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as i see it - Pt. IV


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#2421 ara baliozian

ara baliozian

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Posted 23 March 2013 - 09:10 AM



Sunday, February 24, 2013
***************************************
TRUTH AND LIES
********************************
We love the truth and hate lies
or so we say and like to believe.
But truth is one and elusive
and lies are real and without number.
*
The 99% don’t think.
They let the 1% do the thinking for them.
Until very recently the 99% didn’t even know
they were 99%.
*
The 1% may know better
but to know better is not the same as to know.
The 1% is the most dangerous people on earth.
*
We are not survivors.
We are dead men walking.
So is all of mankind.
*
The real aim of justice is to legitimize injustice.
Slavery and the torture of heretics
were as legitimate undertakings
as the massacre of innocent civilians was
and continues to be today.
*
Our real enemies are not other people.
Our real enemies are politicians beginning with our own.
*
Literature is powerless against propaganda.
A ballpoint pen is not mightier than a tank.
Writing is a waste of time.
#
Monday, February 25, 2013
************************************************
ON BEING SMART AND PROGRESSIVE
****************************************************
History is not written but rewritten,
and rewritten history is a political tool.
*
Where politics enter,
deceivers and dupes are sure to follow.
*
We like to believe we are smart and progressive
and that it was these two attributes
that allowed us to foresee
the advent of Christianity as a universal religion.
The question is:
Why is it that we failed to foresee the Genocide?
*
Not only did we fail to foresee it,
we also ignored the warnings of those who did.
“Zohrab effendi is exaggerating,” some said;
and “the Turks wouldn’t dare!” said others.
*
One is therefore compelled to conclude that
being smart and progressive are not
permanent but ephemeral conditions
and worse: even the smart can be systematically moronized.
*
Now then, imagine if you can a political candidate
running for office on a platform that says
we are or have become a bunch of moronized dupes.
My progressive instinct
(whatever traces are left in me) tells me
such a candidate will have a far better chance to be elected
if he runs as a deceiver and treats his supporters as dupes
by saying they are the opposite of what they really are–
namely smart and progressive.
#
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
**************************************
HOMO IGNORAMUS
********************************
Turks are brought up to believe
they are noble specimens of humanity
and it is their patriotic duty to be proud
of who they are.
*
Armenians are brought up to believe
they are smart, progressive, civilized, compassionate
and so on and so forth
and an Armenian who is not proud of his identity
must be classified as the lowest scum on earth.
*
More often than not conflicts and disagreements arise
from the clash of two sets of lies
as opposed to lies and the truth.
The bigger the lies
the more ferocious the disagreement.
Hence Voltaire’s dictum:
“Since it was a religious war there were no survivors.”
*
The biggest and most universal lie is
to speak in the name of God (in theory)
and to do the Devil’s work (in practice).
*
Religious and political leader may disagree
on many important issues but they are unanimous
in the necessity of brainwashing children
and deceiving the masses.
*
More often than not our choice is not
between a lie and the truth
but between a lie and a bigger lie.
#
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
****************************************
THEORY AND PRACTICE
******************************************
God is love.
Justice for all.
All men are created equal.
Generalities, abstractions, and theories are one thing,
reality another.
*
The unspoken aim of all ideologies, belief systems,
and political parties is to moronize the masses
and turn them into dupes.
*
Justice favors the mighty.
Justice is on the side of top dogs.
Justice is with the more competent lawyer or dream team.
Justice is for the 1%.
Justice is anything but justice.
Justice is full of holes.
*
Marxist theory contradicts Marxist reality.
Communism is state capitalism.
Or, in the words of a Polish slogan:
"In capitalism man exploits man.
In communism it’s the other way around."
*
To the 99% I say: Don’t be duped by the 1%;
and it makes no difference if his first name is Serge or Raffi.
#
Thursday, February 28, 2013
*******************************************
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE…
*******************************************
Nothing changes.
Life continues to be one damn thing after another.
Everybody tells a writer what to write
and writers tell everybody what to think.
Result: no one profits from the other’s advice.
There you have it:
a profile of our history and culture.
*
Our destiny as a nation has been shaped
not by statesmen or philosopher-kings
but by sultans, shahs, *****s, padishahs,
czars, commissars, our own wheeler-dealers,
and mass murderers
like Abdulhamid II, Talaat and Stalin.
The only variable in this equation has been
the number of victims per year.
*
Will anything change in the foreseeable future?
Can anyone see the distant glimmer of a light
at the end of our endless tunnel?
You say we have survived
and we will continue to bugger on –
or is it buggered on?
You may call it survival if you are so inclined;
I call it the death of ten thousand cuts.
#
Saturday, March 02, 2013
************************************
ON PRIDE
************************
If proud Turks, Armenians, Americans, Germans,
Greeks, Russians, Jews, and the rest of mankind
were to spend five minutes reflecting
on their own failings, blunders, and unsolved problems,
they would have a thousand reasons
to be humble and not a single reason to be proud.
*
If you were to say Russians could be proud of their literature,
I would say, if we were to take a closer look
at the lives of their great writers
we would discover that most of them
were persecuted, excommunicated, misunderstood,
rejected, exiled to Siberia, murdered and on the whole
treated the way most other nations,
including Armenians, have treated their own great writers
and thinkers beginning with Greeks and Socrates.
*
Why do nations treat their best and brightest abominably?
The answer must be,
because those in power are almost always hopeless mediocrities
and moral midgets whose greatest enemy is excellence.
To cover up their status as nonentities
they preach, promote, and legitimize pride,
that is to say, prejudice and contempt for others
and ultimately hatred, war, and massacre.
#
Saturday, March 02, 2013
********************************************
ON NATIONALISM
*****************************
The first time I heard a Canadian say
“We stole the land from the Indians fair and square,”
and no one contradicted him,
I remember to have thought:
“So it is possible to be objective about one’s homeland
without being accused of treason!”
*
One way to judge your degree of objectivity
