ara baliozian

Sunday, November 25, 2001 ********************************* 1. I once met an Armenian lawyer from Istanbul who berated me for my lack of patriotism but he did so in Turkish. 2. Political correctness might as well be synonymous with semantic fascism. If a man exposes himself as a racist by using a single politically incorrect word, I say, by all means, let him. At least that way we will know where we stand. It will save time and cut through unnecessary verbal crap. 3. I welcome criticism. I find it stimulating even when it is wrong; especially when it is wrong. What I can't stand is a dog taking me for a lamp-post and pissing on me, and calling it criticism hoping the difference will escape me. 4. Sometimes I am criticized for never admitting error. What utter nonsense! On more than one occasion I have identified myself as walking blunder. I am an Armenian writer. 5. In a market economy and an environment controlled by business, where even the Vatican has investments in contraceptives, I consider being unmarketable one of the cardinal virtues. 6. We call Armenian anyone who identifies himself as one. That’s a big mistake. Ottomanized bastards are not Armenians; they don't even qualify as human beings. 7. I have no use for humility. Most humble people are phonies. Some of them are even proud of their humility. Self disgust, yes, I respect that. In my book, an ounce of self-disgust is worth a ton of humility. 8. Among Armenians everyone thinks he can tell a writer what to think and how to write. You should write this and you should write that, I am told. You shouldn't write this and you shouldn't write that. They should all over me and expect me to be grateful to them. 9. Some readers expect me to be polite, tolerant, civilized. They drown me in shit and demand style. You want manners? Read Emily Post and quit bothering me.

RENDER UNTO CAESAR ***************************** It is often said that the Middle East problem has no solution. But the solution was clearly found two thousand years ago. When Jesus said "Render unto Caesar," he was not promoting defeatism, collaboration, treason, fascism, imperialism, injustice and oppression: he was making a politically astute statement. And because the Jewish warriors of his time, who, very much like Arafat and his gang of fanatics today, thought with their cojones rather than their brains, they chose resistance thus condemning the nation to two thousand years of exile, degradation, persecution, and massacre. By refusing to render unto Ariel Sharon and Bush, Arafat may be condemning his nation to decades, perhaps even centuries of unnecessary suffering. He is not a hero and a statesman. He is a damn fool. And his suicidal fanatics are not martyrs and freedom fighters but dupes of chauvinist crap and lies.

LATER THE SAME DAY [Friday, November 23, 2001] *********************************** 1. In politics, and in life in general, it is not enough being right; one must also be reasonable. It’s easy being right (especially if you are to decide who is wrong); much more difficult being reasonable because it entails convincing others. It may be right for the Arabs to hate the West, but is it reasonable to want to destroy it? It may be right to terrorize and threaten the Jews with another holocaust, but is it reasonable to expect that they will not defend themselves? It may right to attack America but is it reasonable to call those who defend it racist imperialists who don't deserve to live? 2. I understand those who speak in the name of God. I too speak in the name of God, with one difference. My God doesn't exist. He is more like a point of a reference, an abstraction, a concept like zero and infinity. And since my God doesn't exist, He is honest enough to promise me nothing. 3. On the day nationalists learn to love their country without hating another I will be a chauvinist. 4.I enjoy reading writers who know something I don't know even if what they know may be only the memory of an experience or feeling I never had. As for writers who do nothing but recycle the kind of propaganda I was exposed to as a child, I have every reason to suspect their unspoken motto is: "Love me, love my verbal diarrhea!"

Saturday, November 24, 2001 ******************************** 1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOVIET LITERATURE The best were silenced. The worst prospered. 2.A BRIEF HISTORY OF ARMENIAN LITERATURE Those who spoke the truth starved. Those who kissed ass were allowed to survive…but only barely. 3. We don't have an exchange of views. What we have is an exchange of egos. 4. Arguing with an Armenian is like arguing with a bishop or a commissar: afterwards you feel slightly excommunicated and executed. 5. Dario Fo (winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature) writes: "People who are up to their necks in shit walk with their heads held high." When, O when will we produce writers capable of writing such lines? 6. In the Ottoman Empire the Turks looked down at merchants. We in the Diaspora worship them – even when they happen to be merchants of death. 7. It’s not easy dealing with Armenians, but it helps if you are deaf to their insults and blind to their defects.

