism, despair, and and paralysis.
*
What are some of the problems we face today?
In the Homeland, an unemployment rate so high that it results in mass exodus, prostitution, and brain-drain.
In the Diaspora, divisions that deplete valuable resources by duplicating facilities and services (schools, churches, libraries, fund-raising bureaucracies, and so on), and a high rate of alienation and assimilation (also known as “jermag chart” = white massacre).
Another serious problem that we face in both the Homeland and the Diaspora is the fallacy that patriotism consists in supporting not so much the Homeland as its leadership no matter how corrupt and incompetent.
*
A historic instance of optimism run riot is that of our dominant state of mind at the turn of the last century in the Ottoman Empire. Had our revolutionaries been pessimists and operated on the assumption that things could go not just wrong but catastrophically wrong, the outcome would have been less tragic.
*
Perhaps the function of a writer is to introduce pessimism in an environment ruled by optimists and vice versa; and in that sense, to stimulate not popularity but disapproval, disagreement, ridicule, rejection, and insults, all of which, may I add, are, to me at any rate, more congenial than the consent of brainwashed dupes and inbred morons.
#
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
*****************************************
A WORD OF WARNING
******************************************************
One of the inevitable facts of life is that at one time or another we all become dependent on people who may know something we don't know. In a strange city, we depend on taxi drivers. When we experience chest pains, we check into the emergency and are examined by a cardiologist. When something goes wrong with the plumbing, we call a plumber. Where does an Armenian writer fit into this system? Nowhere. Who needs him? Nobody! What does he know that we don't know? Nothing!
*
The function of a historian is not to reconstruct the past by quoting witnesses and relevant documents – that's not history but “ant industry” (Spengler) – but to explain why things happened as they did.
The function of literature is not to entertain the reader by writing love stories, or odes to the mother tongue, or sonnets to the eternal snows of Mt. Ararat, but to understand reality.
*
When in the 19th century Raffi said Turkey was no place for Armenians, he was ignored. When Zohrab predicted the massacres, they said, “Zohrab effendi is exaggerating.” When Bakounts called communism “an infection,” he was betrayed to the authorities and purged. And when Zarian exposed the lies of the Kremlin, they called him a CIA agent.
Why am I saying these things? Simply to warn those of my readers who may harbor secret literary ambitions.
*
To be an Armenian writer means not only to be dependent on the charity of swine but also to recycle the propaganda of philistines, fools, and liars. If, on the other hand, you decide to speak the truth as you see it, my advice is, first declare financial independence and grow the skin of a crocodile...and may the mercy of the Lord be with you. Amen.
#

[arabaliozian]