is to consider the distance that exists
between your infantile illusions
and adult convictions.
The greater the distance,
the more objective the judgment.
*
How did Urartu become Armenia?
Was it marriage or rape?
*
An empire without plunder
is like an omelet without eggs.
*
In the 19th century nationalism made perfect sense
because it was an ideology
that opposed imperialist oppression.
*
An infallible dupe is a contradiction in terms,
and yet, there are so many of them!
#Sunday, March 03, 2013
**************************************
HISTORY: WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN
****************************************************
When Madoff and his most important clients
were identified as Jews, my first thought was:
“They trusted Madoff; they did not trust Jesus.”
*
Has anyone ever written an autobiography
in which the stress is not on what was done
but on what was not done
out of ignorance, stupidity, and fear?
Sartre came close with his memoir, WORDS,
whose final message is:
literature is a useless passion
and writers are dreamers
who hate to give their infantile illusions.
*
What happened to Urartu?
Until the appearance of the Armens,
Urartu was an empire that successfully resisted
one of the mightiest military powers
in the history of mankind,
namely the Assyrians next door.
*
When the Armens appeared from the West
they were either welcomed or tolerated;
and that, in retrospect, may have been
the worst political blunder Urartu made.
*
For unlike Urartians, Armens were not warlike and,
to compound the felony,
their sense of solidarity was deficient.
Again unlike Urartians,
they were not a single entity with its own
clearly defined ethos and character,
but a collection of wandering tribes
that either refused or could not give up their tribal ways.
The rest, as they say, is history.
*
And that is the kind of unwritten history
I would like to read – a text in which
the emphasis is on blunders as opposed to victories,
be they military, moral, or imaginary.
A text moreover in which all facts
would be as clearly seen and accessible
as traffic signs.
#
Monday, March 04, 2013
**************************************
ENCOUNTER WITH A PARTISAN
******************************************
One of our elder statesmen came to see me once.
During the course of our conversation I noticed two things:
(a) he didn’t agree with my definition of words, and
(B) he couldn’t stand being contradicted.
At one pointed he even raised his voice and lost his temper
reminding me of the Chinese dictum
“He who loses temper has wrong on his side.”
*
I never saw him again.
Shortly thereafter he died
(may the Good Lord have mercy on his soul).
*
Who among us will dare to suggest that
(a) in political action we have been consistently guided
more by reason and knowledge
and less by emotion and ignorance; and
(B) emotion is a more reliable guide to action
than objective judgment, knowledge, and understanding?
#
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
***************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*************************************
Dashiell Hammett on speechifiers:
“The cheaper the crook,
the gaudier the patter.”
*
Syria today: what happens to a country
whose leaders cease to think of themselves
as public servants.”
*
Armenia today: Syria without the bloodshed.
*
A world without Turks:
What a subject for an Armenian science fiction novel!
*
When God created angels,
he also created devils, which may suggest
God rates balance or equal opportunity
above love, truth, mercy, and justice.
*
He who trusts liars
cannot be an honest man.
#
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
******************************************
AS I SEE IT
*************************
Individually we have excelled in all fields of human endeavor;
collectively we have developed the profile of useful idiots.
For 600 years we were faithful servants to Turks
and for 60 years little brothers to Russians.
*
To console ourselves we count the number
of tribes, nations, and empires that have ceased to exist.
*
What matters in writing is to say
what everybody thinks but refuses to say it.
*
No one knows all there is to know or, for that matter,
knows enough to form an infallible opinion.
*
There is an old saying:
“If you sit by the river long enough,
you will see your enemy’s carcass float by.”
The opposite is also true:
the carcass may be yours
and the fellow by the river your enemy.
#
Thursday, March 07, 2013
**************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*********************************
Our enemies come in all sizes and shapes
but their favorite disguise is
as Armenian political leaders.
*
At the beginning the Turks were few
and we many…
*
I do my utmost to avoid my fellow Armenians.
I can deal with them only in my writings
which I do at a safe distance.
*
I became an atheist on the day I realized
God was not on my side.
*
Of how many Armenians I could say,
“To contradict is a temptation he cannot resist.”
*
Isolated voices of dissent have no effect
on a brainwashed majority.
*
Madmen at the top
outnumber madmen at the bottom.
*
We were defeated by our enemies,
destroyed by our own leadership.
#
Friday, March 08, 2013
****************************************
PREDATORS
****************************
With the blessing of a bishop,
a regular paycheck from a boss
or the financial support of a benefactor,
any idiot can assert moral, intellectual,
and patriotic superiority.
There you have it:
the profile of an average fund-raiser,
Turcocentric ghazetaji, academic, speechifier
and sermonizer whose main function is
to brainwash children
and to convince the masses that
they never had it so good
because they are in the best of hands.
*
In the 19th century we were
“sheep without a shepherd” (Raffi).
Today we are sheep at the mercy of wolves
disguised as shepherds.
*
Our elites are the scum of the earth.
#
Saturday, March 23, 2013
*************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*********************************
After we were overrun by barbarians
we became barbarians.
Some day we may be civilized.
But that is only a hope
and hope is not a policy.
*
To be an authentic Armenian means
to be constantly engaged in shedding
the impurities of alien cultures.
*
To paraphrase a Mexican saying:
“Armenians: so close to Turkey,
so far away from God.
*
“Because we hate to say we don’t know
and we don’t understand,
we have created gods, angels, devils,
and life after death –a veritable Tower of Babel
without foundations.
*
I don’t write for my friends;
I write against my enemies
beginning with myself.
*
People tend to be more fanatical when they are wrong.
One could go further and say,
fanatics are wrong even when they are right.
#
Sunday, March 10, 2013
****************************************
QUESTION
*************************
The average patriotic Armenian sees himself
through the eyes of our historians, speechifiers, and sermonizers.
I see myself as a member of a perennially divided nation
that has suffered a long series of defeats
– some of them catastrophic –
and continues to be at the mercy
of corrupt and incompetent leaders
