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Ara Baliozian: Ways and means


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#61 ara baliozian

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Posted 18 July 2001 - 06:17 AM

DEMENTED FASCISTS
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In a letter to the editor of our local paper today I am informed that Canada is run by "demented fascists." Such letters by disgruntled readers appear more or less regularly in our paper and I assume many other papers in Canada; but as far as I know none of these irate citizens has ever threatened to go back to Scotland, Ireland or England.
Again and again I hear the complaint that our newspapers stress the negative and ignore the positive: they prefer to write about murderers, rapists, hookers, burglars, child molesters and mafia hitmen and completely ignore thousands of law-abiding citizens who work hard and help their fellow men.
I have always wondered why is it that if there is such a high demand for good news, no one has thought of publishing such a newspaper; or perhaps after a few issues such newspapers have gone bankrupt because the demand is phony.
Sometimes I too am urged to stress the positive by self-appointed commissars of culture (and here I resist the temptation of calling them demented fascists), who completely ignore the fact that our political parties and the papers they control do that already: they invariably stress the positive aspects of their performance and completely ignore the negative. My question is: why should I join their chorus to make it unanimous, especially when I disagree with everything they print, including their commas.

#62 ara baliozian

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Posted 18 July 2001 - 07:03 AM

KISS ME, I AM ARMENIAN!
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In all religions and cultures pride is seen as a vice. I wonder, why is it that
some armenians think to say I AM PROUD TO BE AN ARMENIAN is okay.
How about I AM HUMBLE TO BE AN ARMENIAN?
As a matter of fact, speaking for myself,
I am very, very humble!
I am very, very humble because millions of my ancestors were massacred and suffered countless humiliations in order that I may survive. In order that we may all survive.
And what have we been doing with our survival?
We have driven half of the Armenian population from Armenia into exile; thousands of decent Armenian women into prostitution; and in the diaspora, we have alienated the majority of Armenians and driven them to assimilate.
And why?
Because of corrupt, incompetent and tribal leaders whose #1 concern is #1.
Yes, my friends, I am a very, very humble armenian because I consider myself unworthy of the sacrifice made by our ancestors.

#63 ara baliozian

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Posted 18 July 2001 - 10:10 AM

DARTS OR BOOMERANGS?
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Because I dared to sympathize with decent Armenian women who are forced into prostitution, I received several anonymous messages by self-assessed "proud Armenians" who called my mother a prostitute.
I should be offended, but I am not.
What kind of person writes anonymously?
Obviously, a coward who is ashamed or afraid to identify himself; and an anonymous coward who brags about being a proud Armenian also admits to being a liar. I suggest such a cowardly liar is in no position to consider himself morally superior to anyone, including prostitutes.
Most prostitutes are coerced into prostitution: they have little choice in the matter. But no one can coerce anyone to being a cowardly liar. This is a choice he makes himself; and because he cannot see that his insults are also confessions (confessions whose implied meaning escapes him) he must also be a self-satisfied, loud-mouth arrogant fool.

#64 ara baliozian

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Posted 19 July 2001 - 05:52 AM

THE MAHATMA SPEAKS
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On Armenians who consider it their patriotic duty to hate Turks and, by extensions, fellow Armenians who do not share their blanket hatred: "Hatred injures the haters, never the hated."

On those eager to assert moral superiority: "Only when one sees one’s own mistakes with a convex lens, and does just the opposite in the case of others, that one is able to arrive at a just relative estimate of the two."

On cowards who insult fellow Armenians anonymously: "A coward does not deserve to be a member of a society of men and women."

#65 ara baliozian

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Posted 19 July 2001 - 10:46 AM

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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Zarian thought a writer could be truly creative only in his own homeland; and yet, his most productive years were spent in Istanbul, Paris, Venice, Milan, New York and Beirut, and his most unhappy and arid years in Yerevan.

More often than not, we are the only victims of our own misconceptions.

We survived the Turks and the Bolsheviks: we now confront a far more invincible adversary: us!

I may react to an honest disagreement but not to an insult. How does one react to an insult without going down to the gutter where the other has the advantage?

If we cannot change reality, the least we can do is try to understand it. To try to change it without understanding it is an enterprise that is bound to backfire. Case in point: our revolutionaries at the turn of the century.

I don’t expect to be loved or admired by those whose charlatanism I have exposed. The most I can hope to expect from them is to be read…and as long as they go on insulting me, I know they have been reading me, for which many thanks!

#66 ara baliozian

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Posted 20 July 2001 - 05:42 AM

DEFINITIONS
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PATRIOTISM: Love of one’s country and culture; and respect for everyone else’s love of his country and culture.

FASCIST PATRIOTISM: Hatred of the enemy and ignorance of all cultures, including one’s own. A fascist patriot treats a discussion forum as if it were an outlet for his hatred, some kind of chamberpot wherein to deposit his verbal diarrhea. Hence their unbearable stench. If it weren’t for our fascist patriots and the institutions they have usurped, most Armenians would grow up to be more or less decent human beings.