Thursday, July 23, 2009
*****************************************
MONEY
******************************************************
Whenever the subject of compensating writers for their work comes up, we are informed there is no money. Which of course is another one of our big lies. My first paying job at the age of 18 was as translator for a partisan daily in Athens, and I was paid handsomely.
*
Near the end of his life, Granian, himself a prominent Tashnak and world traveler, once said to me: “We organize lavish banquets to celebrate anniversaries of total mediocrities, after which we have the audacity to say, there is no money...”
*
In a commentary I once wrote, I made fun of anniversary banquets and I remember to have said something to the effect that, unlike our Jack S. Avanakians, neither Tolstoy nor G.B. Shaw celebrated their 40th or 50th anniversary of their debut as writers. This must have offended a recent celebrant who called a friend of mine to tell him I should stop persecuting him. As Cagney would say: “They can dish it out but they can't take it.”
*
One of our philistines once wrote me an angry letter saying, “You are a writer. Behave like one, for heaven's sake. Stop talking about money. It's undignified. Imagine if you can Mozart or Beethoven talking about money.” In my reply I explained that I did not have to imagine anything, and that if he took the trouble to read Mozart's and Beethoven's letters, he would see that money is mentioned more frequently than any other subject.
*
You may have noticed by now that like most people I prefer to speak of my minor victories and to ignore my major defeats. May I therefore assure you, gentle reader, that my major defeats far outnumber my insignificant victories, and if I don't speak of them it may be because if I did I would be even more depressing, gloomy, unbearable, and unreadable.
*
One reason I don' mind exposing the negative aspects of our collective existence and ethos is that for everyone who writes as I do, there are dozens of apologists eager to explain and justify our ways on the grounds that everybody does it. There is some truth in that. There is no such thing as a stupid or incompetent nation, only stupid and incompetent leaders.
#
Friday, July 24, 2009
*****************************************
REALITY & ILLUSIONS
******************************************************
Compared to Armenians, Canadians have very few problems, and yet, they spend an inordinate amount of time discussing them in their media, unlike Armenians who spend even more time ignoring or covering them up.
I scan the latest issue of my Armenian weekly:
Navasartian games in California,
a new school building in Michigan,
a jubilee evening dedicated to one of our dime-a-dozen elder statesmen,
a headline with the word “basterma” in it,
articles about half-a-dozen minor celebrities
and their even more minor recent triumphs.
And now, consider the headlines in this morning's local paper:
Murder investigations and trials, burglaries,
a large variety of other crimes and misdemeanors,
waiting time in hospital emergency rooms,
several articles on greedy and incompetent administrators
and their phony expense accfounts,
car accidents, politically incorrect civil servants,
corruption in high places,
the unemployment rate,
the sorry state of the economy, and so on.
If one were to judge Canadians and Armenians by the contents of their printed media, one would have to conclude that Canada is a morally bankrupt country on the verge of disintegration, and Armenians in their homeland and diaspora never had it so good because they are in the best of hands and everything that must be done is being done.
And if you believe that, I have no choice but to assume you also believe in Santa Claus and the theory that maintains the earth is as flat as a pancake.
#
Saturday, July 25, 2009
*****************************************
THINGS TO REMEMBER
******************************************************
If it took brainwashing to convince you, it can't be true.
*
One of the safest assumptions you can make is that, the most important things you were taught as a child were lies.
*
At all times and everywhere, what we don't know far exceeds what we know, and this applies even to the wisest among us – from Socrates (“The only thing I know is that I don't know”) to Chekhov (“If I can't answer the most important questions, am I not fooling the reader?”).
*
We should teach our children to doubt and to question rather than to accept our answers as established truths.
*
The function of a truth is not to establish itself but to raise more questions.
*
Some of the greatest crimes against humanity were committed in the name of established truths.
*
When an established truth is contradicted by another established truth, the result will be two big lies. Case in point: American democracy versus Russian communism.
*
At the root of all empires there is a big lie.
*
And now, from the general and the abstract to the specific and the concrete:
If the most important function of the State is to reconcile conflicting interests, it follows, during most of our historic existence we have been a collection of stateless tribes at the mercy of fools who have done their utmost to brainwash us into believing they are smart.
#

[arabaliozian]