who appear to be more interested
in their own powers and privileges
than in the welfare of the people.
*
Now then, gentle reader, tell me
who is closer to reality?
Who is more objective?
Whose judgment is more to be trusted?
Finally, who is more patriotic --
the dupe who believes everything he is told
or the other, who thinks twice before saying “Yes, sir!”
to someone whose number one concern is number one?
#
Monday, March 11, 2013
***************************************
AS I SEE IT
***************************
To be objective means to ask:
What if what others (including our enemies)
think of us has more merit
than what we think of ourselves?
*
“Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
for he will despise the wisdom of your words.”
PROVERBS, 23:9
*
How could I have said or done that?
Happy is the man who doesn’t ask that question
at least once every day.
*
The longer I live the greater the distance
between my countrymen and myself.
*
After the break-up of the Soviet Union,
we are told, over a million Russians emigrated.
Which raises the question:
Is Armenia on its way to becoming a no-man’s land?
[b]#[/b]
[b]Tuesday, March 12, 2013[/b]
[b]************************************* [/b]
[b]SLAVES[/b]
[b]******************* [/b]
[b]A thousand years of subservience to bloodthirsty tyrants [/b]
[b]has taught us to value pilaf and shish-kebab above ideas. [/b]
[b]We even have a popular saying to that effect [/b]
[b]that has been quoted to me on several occasions by my critics:[/b]
[b]“You cannot cook pilaf with words.” [/b]
[b]*[/b]
[b]If you say, “What choice did we have?” [/b]
[b]I will invite you to reflect on the following words [/b]
[b]of William Pitt:[/b]
[b]“Necessity is the plea [/b]
[b]for every infringement of human freedom. [/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]It is the argument of tyrants;
[/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]it is the creed of slaves.” [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The creed of slaves! [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Some words are worth repeating [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]even when they cannot produce a single spoonful of pilaf. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Mankind may be divided into masters and slaves [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and the ambition of every slave is to be a master. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]This has been said before [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]but it bears repeating.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Moral superiority is a fiction of our collective imagination. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]An empty bag cannot stand upright. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Likewise, an empty brain cannot be right.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Wednesday, March 13, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]**************************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]NOTES & COMMENTS[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]********************************* [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Good laws are useless in a country of bad judges. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The truth is never in the lines [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]but between the lines – unseen, unread, ignored. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Lies come in all sizes and shapes – small, white, big…[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and worst of all, propaganda. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Disagreements are almost always [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]between dupes and opponents of propaganda. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Armenians and Turks agree on nothing [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]because they continue to trust their propagandists [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]more than their dissidents. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]We are divided because we see all our hidden failings [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]in the opposition. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]I judge my success by my degree of popularity: [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]the less popular I am, the better I feel. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]We are not what we could have been. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]After centuries of subservience we are not even the shadows [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]of what we could have been.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Thursday, March 14, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]**************************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]WORTH REMEMBERING[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]******************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Two things that we forget at our own peril: [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"](one) a belief system can be as misleading as a big lie; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and (two) where there are sheep there will be wolves. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]To have all the answers is a luxury [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]only dupes and fanatics (but I repeat myself) can afford. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Our understanding of history is never finished, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]only interrupted. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]There is a good reason why [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]we prefer to speak more about the past [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and less about the present. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]We can blame the past on our enemies…[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Saturday, March 23, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*********************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]PROBLEMS[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]******************************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The source of all our problems, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]too much history – and bad history at that.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Brainwashed dupes are blind to contradictions. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]They would be fully justified in pleading not guilty [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]by reason of insanity. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The road to hell is paved with propaganda. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Seeing the invisible and questioning the infallible – [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]that indeed is the aim of literature. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Armenia[/b][b]’s destiny is now in the hands [/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]of thieves, liars, and brown-nosers. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]In short, nothing has changed and [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]it’s business as usual.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Saturday, March 23, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]************************************* [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]SATANIC RELIGIONS[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]******************************* [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]When Salman Rushdie published his SATANIC VERSES [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]many intellectuals, diplomats and politicians in the West [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]sided with the imams who issued a fatwa (or contract) on him [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]on the grounds that he was guilty of insulting “a great religion.” [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]But there is no such thing as “a great religion.” [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]It is a mistake to judge the magnitude of a religion [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]by the number of its adherents or dupes. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]One could go further and say [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]the greater the religion [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]the greater the number of its victims, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]or crimes against humanity, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]or death of innocent civilians. [/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Think of what’s happening today in [/b][b]Syria[/b][b]. [/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]And consider the number of victims [/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]of illegal abortions and AIDs in [/b][b]South America[/b][b] and [/b][b]Africa[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]all because the Catholic Church refuses to sanction[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]the use of condoms and legal abortions.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Saturday, March 23, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]************************************* [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]DANGEROUS WORDS[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]******************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The two most dangerous words in the world: [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]“I believe.” [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Like most people I too was brought up [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]to respect men of faith. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]I now view them as potential criminals [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]without a conscience. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]As a child I too subscribed to many fallacies [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]one of them being all Armenians to be my friends. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Half-truths can be as dangerous as big lies. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Any one who claims to have found the truth [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]is an enemy of mankind. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Once upon a time, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]for every faithful member [/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]of the Communist Party in Soviet [/b][b]Armenia[/b][b], [/b][/font][/size]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]there was a “chic Bolshevik” in [/b][b]America[/b][b] [/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]who believed Russians to be our big brothers. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Speaking of such a specimen a friend once said to me: [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]“I don’t blame him. He was sincere in his beliefs.” [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]I know now that to be sincere in one’s beliefs [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]is the same as pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]If you say “I know many men of faith [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]who have harmed no one,” [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]I say, when we speak of faith and belief systems [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]in a historic context, we mean not the sheep but the wolves; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]we mean not the meek and the humble [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]who believe what they are told [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]but the policy-makers. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]In a historic context the meek and the humble [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]might as well be anonymous, irrelevant, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and marginalized to the point of disappearance.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Monday, March 18, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]************************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A BILLION CATHOLICS[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]************************************ [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: There are a billion Catholics in the world, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and yet you expect me to believe [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]they are all wrong and you are right?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: Why not? There are a billion Muslims in the world [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and you expect me to believe they are all wrong.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: You may have a point there…[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: Listen, when it comes to belief systems, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]numbers are meaningless. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]All religions are minority religions. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The overwhelming majority of mankind [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]is neither Catholic nor Muslim [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]but Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, Mormon, and so on.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: But you are against all of them, right?