Friday, November 23, 2001 ******************************* 1. Where there is an oversized ego there will also be an undersized brain. 2. Compared to what there is to know, what I know is such a minuscule fraction that I might as well be a complete ignoramus. But I can recognize a contradiction when I see one. 3. It’s all right to be prejudiced as long as you have an open mind. 4. History teaches us that it is easier to learn from it than to change it. 5. Once you know the truth, you cannot hide it and you cannot hide yourself from it; and the more you try to bury it, the more it buries you. 6. Tone deafness and color blindness have their moral and political equivalents: individuals who cannot tell the difference between honesty and charlatanism or democracy and fascism.

LATER THE SAME DAY [Thursday, November 22, 2001] *********************************** 1. No matter how expensive the wine, its destiny is to become urine. No matter how noble the ideology, the destiny of its Party line is to become a downward spiral. No matter how admirable the -ism, its destiny is to degenerate from charlatanism to gangsterism. 2. Only those who think of themselves as indestructible attempt to destroy an idea and they are invariably destroyed by the idea. 3. I say what I think not because I am paid a regular salary or hope to enhance my power and prestige, but because I have had enough of lies and charlatans and I have no affection for bloodsuckers and gravediggers. 4. Foreign scholars have praised our art, architecture, and music, even our mountains, rivers, and valleys. But, as far as I know, none of them has ever said anything remotely kind about our statesmanship. When Avedik Issahakian said: "We have been cursed with natural disasters, bloodthirsty neighbors, and brainless leaders," he was saying something very similar. 5. I see my countrymen as a tiny fraction of mankind, and I am on the side of the exploited and oppressed. Between a hungry man and a fat-bellied slob, my sympathies will always be with the hungry even if he happens to be a Turk and the fat one a bishop. When General Antranik declared: "I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed," he meant something very similar too.

Thursday, November 22, 2001 ******************************* 1. When a man who has never experienced fascism speaks of fascism, he is like a blind man discussing modern art. 2. Misanthropy: When you start wondering why some people are alive. 3. History repeats itself because men repeat themselves. This rule has only one exception: Armenian pundits. 4. A man who cannot admit error cannot accept his humanity. 5. Under fascism people are divided into bullies and cowards. Democracy grants more options: one can be a charlatan or a dupe; also an honest man who is not persecuted when he declares: "A plague on both your houses!" 6. Some people collect stamps or coins. I collect insults. But I am not complaining. I am one of the lucky. Many others never made it to middle age. Any day now I will be knocking at the gate of senility. A senile Armenian writer! That must be a first. I might even earn a citation in the Guinness Book of Records. 7. To my anti-American friends, the serpent in the Garden of Eden was a CIA agent in disguise. To my anti-Semitic friends, Attila the Hun, Ivan the Terrible, and Jack the Ripper were Jews.

Wednesday, November 21, 2001 *********************************** 1. The problem with America is that it is run by politicians. Barbers, taxi drivers and Armenian pundits could do a better jobs. But barbers are too busy cutting hair, taxi drivers are too busy driving cabs, and Armenian pundits are too busy obstructing the path of those who are trying to solve Armenian problems. 2. When on the wrong side of an argument, an Armenian is unbeatable. 3. To be critical of America: nothing easier. Even Americans are critical of America. But mullah-inspired and recycled anti-Americanism reminds me of sharks circling and waiting for traces of blood to appear in the water. As for Armenian anti-Americanism: the expression "hungry Armenian" is beginning to acquire a new dimension for me. 4. It has been said that, where there is a problem, people are divided into those who are part of the problem or part of the solution. If so far we have failed to solve our problems it’s because we are all on the side of the solution but of which problem? -- that’s where we disagree.