Sunday, July 26, 2009
*****************************************
CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
******************************************************
We are products of two contradictory fallacies: paternalism and tribalism, or the big lie that says, our elders and leaders know better even when they divide us. Anyone who is brought up to believe that, will believe anything, including the illusion that we are smart.
*
Sooner or later all lies are exposed. This rule, too, like all rules, has its exception, namely, Armenian lies. Here are some more lies that have cost us much suffering and many lives but have since been exposed:
The Turks will not dare to massacre us because the Great Powers of the West are on our side and they will not allow it.
The Russians are our big brothers. If it weren't for them we would be annihilated by the Turks. (Result? 350,000 Armenian boys dead during World War II in defense of Stalin's regime. Number of Russians dead in defense of Armenia: zero.) To be noted: Armenians also died in defense of Hitler's regime. Their numbers, if published, is not known to me.
And the biggest lie of all: We are not Asiatic barbarians but civilized and westernized Christians. This, of course, in our own assessment of ourselves -- and when a fool assesses himself, he will go beyond smart, he will declare himself a genius.
*
And now, let us rise from theory to practice (as our Marxist brothers were fond of saying) or from abstractions and speculations to hard facts and the world of real things.
“In February of 1992, during the capture of the city of Khojali, Azerbaijan, by Armenian separatists, more than 1,000 people, mostly women and children, were murdered. Armenian troops subsequently invaded Shushi in 1992 and attacked more than 927 libraries and 22 museums. The result: 4,600,000 books lost, including ancient philosophical and musical treatises, as well as 40,000 rare books.”
The author of these lines is Fernando Baez, director of Venezuela's National Library, a world authority on the history of libraries, and a member of the U.N. Committee investigating the destruction of libraries and museums.
For more on this subject, see: A UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS: FROM ANCIENT SUMER TO MODERN IRAQ, by Fernando Baez. Translated by Alfred MacAdam (New York, 2008).
#
Monday, July 27, 2009
*****************************************
CONFESSIONS OF AN OUTCAST
******************************************************
As a child I was not warned not to believe everything I was told. My father was too busy trying to provide for his family in time of war and starvation to be of any help. I made an ideal dupe and it didn't take much to convince me I was both smart and morally superior; and by the time I began to suspect I was neither, it was too late.
The trouble with liars is that they are seldom satisfied with a single lie. When they get away with a small lie, they come back with bigger lies, and as Hitler (who ought to know) once said, the bigger the lie, the more readily it is accepted as the truth.
My resentment grew when I understood I had been deceived not for my own good – to instill in me the self-confidence I needed to face an unfriendly world in an alien environment – but for their own: to gain my gratitude and loyalty.
I once overheard a member of our self-appointed elite who makes frequent appearances in our weeklies – one of those pompous and arrogant empty suits who rise to the top because they are expert brown-nosers – refer to Armenians in general as “assh*les” and sh*its” in the presence of lesser mortals who reacted with a chuckle of admiration at his daring wit. And like Moliere's “bourgeois gentilhomme” who didn't know he had been speaking prose (as opposed to verse) all his life, I had no choice but to conclude I had been an “assh*le” and a “sh*t” all my life and hadn't known it.
And the truth set me free.
I gave up recycling propaganda (of which I had already produced a vast amount), became an outcast and the target of verbal abuse by Armenians who hated me because they hated giving up their illusions even more.
In my efforts not to betray my country – or rather, the pathetic buffoons who pretended to be in charge of its destiny – I had betrayed myself and I would spend the rest of my life repenting that transgression.
#
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
*****************************************
CERTAINTIES & DOUBTS
******************************************************
When I was young, brainwashed, and knew everything, I rejected any and all ideas that did not fit in my belief system. Now that I am old and I have a better appreciation of the depths of my own ignorance, my first reaction to a new idea is to welcome it.
*
To say “I believe” is to think with the gut.
For everyone who thinks with his brain, there are two, sometimes even twenty-two, who think with their gut.
Likewise, for everyone who says “My country, right or wrong,” there will always be two, sometimes even twenty-two, who say “My country, right even when wrong!”
*
Certainties may be comfortable, but they come with an expensive price-tag.
*
To believe in one's own arguments is to say, “This is the beginning and end of the story,” about a story that has neither beginning nor end.
*
At the root of all wars and massacres there are men of faith whose certainties outnumber their doubts.
*
Belief systems are worse than jails because they imprison the mind rather than the body.
*
Where dogmas clash, armies are sure to follow.
*
Teach yourself to say, “I don't know,” “I am not sure,” “I have my doubts,” and “Maybe.” You will have fewer regrets. Remember, we owe fools and fanatics to certainties.
#
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
*****************************************
THREE MEMOS
TO MY GENTLE READERS
******************************************************
1.
If I quote from an odar book and you don't like what you read, don't waste your time trying to convince me otherwise. Nobody gives a damn what I think or write, not even Armenians. Write instead to the author or his publisher. By making me change my mind, you will accomplish nothing.
*
2.
To those who demand to be taken off my list: I have no idea which list you are referring to. If you don't want to read me, Block or Spam my messages. It shouldn't take more than a second or at most two. Even better, if you don't want to see my garbage, don't send me yours.
*
3.
I have been called many things by my charming fellow Armenians – a mentally unhinged ignoramus, an enemy agent, a capitalist, a communist, a poet, and at least on one occasion, an intellectual, or rather, a pseudo-intellectual. For the record, I am none of these things. I am only a ****-disturber. Anyway, that's my story and I am sticking to it.
#

[Hans Andersen]

Originally Posted by arabaliozian

Sunday, July 26, 2009
...........................
3. I am only a ****-disturber. Anyway, that's my story and I am sticking to it.
#

A s-h-i-t - distributor?? hmm... ok

[arabaliozian]