CAPITALISM: According to Werner Sombart: "Where sex is denied expression, wealth begins to be hoarded."

#67 ara baliozian

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Posted 20 July 2001 - 09:56 AM

TWO REPLIES
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1.
An outraged reader demands to know how can any Armenian love Turks after what they have done to us.
Gentle reader: no one is asking you to love rapists and killers: only saints can do that and none of us qualifies….What I have been saying is that, we either make hatred the central motif of our collective existence or concentrate our efforts on solving our many problems in a creative way: which is something we can do only if we love one another more than we hate the Turks.
At this point I can’t resist the temptation of quoting the unforgettable words of a hippie from the 1960s: "How can you talk love to middle-aged creeps who hate you?"

2.
To the reader who posted an anonymous message in which he accuses me of being a racist who hates Arabs and Gypsies: Yes, I remember you too. I hope you can now read and understand simple sentences in the English language.

#68 MJ

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Posted 01 September 2001 - 06:40 AM

ara baliozian
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Member # 271
posted August 20, 2001 11:08 AM
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P.S.
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To be an Armenian and to expect to have the agreement of your fellow Armenians is to be in this world but not of this world. Whenever a fellow Armenian expresses surprise or even shock at my views, I am tempted to ask: Where were you born? Where did you grow up? Where do you live? In the Garden of Eden?
But even in the Garden there was a snake who didn’t see eye to eye with the Good Lord.
My advice to you is: If you want to survive as an Armenian among Armenians, don’t take yourself seriously, smile, have a good laugh at yourself and your fellow men. Life will be more fun that way.
Remember, my friend, the alternative is cancer and early death.
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#69 MJ

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Posted 01 September 2001 - 06:41 AM

ara baliozian
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posted July 11, 2001 10:59 AM
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ARMENIANS ON ARMENIANS
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Do you want to know more about Armenians? Read about Eskimos, Patagonians, Hottentots…. Above all avoid reading Armenians on Armenians. Their views will be filtered, biased, distorted.
Compare Hagop Baronian’s Armenians with Saroyan’s: they might as well be odars to one another. Baronian’s Armenians are rascals and fools, Saroyam’s cute and harmless.
Saroyan himself was not exactly a Saroyanesque character, his son Aram tells us in his memoirs (LAST RITES). He was more of a character straight out of Dostoevsky. Not that I trust Aram’s views. He too was biased -- motivated as he was by bitterness and resentment; he did not inherit any of his father’s assets (over a million dollars, if memory serves). Please note that I am not myself personally acquainted with Aram, but judging by his books (or the one or two that I have read) he did not deserve a penny. Again, please, don’t take my word for it. I too plead bias.
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#70 MJ

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Posted 01 September 2001 - 07:39 AM

ara baliozian
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posted April 18, 2001 12:17 PM
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THE DEVIL AND THE GOOD LORD
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Our chauvinists and partisan propagandists have a long list of historical, geographical, cultural, political and economic reasons behind every one of our failures, defeats and catastrophes; and when they run out of them, they evoke human nature -- their message being: We are beyond criticism because we are what God, in his infinite wisdom, has made us. Criticism is a waste of time and critics useless because no one has the power to unmake what God has wrought.
The fallacy in this line of sophistry consists in confusing what is human with what is subhuman. Ignorance, arrogance and stupidity are not human but subhuman; so are intolerance and greed; and so are deception, lies and propaganda. There is a difference between human nature and subhuman nature. We must extol the first and suppress the second; and if we cannot suppress it, we must call it by its right name. To ascribe the devil’s actions to God is blasphemy.
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#71 MJ

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Posted 01 September 2001 - 08:13 AM

ara baliozian
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posted July 02, 2001 06:44 AM
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WAR AND PEACE
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Some Armenian counter-arguments are more like allergic reactions. They have nothing to do with reason and everything to do with pathology. And that may well be the root of all our conflicts.
If so far we have failed again and again to develop a consensus it’s because, unlike conflicting interests which may be reconciled, conflicting pathologies cannot.
What do people want?
Peace and prosperity.
What do political leaders want?
Power.
They want power even if it means war and massacre.
Lust for power recognizes no national or tribal barriers.
Our leaders want power even if means the slow but systematic alienation, exodus and assimilation of the majority. In what way are they different from our enemies? And if you think of this forum as a microcosm: in what way are we different from our leaders?
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#72 MJ

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Posted 01 September 2001 - 08:16 AM

ara baliozian
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Member # 271
posted June 24, 2001 08:29 AM
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SOME THOUGHTS ON CORRUPTION
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Democracy also means freedom from want.
What we have in our homeland today is not democracy
but the tyranny of destitution.
Corruption is like cancer,
and charity is worse than a band-aide treatment
because it does nothing but entrench the power of the corrupt
thus legitimizing criminal conduct.

Instead of being feted and honored,
political leaders from the Homeland
should be mercilessly booed for their acceptance of corruption
as an inevitable fact of life that only time can cure.

It is a fundamental human right to live and work
in an environment free of corruption.