PRESENT COMPANY SUSPECTED (MYSELF INCLUDED) ******************************************************** 1. It takes fanatics to commit massacres and it takes fanatics to survive them. To an anti-American Armenian the USA is another Ottoman Empire. 2. There are some contradictions whose intent is not to prove you wrong but to wear you down. 3. An Armenian discussion forum is not a society of mutual admiration but a vipers nest of reciprocal venom. 4. You can't reason with fanatics. Zohrab tried it with Talaat and we all know what happened to him. We also know what happened to Talaat. Which may suggest that fanaticism is not always a guarantee for a long and happy life. 5. Losers don't like being losers, so they invent a myth in which they portray themselves as winners and after a while they confuse myth with reality. 6. My anti-American friends tell me God is pro-Arab. Not being on intimate terms with the Good Lord I have no idea where He stands on that issue. But whenever God is mentioned in a political argument I wish I had a revolver so that I could reach for it. 7. To how many of my fellow Armenians I could say: Just because you and I are Armenians, don't think we share anything in common. 8. When an Armenian decides to disagree with you, he will do so even when he knows he is no longer making any sense. 9. After being an Armenian all my life I am now busy discovering what it means to be a human being. I no longer waste my time to think about Armenianism. Let those who preach Armenianism define it. Even better, let them stop practicing Ottomanism. 10. There is a saying in Africa: "You chop, my self I chop, palaver finish." Translation: You do your thing. I do my thing. And that’s the end of the story. Armenian discussions in a nut shell. Armenian history in a nutshell.

quote:Originally posted by Boghos: Sylva Kaputikian is a for hire semi-literate intellectual. A shame, no doubt. However passing that rigorous a judgement wouldn´t be justified were it not for the fact that she remained a Stalinist much longer after Stalin´s death. She also took advantage of government sponsored travel in order to reward the diaspora with her incomparable gifts when it came to declamation. You know that Khachaturian wrote an Ode to Stalin ? She was also an agent of the KGB -- like all writers who were members of the Writers' Union, and as such it was her sworn duty to denounce anyone (especially other writers) who strayed from the path. We have no idea how many writers she denounced but we will on the day the Armenian KGB files are returned to Yerevan from Kiev, where they have been transferred I think. / ara

PARALLEL LIVES ************************** Anna Akhmatova and Sylva Kaputikian. Two Soviet poets: the first anti-Soviet, the second pro-Soviet. Anna was labeled "a half-nun, half whore," by the Kremlin and refused publication. How did she survive? Barely -- but members of her family didn't. (When Stalin didn't like you, he didn't always kill you: he killed your family.) Sylva was translated into Russian, was awarded the Stalin Prize, became a best-seller and earned several million rubles in royalties. In her voluminous travel impressions she portrayed the world as a place in need of Soviet enlightenment. Speaking of life under Stalin, Anna Akhmatova wrote: "It was a time when only the dead smiled, / happy in their peace." After the collapse of the Soviet regime, Sylva portrayed herself as a Soviet dissident. The whole world reads and respects Anna Akhmatova. Who reads Sylva Kaputikian? A handful of Armenian dupes, not all of them Ramgavars. And if you want to know why, read the memoirs of Stalin’s daughter, where she writes: "Stalin is gone but his shadow still stands over all of us. It still dictates to us and we, very often, obey."

LATER THE SAME DAY ******************************** 1. When I was young I never agreed with my elders, but what they said remained with me and one day, many years later, I discovered how spectacularly wrong I had been. I would like to write letters to them and apologize but most of them are dead and the rest I have lost track. 2. America is bad, bad, bad, we are reminded; but is the rest of the world better? The rest of the world does not claim to be the best, we are told. No, that’s right. The rest of the world doesn't say that. What the rest of the world says is, God is on our side. Justice is on our side. Truth is on our side. And moral superiority is on our side too…. 3. If you agree with me once or twice a year, that should be good enough for both of us. Remember the right and forget or discard the wrong. Only God is always right, but so far He has refused to take side. 4. Turks slaughter with yataghans, Armenians with words. Turks slaughter Armenians, Armenians slaughter Armenians. 5. I don't judge my friends. I don't even judge my friends’ friends – even when they happen to be carcinogenic agents.

Sunday, November 18, 2001 ******************************* 1. There are people who take care of number one and to hell with the tribe. Others take care of the tribe and to hell with the nation. There are also people who take care of the nation because they know in doing so they will take of the tribes within that nation and themselves. You may now draw your own conclusions. 2. One of the advantages of being an Armenian writer is that no one overestimates you. On the contrary, they go out of their way to underestimate and even insult you; they even reduce you to dust and like dust you have no choice but to rise. 3. Both the strong and the weak believe God is on their side; but the strong can prove it, whereas the weak can only hope and pray…. 4. Both the rich and the poor believe God is on their side but the poor believe it because they have been brainwashed to believe it by religious leaders who are hirelings of the rich. 5. To be an Armenian means to talk tough and to kick ass: to talk tough about the Turks and to kick Armenian ass.