Thursday, July 30, 2009
*****************************************
ONCE UPON A TIME...
******************************************************
When I was a child, these words were pure magic, even when I knew what was to follow because I had heard it countless times.
Expect no magic here, only some facts that may be hard to swallow by those of my gentle readers with overly sensitive stomachs.
You have been duly forewarned. Parental guidance is required and all that jazz.
*
“Once upon a time we shed our blood for freedom. We are now afraid of free speech.”
These are not my words. I wish they were. These are the immortal words
(perhaps not as immortal as “Yes im anoush Hayastani,” but eminently immortal all the same) of Hagop Garabents (a.k.a. Jack Karapetian) who was neither a critic nor a dissident, but a dedicated patriot, a distinguished writer of fiction, a darling of the establishment, and on friendly terms with both sides of any divide you care to mention.
*
“Of the many forms of cowardice, fear of free speech is the worst.”
These are my words.
“The miracle is not that we survived our enemies. The real miracle is that we survived our leaders.”
These too are my words. Let us give the devil his due.
*
Anglo-Saxon arrogance is unbearable to me. But at least they have earned some of it when they sing, “An Englishman cannot be a slave” (in “Rule Britannia”). Now then, what the hell have we done to earn the right to exist as men among men? Subservience has become such an integral part of our character as a nation that we have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into believing we are smart, we are progressive, we are creative, we are brave, and above all, we are lovers of freedom.
I suggest a nation that preaches freedom during the day and buries it at night, cannot live. It can only die the death of a thousand cuts – all of them self-inflicted.
*
We survived Suleiman the Magnificent, we survived Talaat, we survived Stalin, and we survived a wide assorted of shahs, padishahs, pashas, sultans, czars, and commissars. The challenge we now confront is: shall we survive our own bamboozlers, hoodwinkers, and flimflammers?
#
Friday, July 31, 2009
*****************************************
HAVE A NICE DAY!
******************************************************
When the French called Armenians “filthy,” Shahnour did not deny the charge but he explained it by saying it should be ascribed not to their nationality but to poverty. We are no longer poor, and yet, we hurl worse insults to one another. We behave like barbarians in order to prove we are civilized. Figure that one out if you can.
*
To those who accuse me of the unforgivable crime of insulting Armenians by quoting odar writers without bothering to check the evidence: may I ask what evidence do I really need to prove that even the most civilized people on earth are capable of behaving like barbarians in time of war, or for that matter, in time of peace?
*
To be objective in our context means to see the worst in ourselves and the best in others, including our enemies, especially our enemies. Only then may we have a more balanced view of the world in which we live and our relative position in it. There is nothing unusual or original in what I am saying. A thousand years ago, Naregatsi not only saw the worst in himself but he also made a long and detailed list of all his failings, transgressions, and sins, and we now consider him to be our greatest writer – a combination of Dante and Shakespeare, as a matter of fact. I have not reread Baronian, Odian, and Massikian recently but I don't remember a single character in their works with any redeeming features.
*
It is said of the 5th-century philosopher, David Anhaght, that he acquired his sobriquet “Invincible” by never losing an argument. If true, it was probably because he never lost his cool. Besides, what's the use of winning an argument if in the process you lose your dignity and self-respect?
*
If it is our intention to prove that Armenians are smart, progressive, creative, and civilized, the very least we can do is not to behave like “assh*les” and “sh*ts.” Relax, I am not quoting an ignorant odar academic but one of our own leaders, who ought to know, having dealt with Armenians all his life and having earned enough of their respect to qualify as a leader and a “defender of the faith.” Is this Armenian right or wrong? Are we what he says we are? Yes, certainly, in so far as only assh*les and sh*ts would choose a leader who is both.
*
Have a nice day!
#
Saturday, August 1, 2009
*****************************************
IT BEARS REPEATING
******************************************************
If wrong, I can be corrected. No sweat.
I speak for myself and no one else.
I have no reputation to defend and no interests to protect.
There is no harm in what I say.
Why should I be your enemy if my only crime is expressing your secret thoughts?
Don't say I don't understand you if you don't make yourself worthy of my understanding.
Why is it that the self-righteous are not always open to reason?
You cannot be right from the gutter. Neither can you explain the world if you don't understand yourself.
Armenians!
Who takes them seriously?
Only themselves.
Who cares what they think?
No one but themselves.
Who gives a damn whether they live or die?
Not even themselves.
#

[arabaliozian]