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: When it comes to belief systems I say [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]to each his own. What I am really against [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]is brainwashing children. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]I will go further and say I consider brainwashing children [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]if not a crime against humanity [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]than the source of intolerance and [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]countless wars and massacres.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Tuesday, March 19, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]**************************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]GREAT IDEAS[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]**************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Great ideas are conceived by great men, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]implemented by nameless mediocrities, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and perverted by faceless nonentities. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]That may explain why [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]if a belief system preaches love[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]it ends up practicing hatred; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and if it preaches communism [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]it ends up practicing state capitalism. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Sooner or later all belief systems and ideologies [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]degenerate to the point of becoming their own contradictions [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]because where power enters, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]greed is sure to follow; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and when greed becomes the driving force[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]nothing good survives. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Martin Luther was right when he said [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]you don’t need the Pope to go to heaven; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]all you need is a copy of the Bible. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]But he was wrong when he failed to predict [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]the advent of televangelists. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]And speaking of bloodsuckers: [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Republicans tell us the 1% are job creators [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]even when recent history tells us they are job killers; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and if they create jobs they are not motivated by altruism [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]but by self-interest, that is to say, greed,[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and where greed enters [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]catastrophe is sure to follow. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]I therefore feel justified in saying, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]if you ever come up with a great idea, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]mankind maybe better off if you keep it to yourself.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Wednesday, March 20, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]************************************ [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]FOR THE RECORD[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]****************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: Let me begin by quoting some of your critics. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Are you a denialist?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: No![/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: A self-hating Armenian?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: I can’t say I am particularly fond of myself, no.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: Why not?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: Because like most Armenians [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]I allowed myself to be moronized by morons.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: Do you hate Armenians?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: Only the shish-kebab and pilaf variants, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Turcocentric ghazetajis and their dupes.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: Turcocentrism: could you define the word for us, please?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: The misconception that all our problems [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]begin and end with Turks.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: Isn’t the recognition of the Genocide a central issue?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: So is the responsibility of our leadership [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]that promised freedom and our historic lands [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and delivered the hell of massacres [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]followed by dispersion, division, alienation, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and assimilation or bloodless slow-motion genocide. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]It seems to me, it is dishonest to emphasize their responsibility [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and cover up our own.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: How do you explain our survival?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: You call it survival; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]I call it the death of a thousand self-inflicted cuts.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Q: So far you have said nothing positive.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]A: The only positive I can think of is our literature. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Notwithstanding the fact that our ablest writers [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]were either systematically slaughtered or silenced [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]for refusing to moronize the people [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]by recycling the propaganda of foreign and domestic apes, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]they carried on. They are our greatest heroes [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and our only hope.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Thursday, March 21, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]***************************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]ON GOLDEN AGES[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]****************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The trouble with golden ages is that [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]they don’t last and they are not even golden. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]This is as true of the Greek Golden Age (5th century BC) [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]as it is of our own (5th century AD). [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]As for the American Golden Age: they don’t have one. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Their brief history may be divided into two distinct periods: [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]barbarism and neo-barbarism -- [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"](I am now paraphrasing better men than myself).[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Both Socrates and Dostoevsky were condemned to death [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]for exercising their fundamental human right of free speech. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The execution of Socrates was carried out; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Dostoevsky’s wasn’t because seconds before the execution [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]the Czar sent a messenger with a pardon. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The experience so traumatized Dostoevsky that [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]he became more Czarist than the Czar. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]In today’s parlance, he was born again [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]as a member of the Tea Party. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]As for our treatment of our own writers: [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]it has been more Ottoman and Stalinist than Armenian. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Like the rest of mankind we too appear to be infatuated [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]with our own limitations, prejudices, and ignorance. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]American writers are seldom silenced [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]by repressive administrations; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]they prefer to silence themselves [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]by committing suicide or becoming alcoholics [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]or drug addicts.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Friday, March 22, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]************************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]WAR OF WORDS[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]******************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Turcocentrism is a recent misconception or fallacy. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]It is absent in the works of Baronian and Odian, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and more recently in Arlen and Saroyan. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]There is even a key passage in Saroyan [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]where he states we should feel sorry for Turks. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Turcocentrism is less an ideology [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and more a tool of propaganda [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]whose ultimate aim is to convince dupes [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]there is nothing wrong with us [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]because we are role models [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]of what a nation should be – [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]united against all enemies foreign and domestic [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and immune to corruption, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]therefore morally superior. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]It further states, whatever problems we have [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]we must ascribe to Turks. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]If it weren’t for Turks we would now be living [/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]in our own [/b][b]Eden[/b][b] happily ever after. [/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]To combat this propaganda line [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Turks have come up with their own [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]whose aim is to convince their dupes that [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]like all truly civilized and progressive people [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Turks are against violations of fundamental human rights, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]except when they do the violating; [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and they have always been against murdering [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]defenceless civilians except when they do the murdering.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]Saturday, March 23, 2013[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]************************************** [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]DEAD OR ALIVE?[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]************************************ [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]The King is dead. Long live the King.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Stalin is dead but Stalinists continue to rule. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Jesus was crucified but supporters of crucifixion [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]are very much alive. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]They may no longer use trees, hammers and nails [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]but they exist as surely as racists [/font][/size][/b]
[size="3"][font="Times New Roman"][b]in post-Civil War [/b][b]America[/b][b].[/b][/font][/size]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]*[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Nothing bad ever dies. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Moral progress is an illusion. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]There is no such thing as collective enlightenment. [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]Instead of a single sultan [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]we now have many mini-sultans, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]and we cannot say “Forgive them, Lord, [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]for they don’t know what they are doing,”[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]because they are too damn smart [/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]to plead not guilty by reason of ignorance.[/font][/size][/b]
[b][size="3"][font="Times New Roman"]#[/font][/size][/b]
[/size][/font]