DEFINING RACISM ************************* When T.E. Lawrence, in his analysis of the Arab mindset uses such descriptive terms as "dogmatic," "tribal," and even "repellent," is he being racist or objective? When Raffi writes, "Treason and betrayal are in our blood," is he being racist or honest? When Zarian confides in his diary, "Armenians survive by cannibalizing one another," is he being racist or critical? Even more to the point: Are Lawrence, Raffi, and Zarian expressing concern or being hostile? When a chauvinist emphasizes the positive and covers up the negative, is he being honest, objective and impartial or self-serving, deceitful or racist? ON RACISM / 2 ******************** 1. The more a man identifies himself as a member of a specific religion, nation or tribe, and the more he forgets being a member of the human race, the more he dehumanizes himself in the eyes of his fellow men. Likewise, the more he labels his fellow men as members of a specific race, color or creed, the closer he gets to being a racist. 2. Biologically speaking, all men are 99% alike. To stress the 1% at the expense of the 99% is racist. 3. Chauvinism and racism might as well be synonymous. 4. Racism is charlatanism compounded by moronism.

NOTES / COMMENTS ***************************** 1.Whenever I am urged to give ‘em hell, I am tempted to quote Truman: "I don't give ‘em hell. All I do is speak the truth and they think they are in hell." 2.Lust for power is as base as subservience. 3.No one can be as dumb as he who has assessed himself as smart. 4.The worst American politician is better than the best mullah, ayatollah, sultan, or tyrant if only because he won a majority vote and he is accountable to the people as opposed to himself alone or Allah. 5.Nothing can obstruct one’s vision as effectively as a bloated ego. 6.Nothing would give me as much pleasure as loving my enemy because nothing would give him as much pain.

U$A / 2 ****************** 1. When on Sept. 11 Palestinians danced with joy at what had happened in New York and Washington, they did so not because they hated America but because they were misled to believe they did by their ignorant mullahs. There is some degree of ignorance in all anti-Americanism. I speak from experience. I too was anti-American most of my life. 2. It is the easiest thing in the world to hate America by concentrating on its negative aspects and ignoring the positives; and one doesn't have to look hard to find the negatives because America will point them out long before its enemies do. 3. For a while it was fashionable to hate America in the name of an ideology, such as Communism or Nazism, all of which have been exposed as morally and politically bankrupt and have been discarded on the garbage dump of history. But nothing evil ever dies. Stalinism and Hitlerism have now been replaced with Muslim fundamentalism or jihadism. What could be more absurd than a Christian hating America in the name of Islam? 4. It has been said that there are more Jews in New York than in Israel. But I think that’s a myth. It has also been said that there are 6 million Irish in Ireland but 60 million in America. But I suspect that’s another myth. There are also millions of Arabs, Armenians and Turks, and they all live side by side in peace. They may write the occasional angry letters to the editor or engage in debate on radio or TV but that’s as far as things go. This is an important positive aspect about America that anti-Americans choose to ignore and because they ignore it they condemn themselves to misunderstand America. 5. United States of America could also be called United Races. Colors, and Creeds of the World. America represents the world and mankind as a whole more than any other nation on earth. To hate America is to hate mankind. 6. To those who say "We don't hate Americans, only America’s foreign policy," I say: "What if its foreign policy enjoys 90% popular support? Does that mean you hate only 90% of Americans and love only the balance?"

THREE ASSERTIONS ************************* 1. A decent man is my brother even if he happens to be a Turk. A bloodsucker is my enemy even if he happens to be an Armenian. As for charlatans and their dupes: they might as well be interchangeable units and as such a race apart. 2. I believe American policy-makers are fundamentally decent and able men who, unlike the Pope of Rome, commit occasional blunders. Even so, they try to do their best in an imperfect world at the mercy of despots, sultans, mullahs, ayatollahs and assorted rascals with the ethics of compulsive liars and the bloodthirsty instincts of serial killers. Theirs is not an easy task, as anyone who has ever tried to do the right thing in a crooked environment knows. In a world where Socrates was poisoned, Christ crucified, and Gandhi assassinated, what chance does a decent mortal have? 3. The only thing my fellow Armenians and I agree on is that our feelings are mutual. I don't care much about them and they don't give a damn about me. So much so that if they choose to go to the devil √ and so far they appear to have decided to do exactly that √ I will not stand in their way┘not because I don't want to stand in their way but because Armenians who have made up their minds are unteachable as well as unreachable.