Sunday, August 2, 2009
*****************************************
BORN AGAIN
******************************************************
Just when I think I have run out of things to say, I run into a gentle reader who recharges my batteries and renews my dedication to carry on. It is at times like these that I am tempted once more to believe in the existence of god and to say, “Thank you, Lord!”
*
ON PATRIOTISM AS CRYPTO-FASCISM
****************************************************
Patriotism means love of country as well as fellow countrymen. If you define patriotism only as love of country, remember that some of the worse criminals in the history of mankind (among them Hitler, Mussolini, Franco) were great patriots and it was Stalin that called World War II the “Patriotic War.”
*
HOW TO RECOGNIZE A FASCIST
********************************************
If he rhapsodizes about national pride and patriotic love but is silent about free speech and human rights, he qualifies.
*
USEFUL TIPS
*****************************
If you plan to contribute a long-winded diatribe to a forum, don't worry about getting your facts straight or even making sense. Worry instead about being readable.
*
During an argument, resist the temptation of using abusive language, adopting a holier-than-thou stance, or going down into the gutter in the hope you will not be followed there. The gutter is not a place for victory but of defeat and surrender.
#
Monday, August 3, 2009
*****************************************
THE SOUND AND THE FURY
***************************************
“If he writes for Armenians, he must be a loser.”
That's what the average Armenian reader thinks of me, and for once I agree with him. The offspring of a failed nation, I am a loser who writes for losers.
“If you want to succeed, write for odars.”
When it comes to offering unsolicited advice, an Armenian's generosity knows no bounds.
Write for odars! Isn't that what Arlen and Saroyan did?
Zarian didn't (a greater writer than both) and he was ignored, neglected, and died in Yerevan (he believed he was murdered) a lonely, bitter old man. But he was luckier than most of his contemporaries who were betrayed and murdered at a much younger age.
*
We have been at the mercy of losers who have promoted a phony image of ourselves to cover up their own incompetence. If you don't agree with me, that's your business. My business is to be objective, because I believe only when we realize how low we have fallen may we hope to rise again.
*
A few years ago Leo Hamalian (may he rest in peace) published a book titled AS OTHERS SEE US. Around the same time (1979) I too published an anthology titled ARMENIA OBSERVED, travel impressions of Armenia by famous odar writers. Both books were published by Ararat Press in New York with AGBU money. Which means, the contents were carefully selected and edited to promote a positive image of Armenia and Armenians.
More recently, when I published a balanced and objective assessment titled DICTIONARY OF ARMENIAN QUOTATIONS, I received many hostile comments because I had dared to include unflattering opinions by, among others, Raffi, Baronian, Odian, Zohrab, Siamanto, Varoujan, Aghbalian, Shahnour, Zarian, and Massikian, among many others.
*
At one time our writers were not afraid to see things as they are and to say what they think. The Genocide appears to have changed all that. Objectivity has now been replaced with compassion, compassion with pity, and pity with self-pity. Result? Writers have been replaced with brown-nosers, literature with propaganda, and patriotism with borodakhos and unpardavan verbiage signifying nothing.
#
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
*****************************************
MAXIMS & REFLECTIONS
***************************************
For every wise man who says “I know nothing,”
there are a hundred fools who know everything.
*
No one hates his fellow countrymen more than a superpatriot.
*
We assess ourselves in the hope others will agree with us.
*
When a man cannot come to terms with his reality,
he kills himself.
That doesn't mean everyone who is alive today
deserves to live.
*
My friends come in singles,
my enemies in bunches – fools, fanatics,
dupes, dividers, partisans, and in general
anyone who deals in more certainties than doubts.
*
When they praise us,
we don't ask for proof or documentation.
*
When in doubt, make dogmatic assertions.
Dupes are a dime a dozen.
#
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
*****************************************
ON BARBARISM
***************************************
When primitive men engaged in cannibalism, they behaved like a pride of lions that kills and devours a zebra. We don't call that barbarism. We call it survival of the fittest.
The authentic barbarian was the Nazi during World War II: he was fully aware of what he was doing. He developed the consensus, the organization, the will, and the philosophy (that of Hegel's Master and Slave, for instance, and Nietzsche's Superman).
By contrast, when we burned a million books and slaughtered (according to Baez) a thousand defenseless women and children in Karabagh, out conduct may not have been that of officers and gentlemen but neither was it barbarism. It was closer to that of primitive men and hungry predators in the jungle.
We are not authentic barbarians because we lack the cold-blooded premeditation, the ability to develop a consensus and to organize, and the will to carry out our political agenda.
We are not barbarians.
We are worse than barbarians.
We are slaves of barbarians.
For 600 years the Turks were our masters.
Our boys fought their wars.
Our women satisfied their lust.
Our businessmen took care of their interests.
And our artists provided the entertained.
It is the same today.
Mikoyan, Gulbenkian, Khachaturian, Saroyan, Mamoulian...
They all served alien interests and entertained alien audiences.
By contrast, those who chose to serve our people and our homeland were invariably betrayed and slaughtered.
Barbarians? Hell no! We have a long way to go to qualify. We are only slaves and cowards. We can behave like bloodthirsty savages only towards the defenseless and the weak, namely, ourselves.
Why am I saying these things?
Two reasons:
(one) The truth shall set you free, and
(two) Nobody is paying me to lie.
#

