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#1 ara baliozian

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Posted 23 June 2003 - 11:34 AM

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*****************************************
by ara baliozian

Lincoln was wrong: you can fool only one person all
the time: yourself.

We don’t burn books; we prefer to bury writers.

Whenever I am asked what I do for a living, I say I am
unemployed. For some reason, I find that a more
dignified tag than identifying myself as an Armenian
writer.

If any one of us on this forum became president of
Armenia tomorrow, we would have no more problems on
the day after.

It has happened more than once that those who develop
an intense dislike of me become my most faithful
readers.

Once upon a time a good day was one in which I
produced a good line. Now it is one in which I succeed
in offending a bigot. To paraphrase an old slogan: A
day without a mad bigot is a day without sunshine.

Sometimes I cannot help suspecting that our leaders
behave as if their unspoken slogan were: "From defeat
to defeat until the final catastrophe"; or is it -
"From catastrophe to catastrophe until total
annihilation."

When asked whether or not I am proud to be an
Armenian, I say, I am surrounded by so many proud
Armenians that I prefer to be a humble one.

When a brown-noser adopts a critical stance, you can
be sure of one thing: he will not criticize the
leadership but the people, because to criticize the
leadership would amount to biting the posterior that
lays the golden egg.

Sartre: "Literature unveils to readers their own
situation in order that they themselves may assume its
responsibility."

I have always been suspicious of people who brag about
their own real or imaginary assets. He who says "I am
smart," seldom is. He who says, "I am wealthy," never
is. And he who says "I am an honorable man," or "I am
a patriotic Armenian," is either a charlatan or a
bloodsucker.

It is not easy reasoning with a man who calls you an
idiot. As for the man who threatens to kill you: I
have every reason to suspect, if he realizes his
ambition, his lawyer will plead insanity, and he will
be absolutely right.

I have known many charlatans but I have never heard
any one of them admit to being one. Charlatanism and
confession are incompatible concepts. Murderers may
confess; charlatans, never!

G.K. Chesterton: "Thieves respect property; they
merely wish the property to become their property that
they may more perfectly respect it."

#2 Stormig

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Posted 23 June 2003 - 12:18 PM

Once upon a time a good day was one in which I
produced a good line. Now it is one in which I succeed
in offending a bigot. To paraphrase an old slogan: A
day without a mad bigot is a day without sunshine.

Or, as Zorba says, the day you are not in trouble is when you are dead. :D

#3 ara baliozian

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Posted 27 June 2003 - 11:38 AM

Friday, June 27, 2003
***********************
According to Toynbee:
“The nature of the breakdowns of civilizations
can be summed up in three points:
a failure of creative power in the minority,
an answering withdrawal of mimesis on the part of the majority,
and a consequent loss of social unity in the society as a whole.”
This just about sums up our status quo: namely,
a corrupt and incompetent leadership,
an alienated community,
and a total absence of solidarity.
*
To a pathological liar,
truth will be a carcinogenic agent.
*
There are those who think
being an Armenian writer and
writing for Armenians are sure symptoms of mediocrity:
so much for our collective self-esteem.
*
Collaborating with a corrupt leadership also means
betraying those who refuse to do so.
*
When it comes to changing minds,
there are no short cuts or painless arguments.
*
It is a writer’s duty to write what he thinks.
But in a fascist environment
a writer writes what those in power think; and
in an Armenian environment a writer guesses
what his readers think and feel and
echoes their sentiments and thoughts –
if, that is, he wants to survive.
*
Do I repeat myself?
Only in so far as I expose the same abuses and aberrations.
Because, as I see it,
I either expose them or conspire to cover them up.
*
To sum up: let us at all times and everywhere
be aware of the phony patriotism of bloodsuckers
and their offspring.




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