#2422 ara baliozian

ara baliozian

    Veteran

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  • PipPipPipPipPip
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  • Location:Canada
  • Interests:literature

Posted 27 March 2013 - 08:19 AM



Monday, March 25, 2013
*************************************
NOTES & COMMENTS
*******************************
If both sides believe Truth to be on their side
it must be a Big Lie.
If both sides believe God to be on their side,
it must be the Devil.
In a historic context Homo sapiens may be defined as
a being who cannot tell the difference
between God and the Devil.
*
Q: Is it true that you are more critical of Armenians
than of Turks?
A: As an Armenian I criticize Armenians.
I leave to Turkish critics the task of criticizing their own.
*
When tyrants silence writers,
they invariably target the best.
*
The reason I am a pessimist or see the dark side of things
is that I refuse to be moronized by the 1%.
*
In murder it may be “cherchez la femme.”
But in war and crimes against humanity
it’s cherchez moral and intellectual hoodlums
parading as statesmen.
*
The 99% don’t make history;
they only suffer it.
#
*****************************************
NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS
OR GENOCIDE BY OTHER MEANS
**************************************************
Learning also means unlearning
what you were taught as a child.
Loving your people also means hating their enemies.
The average dupe loves to brag about the lies
he has been taught as a child
and to ignore the evidence to the contrary.
*
We in Canada are brought up to brag about
our multiculturalism and to forget that
there was multiculturalism in the Ottoman Empire too;
so much so that after 600 years of “brutal oppression”
we produced literary giants like
Baronian, Odian, Zabel Yessayan, and Zohrab.
*
Now then, name a single Canadian-born Armenian
who is capable of writing a single decent line
in his mother tongue.
*
I have heard smart Canadians define multiculturalism
as “let them dance.” Obviously because
they can read between the lines of their state propaganda
better than outsiders like us.
*
In the obituary of the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe,
I read the following this morning:
“He spent much of his adult life in the United States
but resisted literary honors from a government
he refused to accept.”
In other words, he refused to be taken in
by a policy of genocide by other means.
*
If you want to read more about the many ways
the 1% has of misleading, deceiving, confusing, bamboozling, flimflamming, exploiting, and hoodwinking the 99%
read MYTHOLOGIES by Roland Barthes.
#
IDIOTS
***********************
Armenians who say there are divisions everywhere
are simply parroting the words of an idiot
whose sole aim is to explain and justify
his own powers and privileges.
*
There are divisions even in the most advanced democracies?
It is equally true that, unlike us,
advanced democracies have a centralized power structure
because they have been successful
in overcoming their tribalism,
namely the misconception that
my political party, my church, my backyard
and my chickens matter more than all others.
*
There are divisions everywhere?
There are also rapists and murderers everywhere.
Should we therefore accept them
as inevitable facts of life
and adopt a live and let live stance
in the name of compassion, tolerance and patriotism?
*
There are divisions everywhere?
There are also crooks and idiots everywhere.
Does that mean we should allow them
to be in charge of our collective destiny?
#
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
***************************************
MEMOS TO MYSELF
**********************************
Political leaders prefer dupes to dissidents.
*
The plea of not guilty may be available to dupes
but not to their deceivers.
*
Power corrupts, weakness castrates.
*
On the art of writing: the less art the better.
*
To write too much is not a sin;
to discard too little is.
#


#2423 ara baliozian

ara baliozian

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Posted 13 April 2013 - 09:04 AM