ON AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY **************************************** The question is often raised: Why does American support corrupt despots? I shall try to answer this question not as a pundit but as a layman who follows the news and the occasional debate on TV and has read a handful of books on the subject. America has fought a murderous world war against dictators. The only time it has supported corrupt despots is when the alternative would have been dealing with a hostile Communist-style regime in the manner of Castro. But if America democratized Japan and Germany, why not the Arabs and the Latinos? If America thrusts democracy on despotic regime, the very same people who now criticize it for supporting despots, would criticize it for interfering in the internal affairs of countries and violating their traditional and cultural values. Besides, according to a recent widely read study (Francis Fukuyama's THE END OF HISTORY) all totalitarian systems are moving in the direction of democracy on their own, very much like the countries of the USSR, because it is becoming clear that individual freedom is the most reliable and enduring source of strength (a truism that was known to the ancient Greeks 2500 years ago). For more on the complexities American foreign policy, see Kissinger's Memoirs (in several thick volumes). Please note that Kissinger's mindset is not American but Continental. Two of his role models are Talleyrand (a minister of foreign affairs under Napoleon and Louis XVIII) and Toynbee (the historian who authored several books on Turks and Armenians). For the complexities of Middle-Eastern affairs, see T.E. Lawrence's SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM. Far from being an adventures story, this is a highly erudite work that bristles with detail. Even better, compare American foreign policy to that of any empire known to man - from the Roman to the Ottoman and Soviet - or nation of Europe or Asia, from Franco's Spain and Mussolini's Italy, to Hitler's Germany, De Gaulle's France, and Levon Der Bedrossian's Armenia

TALAAT & CO. *********************** On several occasions readers have pointed out to me that Armenians have many reasons to distrust Jews, one of them being that the Young Turks were Jews from Salonica. According to T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, author of THE SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM: "The shallow and half-polished committee of the Young Turks were descendants of Greeks, Albanians, Circassians, Bulgars, Armenians, Jews – anything but Seljuks or Ottomans." I suppose this may also explain why Armenians have more than one reason to distrust their fellow Armenians in view of the fact that Sultan Abdulhamid II was half-Armenian on his mother’s side. To my anti-Semitic friends I say: Lust for power is thicker, much thicker, than blood. If you want to distrust a category or group, distrust, even loathe and hate, politicians or partisans who are motivated not to serve their fellow men as public servants but to satisfy their lust for power.

TRIBALISM OBSERVED ******************************** Lawrence of Arabia was infatuated with the Arabs; but in his SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM he analyzes them so objectively that he might as well be speaking of Armenians towards whom he felt no affinity. The Arabs, he tells us, view the world in "primary colors, or rather [in] black and white." They are dogmatic. They despise doubt. They deal only in certainties, in truth or untruth, belief and unbelief. Their thoughts are "at ease only in extremes." They don't think with their brains but with their instincts. They don't trust institutions, only individuals. He further speaks of their "hardness of belief, almost mathematical in its limitations and repellent in its unsympathetic form." They are "a limited, narrow-minded people. They invented no systems of philosophy." They were easily manipulated by the Turks who "led them by subtle dissension to distrust one another." This book was published in 1926 and has been translated and read in many languages. Which is why I smile whenever I am urged not to hang our dirty linen in public. To think that there are still "smart" Armenians (self-assessed, of course) who think we don't stand naked in the world.

KABUL HAS FALLEN ************************************* 1.There are so many parallels between what's happening in Afghanistan today and what happened in Armenia after World War I: I wonder, why is it that none of our pundits speaks of them? 2.Tribal people condemn themselves to perpetual ignorance and survive only as perennial losers simply because they refuse to learn from the lessons of history. 3.Tribal people brag about their heroes and martyrs, their idealism,courage, and dedication to principles; sometimes even about how smart they are; but they are too ignorant and backward to see that there is no such thing as a tribal principle: only tribal charlatanism. 4.Tribal people know how to hate the enemy, but what they know even better is how to hate their own kind. The Armenian Assembly speaks of reconciliation with the Turks. Will it ever speak of reconciliation with the ARF? Shortly after World War I, the ARF itself spoke of reconciliation with the Turks. What about reconciliation with the Armenian Assembly? So far I have not heard even a whisper in that direction. 5.Like all tribal people, we love to mourn our countless heroes and martyrs but even as we mourn we alienate many more and refuse to see that as far as the nation is concerned, they too (the alienated and assimilated) are casualties √ casualties not of war and massacre, but of our own tribal charlatanism.