[arabaliozian]

Thursday, August 6, 2009
*****************************************
ON BIAS
***************************************
Two headlines grab my attention today:
“Overreactions are a sign of insecurity,” and
“Politicians should be held to a higher standard.”
*
We are not who we think we are.
Our enemies are not who we think they are.
Neither are we who they think we are.
And what we think is not what we really think
but what we were brought up to think.
What is history if not a tragedy of errors?
Now then, go ahead and make dogmatic assertions.
*
America has two faces: America the Beautiful and America the Ugly.
God Save America and God damn America.
Sarah Palin and Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
This could be said of all nations, including our own.
How to explain the smart, tough, savvy Armenian
who turns into a sanctimonious prick when he speaks of his homeland?
The answer must be, textbooks.
Textbooks by nationalist historians in whose carefully edited words
colonizers and imperialists are represented as benefactors
whose central concern is civilizing (or is it syphilizing?) barbarians;
aggressive wars are called defensive wars;
terrorists are identified as freedom fighters;
and the massacre of defenseless women and children as enemy propaganda.
*
How to explain revolutions, civil wars, and internecine conflicts?
That's a tricky one, but it can be done.
One way to do is to see them
as necessary and inevitable stages towards progress.
If Hitler had won World II,
the Holocaust would have been described as an act of sanitation.
*
Children will believe anything, including Santa Claus, the Tooth Faerie,
and a shower of golden apples after each tale.
What happens when children grow up?
Some never do -- if by growing up means giving up illusions.
Speaking for myself, I loathe lies, liars, and propagandists.
They are at the root of all intolerance, wars, and massacres.
Self deception is not a blessing but a curse.
Only after propaganda is seen as a crime against humanity
may we have honest historians who will call a spade a spade.
If this be an illusion, I like to believe it is a harmless one
because its aim is to replace hatred with understanding
and war with peaceful coexistence.
#
Friday, August 7, 2009
*****************************************
THEREBY HANGS A TALE
***************************************
To those of my readers who mistake me for someone who is plotting the destruction of the Republic, I say: Relax, our beloved homeland is in the best of hands because for everyone who says what I say, there are at least a hundred, not counting speechifiers, sermonizers, and dime-a-dozen pundits, who say the exact opposite, for which reason they are compensated handsomely. Besides, my word carries as much weight as an ant's fart. And speaking of farts...
*
It is said of an old lady in the Soviet era who had the habit of farting in public and declaring to all and sundry: “They can shut my mouth, but they can't shut my arse.” And now – you guessed – a story about a wealthy Armenian merchant who is said to have hired the services of a notorious Kurdish bandit to take care (as we say in the underworld) of Raffi.
*
A minor digression here: If you think I am tough on Armenians, you should read Raffi. Compared to him, I don't even rate as a pussycat. Raffi was a tough hombre who wouldn't take no sh*t from nobody, including bosses, bishops, and wealthy Armenian merchants whom he called “the worse scum on earth. (“Profit,” he said, “is their only homeland.”) If there are wealthy merchants among my readers, may I add: “Present company suspected.”
End of digression.
*
Well, naturally, one of these merchants, not being the kind that turns the other cheek, and wanting to get even with Raffi, he delegated the job to a Kurd with an impeccable reputation as a daring and fearless bandit, promising him an undisclosed amount of money.
But as the Kurd went about his business of casing the joint – namely, Raffi's domicile – he discovered to his astonishment that far from being a malefactor, his target was a totally harmless scribbler who spent most of his days and nights working at his desk. Being an honorable hitman, he therefore informed the merchant he was not up to handling the job because he did not relish the idea of adding the murder of an innocent and defenseless civilian to his résumé, or words to that effect; and advised the merchant to shove his money where the sun don't shine – if you know what I am saying.
Moral: You may rely on the honor of a Kurdish thief but, brother, after you shake hands with a benefactor, count your fingers.
*
A footnote on my sources.
As you may have guessed by now, I did not read this anecdote in Oshagan, Tololian, and Janashian (three of our most learned literary historians of the last century) but in a biographical study sent to me by one of Raffi's descendants (may she rest in peace) who asked me to read and return it. Which I did. As a result, I am sorry to inform you, I am in no position to give you chapter and verse. Feel free therefore to dismiss it as anti-Armenian propaganda.
#
Saturday, August 8, 2009
*****************************************
HASGANOUM ES?
***************************************
To say we have problems but no solutions is a big lie.
Our only problem is big lies and their dupes.
Expose them and that will be the end of our problems.
Our liars know this better than anyone else.
As for our dupes: they are what they are
because they prefer pleasant lies to painful truths.
And the most painful truth of all
is their identity as damn fools.
We have failed to solve our problems
because our dupes think of themselves as smart
and our liars have done their utmost
to brainwash them to believe that.
How do you convince a fool that he is a fool?
It can't be done!
How do you convince liars they are liars?
No need. They already know.
How do you break up the bond
that exists between liars and dupes?
Impossible! It is like the marriage
of the mythical irresistible force
with the immovable object.
There is no power in heaven and on earth
that can budge them.
That is the only way to explain
the millennial existence of organized religions,
all of which assert a monopoly on truth
even as they go about contradicting one another.
When liars and dupes conspire,
honest men have as much chance
as a drop of rain in the Sahara at high noon.
That's the only way to explain why
all honest men -- from Socrates and Jesus Christ
to Gandhi and Solzhenitsyn -- have been silenced,
exiled, persecuted, jailed, and crucified.
Hasganoum es?
#