What could be more degrading for a man
than the inability to provide for his family?
What could be more oppressive than
the fascism of unemployment and poverty
without a single scintilla of hope on the horizon?

Charity may make the Diaspora feel good
but it is not, it cannot be, a substitute for social justice.

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#73 MJ

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Posted 01 September 2001 - 08:18 AM

ara baliozian
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Member # 271
posted August 30, 2001 07:03 AM
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#2
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Some of my readers are disappointed, even angry, when I refuse to join the chorus of our sermonizers and speechifiers in order to make it unanimous. It doesn’t even occur to them how ridiculous, not to say absurd, their position is. Unanimity among us is like Mark Twain’s weather. Everyone talks about it but nobody does a damn thing – nobody, especially those who are in a position to do something…such as bishops. Why do we need two bishops within the same city and neighborhood? The answer must be obvious: if we needed only one, the other one will have to be discarded, or even worse, be relegated to number two position; and in case you didn’t know, number two is the most hated number among Armenians, especially those who have achieved number one status.
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#74 ara baliozian

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Posted 01 November 2008 - 11:08 AM

Thursday, October 30, 2008
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DEFINITIONS
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VODANAVORJI: A fabricator of verses inspired by the eternal snows of Mount Ararat and related atrocities.
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ANTI-SEMITE: An Armenian who loves Jews but hates Zionists.
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ANTI-AMERICANISM: A belief system that asserts the serpent in the Garden of Eden was a CIA agent.
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ANTI-ARMENIANISM: A capital offense committed by someone who dares to question the statesmanship of our wheeler-dealers, mi-kich-pogh Panchoonies, and assorted riffraff.
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ARMENIANISM: A vaguely defined discipline that allows a charlatan, bloodsucker, or parasite to assert his superior brand of patriotism and look down at anyone who does not live up to its low standards, and when I say low I mean lower than a snake's belly full of buckshot.
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BLAME-GAME: A favorite pastime of academics who ascribe all our misfortunes, blunders, defeats, and tragedies to historic, social, environmental, and cultural factors beyond our control.
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DISSENTER: A misguided fool, an unspeakable blasphemer, and a degenerate who believes we may have had something to do in shaping our character and destiny as a nation.
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INTELLECTUAL: A species as extinct as the dodo bird.
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PUNDIT: A retard with a negative IQ who is convinced he knows and understands everything there is to know and understand about our past, present, and future, but who is incapable of telling a hole in the ground from the perforation in his derrière.
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SOVIETISM: A mindset that asserts Russians to be our “Big Brothers.”
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ANTI-SOVIETISM: A mindset that asserts Russians to be our “Big Brothers” but only in the Orwellian sense of these words.
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TURCOCENTRISM: An Orthodoxy based on the assumption that we are dependent on the goodwill, fair-play, justice, and charity of Ankara.
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OTTOMANISM: A psychological complex or a mechanism that results in the production of oreos – that is, Armenians who are Armenian on the outside and Turk on the inside. Something similar could be said of Bolshevism or Stalinism. It is no exaggeration to say that Armenians of the Diaspora are at the mercy of Ottomanized thugs as surely as Armenians of Armenia are victimized by Stalinized scumbags.
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Friday, October 31, 2008
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SUPERSTITIONS
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Elsa Morante: “Women's love brings bad luck.”
That may be because everything that's good in step one may be bad in step two. Yin and yang. “No banquet under heaven is endless,” according to an old Chinese saying.
*
Like Armenians, both men and women like to blame their troubles on the opposition, never on their own stupidity.
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The most famous war in in the history of mankind recounted by the greatest poet in world literature is about the abduction of a floozy. But I suspect if the same story were told by a woman, the stress would be on man's stupidity. For all we know Paris may have been a serial rapist and Helen a respectable housewife.
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Speaking of war and stupidity: there are organized religions today that are against capital punishment but for war. Figure that one out if you can.
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Speaking of floozies and man's stupidity: It is said of Antranik Zaroukian that on his return from Paris, where he was sent as a delegate by the ARF, he presented an expense account which included a line that said: “For necessary bodily functions.” When asked to explain, Zaroukian is said to have replied: “Visits to the bordello.” Somehow I find it difficult to imagine a woman delegate in the same position saying, “For services rendered by a gigolo.”
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Saturday,November 1, 2008
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AS I SEE IT
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Don Marquis: “If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you. But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
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Even if you are as wise as Socrates and as pure in heart as Mahatma Gandhi you will have enemies who will hate you unto death. And even if you are as evil as Stalin and as fanatical and single-minded as Hitler you will have followers willing to die for you.
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I for one refuse to ascribe beastly conduct to human nature. Neither will I subscribe to the notion favored by philomorons that philosophy is a waste of time. Because if it weren't for philosophers we would be at the mercy of fools and fanatics and life would be hell on earth.
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A good autobiography is everyone's biography.
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The greatest concern of a man in power is losing it.
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The shy in life will be daring in imagination.
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To read words and sentences – nothing easier. To read ideas – that's different.
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