NOTES / COMMENTS ***************************** 1.If your opponent is a man of reason, you may reason and come to terms with him. But if he is a man of unreason, he my misinterpret your appeals to his reason as weakness and redouble his efforts to achieve total victory (his) and complete destruction (yours). I speak from experience. I write for Armenians. 2.Twenty years ago I wrote a book in which I flattered our collective ego. It became a best-seller. I no longer write books because I know something I didn't know then: It is better to read a good book than to write a bad one. 3.Between fame and indifference to fame, I consider the second as the greater and more valuable possession. 4.The worst thing about being an Armenian writer is being read and insulted by imbeciles. The best thing is being read and insulted by imbeciles too -- and knowing that at another time and place they would have betrayed you to the Ottoman or the Soviet police.

LIVE AND LOYN ******************** 1. According to the Soviet historian Ivan Ivanovich Popov (b. 1911), author of the widely used textbooks THE ORIGINS OF CAPITALISM ( 617 pages. Index. Bibliography. Moscow, 1938) and THE HISTORY OF MANKIND FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE PRESENT (589 pages. Illustrated. Index. Bibliography. Stalingrad, 1949), Abel was assassinated by agents of the Mossad and Cain was framed with the connivance of the CIA. 2. According to the Muslim historian Ibrahim Abdullah Haivanoghlu (b. 1922) the War of Troy - the one described by Homer in his celebrated epic poem THE ILIAD was instigated by American foreign policy. What really happened was this: In their unending search for new markets, the Americans wanted access to the Black Sea, and when the Trojans refused to cooperate, agents of the CIA abducted Helen and spread the rumor Paris had done it. The Greeks declared war against Troy even though they were fully aware of the fact that Paris couldn't have done it for the simple reason that he was a homosexual. But the Greeks declared war anyway because Washington had promised them a fat foreign aid package, which they needed badly on account of tourism (Greece's main source of foreign currency today) not having been invented yet┘. 3. According to the celebrated Armenian-American philosopher Jack S. Avanakian (b. 1919), mankind may be divided into two categories: the fools and fanatics on the one hand, and on the other, the slightly less foolish and fanatical. As for the reasonable moderates and the wise: they are like Nessie - the Loch Ness monster: everyone has heard about them but no one has actually seen one.

FASCISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY ************************************* Anti-intellectualism is one of the main pillars of fascism. Fascist regimes systematically exterminate or force into exile their best brains. By forcing scientists like Einstein and Fermi to emigrate to America, fascists handed the Allies a military victory which could have been theirs. The difference between fascism and democracy is about the same as the difference between tolerance and intolerance, victory and defeat, and ultimately life and death. A more democratic and less Stalinist USSR would have made of Marxism a far more universally popular ideology. Tribalism is authoritarian, elitist, undemocratic. Tribalism also means division, fragmentation, and fascism. Tribalism does not have to be defeated because it defeats itself. My own personal loathing of fascism is such that I have no doubt whatever in my mind that a dictator is more dangerous than a thousand serial killers, and fascists do not represent the people, only its criminal and lunatic fringe.

MY PRINCE ********************** Dissidents and critics like Chomsky are an asset to any society, culture, or power structure; but as a citizen I would feel very uncomfortable if they were to occupy positions of power. I would hate to see someone like Chomsky in charge of American foreign or domestic policy, or, for that matter, in charge of anything except a course in linguistics. I have nothing against academics as such. But when it comes to foreign policy, I would prefer a historian to a linguist; and when it comes to economic policy, I would prefer an economist to a musicologist or theologian. My ideal political leader is just an ordinary joe with at least two competent advisers in every department or branch, provided of course they represent different schools of thought. As for charismatic leaders with messianic ambitions: I divide them into two and they both spell trouble: the lucky megalomaniacs (like Alexander the Great and Napoleon), and the unlucky ones (like Hitler and Saddam Hussein), who make a name for themselves at the expense of countless nameless victims.