[arabaliozian]

Sunday, August 9, 2009
*****************************************
BORODAKHOSSOUTIUN
***************************************
In his biography of John Cheever, Blake Bailey mentions “an Armenian named Harout,” who introduces himself as an “architect” but is identified as an “unemployed waiter, a bore,” and a freeloader. See CHEEVER: A LIFE (New York, 2009, page 439).
*
Speaking of this kind of borodakhos Armenian, one of our elder statesmen once said to me: “They walk past an elementary school and they claim to have a university degree.”
*
There was a time when I would feel painfully embarrassed whenever I read about an Armenian like Harout. No more. I no longer feel responsible for their conduct probably because I no longer harbor tribal loyalties. I am a human being and all good men, regardless of race, color, and creed, are my brothers. As for Armenians like Harout: all I can do is to let them know that, if they think they are smart enough to fool all the people all the time, they are dead wrong. They may however succeed in fooling a handful of idiots like themselves.
*
We are told history is the propaganda of the victor. What if our own history is not just the consolation of the defeated but the borodakhossoutiun of our panchoonies? I am not making dogmatic assertions, just asking a question.
*
To those of my readers who get all worked up over what I write, I say: “Relax! No one gives a damn about what I think or, for that matter, whether I live or die. Take it easy, stop reading me, and enjoy your life. But if you insist in carrying on as you have been, let me warn you that I find all disagreement stimulating, especially disagreement with a touch of arsenic in it, because that's when I feel I have hit paydirt.”
#
Monday, August 10, 2009
*****************************************
WHITE TRASH
***************************************
Speaking of a small town in Mississippi, where he acted in Elia Kazan's BABY DOLL, Karl Malden writes in his memoirs: “The people were, for the most part, small-minded bigots, who had elevated poor white trash to a fine art.”
About Archie Lee, his character in the film, he writes: “Archie Lee was poor white trash and the only thing that fed his feeble ego was the fact that no matter what, he could always believe that he (through no accomplishment of his own other than the color of his skin) held a higher status than the blacks.”
Immediately I recognized my former self, after I had been “educated” by my “betters.”
*
They brainwash children and they call it education. This is true of all nations. American history contains as many lies as, say, Turkish or Armenian history. All historians know this. They also know they are at the mercy of bureaucrats who are hired and fired by politicians whose central concern is to keep and whenever possible to increase their power.
After one of our eminent historians agreed to be interviewed, he refused to answer my questions.
*
Patriots are all alike in so far as they are willing to kill and die in defense of the Homeland and to hate anyone who says patriotism is a fraud perpetrated by politicians (white trash) on dupes (themselves).
*
I define a fanatic as anyone who hates someone simply because he doesn't share his hatred of whatever it is that he hates.
*
Just because I say 2 plus 2 makes 4, or I call a spade a spade, I am immediately surrounded by a mob of civilized, progressive, and smart Armenians, descendants of the first nation that converted to Christianity, that would love to see me torn to shreds.
If we are as patriotic as we claim to be, we should at least allow a fraction of our love for our homeland to spill over on our fellow countrymen even when they speak like misguided fools.
*
Portrait of a patriotic Armenian: A damaged ego with an unsettled score in search of a victim.
#
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
*******************************************
QUESTIONS / ANSWERS