Saturday, April 13, 2013
*************************************
SERMON
**************************
In what way am I morally superior
to a cold-blooded killer if I harbor a killer within me?
In what way are Americans morally superior to Muslims
if they (Americans) have killed more Muslims
than Muslims have killed Americans?
In what way Muslims are morally superior to Americans
if the only reason they have killed fewer Americans
is military inferiority?
*
Closer to home:
we have been so busy exposing Turkish criminal conduct
that our own moral status has become an alien dimension.
As Zarian would say: “Danger, danger, danger!”
*
There is only one way to feel morally superior
and that is (to echo Saroyan) by feeling sorry
for the morally inferior.
*
The Scriptures tell us there is no difference
between an adulterer and a man
who lusts after another’s wife.
Likewise there is no difference between a killer
and a man who preaches hatred and revenge
which he identifies as justice.
*
Perhaps what I have been trying to say here is
we all swim in the same sh**!
#
Saturday, April 13, 2013
***********************************
THEOLOGY
**********************
The aim of human speech
is to say one thing
and do the opposite:
to say God is love and truth
and to worship lies and the Devil;
to say “Thou shalt not kill”
and to go to war;
to call Diasporan Armenians “aghber” (trash)
and to behave like trash.
Theologians and sermonizers are familiar with this phenomenon
but prefer not to speak about it.
*
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
********************************
As soon as the Kremlin realizes
the present regime in Yerevan to be a liability,
it will replace it with another.
Will anything change?
It remains to be seen.
“No one gives up power without a bloody fight,”
Hegel tells us.
Is he right?
We may have an answer soon.
*
DOES POWER CORRUPT?
*********************************
Power does not corrupt.
It only exposes the corruption
that was already there.
*
AMERICA AND ARMENIA
***********************************
Unhappy is the nation
whose two most important sources of education are
TV ads and state propaganda.
#
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*********************************
In life nothing works as planned.
An honest autobiography would be
a long list of disappointments.
*
My first book was a best-seller.
My second book was banned.
That’s when I knew I was on the right track.
*
We adopt a belief system because we are told
all the others don’t make sense.
*
If you write in defense of dupes,
deceivers will conspire against you.
#
REMEMBER!
****************************
Patriotism is the favored word of tyrants.
*
Political parties need honest men
as surely as religions need saints.
*
“A man of principle is a majority of one.”
#
Saturday, April 13, 2013
**************************************
SITUATION / SH*TUATION
*************************************
In the eyes of the world
our regime in Yerevan has lost its virginity.
The people are against it.
But even if replaced
nothing will change.
*
Believe nothing you are told.
There are no good guys in politics.
Power prostitutes.
*
Some of our greatest brains
praised Lenin and Stalin.
Even our best and brightest are no better
than a bunch of dupes.
*
Where there is too much talk
of freedom and independence,
oppression is sure to follow.
*
Throughout our millennial history
foreign tyrants have always relied
on their Armenian collaborators
to moronize the people.
#
TURCOCENTRISM REVISITED
*******************************************
In Turcocentric circles I am know only as someone
whom Turks like to quote.
All I can say in my defense is that
the Devil too can quote the Scriptures.
Does that mean the Good Lord is pro-Devil?
*
I gladly admit to being not a Turcocentric
but an Armenocentric writer.
So were Baronian and Odian;
or for that matter Zarian and Massikian;
and before them Naregatsi
who in his LAMENTATION blames no one
but himself for his many failings and transgressions.
*
A human being is not a lump of clay
at the mercy of forces beyond his control.
The Turks did not recreate us in their own image.
We consented to be recreated.
That is worth repeating and emphasizing.
We are what we have become
because we chose freely to be who we are.
The rest is propaganda
and our favorite sport: the blame game.
#
DIARY
********************
“I enjoy reading you.”
I am less interested in your enjoyment
and more in your torment.
I don’t write to entertain.
Flattery is as irrelevant to me
as the words of a brainless critics or dupe
who believes what he is told
especially what he is told
flatters his ego.
*
In Deirdre Bair’s SAUL STEINBERG: A BIOGRAPHY
I am informed that if you are depressed
you can go to the nearest emergency
and ask to see a shrink.
This may be common knowledge but it’s news to me.
*
I remember once when asked by a French friend
if I have ever been analyzed
I said something to the effect that
analysis is for the bourgeoisie
and that as a perennial slum-dweller
it has never even occurred to me
to visit a shrink.
I was astonished when he informed me that
in France analysis is available to everyone
free of charge.
*
Perhaps deep inside somewhere
I continue to be a subject of the Ottoman Empire
where the insane were treated like criminals.
#





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