***************************************
“Who hates the Jew more than a Jew?” (Jewish saying).
My answer: The Armenian who hates an Armenian.
(Finally, I have hit on a field of human endeavor in which we can assert superiority over Jews.)
*
Q: All nations have their nationalist historians, why shouldn't we?
A: All nations also have dissidents who question their honesty.
Q: Why is nationalism wrong?
A: If its aim is to assert moral superiority, it is not just wrong but simple-minded. I do not believe in the moral superiority of any nation, including our own. We are as good or bad as any nation, including Turks and Azeris, with whom we have coexisted for centuries.
Q: What makes you think you are right and your critics wrong?
A: I know they are wrong when they voice views that I held thirty years ago when I could not yet think for myself. I also know they are wrong when they go down into the gutter and shout at the top of their lungs. The gutter is no place for civilized discourse, and emotion is incompatible with reason.
Q: Are we really as bad as Turks? Do you really believe that? And if you do, do you really expect us to believe it?
A: Why not? I will go further and say, we may be worse.
Q: Have we ever massacred our minorities?
A: Do we have them? Did we ever have them? According to the most recent statistics I have read, the non-Armenian population living in Armenia today number less than 4%, and as far as I know none of them has ever risen against the state or engaged in acts of terrorism. When we say we are better than Turks or Azeris we confuse military inferiority with moral superiority. As for our claim that we have never been guilty of genocide: Are not violations of human rights crimes against humanity? What are assassinations if not isolated or interrupted massacres? What are mass exodus from the Homeland and the high rate of assimilation in the Diaspora if not “spitak chart” (white massacres)? And let us not forget that the Turks did what they did for a very pragmatic reason: they believed or they were led to believe they were defending the integrity of their Homeland in time of war when their very survival was at stake. Whereas we do what we do for no discernible reason. The smart, civilized, Christian Armenian is not just a myth or a lie but an absurdity.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009
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QUESTIONS/ ANSWERS (#2)
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Q: Do you ever ask yourself what an odar may think of us after they read you?
A: That not all Armenians are idiots?...Joking aside, odars have more important things to do than waste their time reading or thinking about us. How much time do you waste thinking about Patagonians? What about Romanians and Aramaeans? -- because most odars I talk to confuse us with them. As for politicians: they already know all they need to know. I can imagine the following conversation between an American presidential candidate and one of his young advisers:
“What do we know about Armenians?”
“A hundred years ago they were massacred by Turks.”
“What's the Turkish side of the story?”
“They did to the Armenians what we did to our Indians.”
“So what do I say to the Armenians?”
“You will recognize the Genocide.”
“Why genocide and not massacres?”
“They need to hear the word, sir.”
“Is that all? I will recognize the Genocide?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I love the Armenians. What about the Turks? What do I say to them?”
“Nothing, sir! They know the rules of the game.”
“They ought to. They ran an empire for how many centuries?”
“Six, sir."
“Do you think we will last that long?”
“Hope so, sir.”
“I do too. Maybe I should read a book about them to see what they did right.”
“I'll see what I can do, sir. I could read one for you, if you like, and underline the relevant passages.”
“Even better. You sure I don't have to say anything to the Turks?”
“Positive, sir."
“I love those Turks.”
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