as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Friday, April 20, 2007

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AN ESSAY THAT COMES WITH A WARNING

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In what follows I speak only for myself and all those who brought me up to hate Turks. Repeat: none of the sentiments and thoughts expressed here applies to our Turcocentric pundits and miscellaneous baloney artists who, very much like all baloney artists, speak with a forked tongue when they say they hate no one, they only ask for what is theirs.

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What does it take to understand a nation? The jury of historians and psychologists is out on that one, because, like individuals and human nature in general, nations are bundles of contradiction. They harbor within them the best and the worst. It is the easiest thing in the world to love or hate them by selecting and cataloguing their crimes or selfless heroic deeds and triumphs over adversity – an academic field of enquiry favorite by nationalist historians.

It may be flattering to our vanity to divide mankind into two, the good (us and our friends) and the bad (our enemies and their partisans). But how objective or valid is it? If we paint ourselves all white and our enemies all black, we shouldn’t be surprised if they do the same. Do we judge Germans by Bach and Beethoven or by Hitler and the Holocaust?

By repeating ad nauseam as we do that we are the victims and they are the victimizers, we may eventually end up convincing ourselves that we can do no wrong even as we behave like swine.

Zohrab observes somewhere that there are as many kinds of Armenians as there are environments in which they live. So that an Ottomanized Armenian and a Frenchified Armenian are as different from one another as a Turk is from a Frenchman – assuming of course there is such a thing as a typical Turk or Frenchman.

“Betrayed by an Armenian, he was saved by a Turk.” I remember to have heard or read this sentence somewhere in reference to Gomidas (Komitas) Vartabed. To make sure my memory is not deceiving me, I consult a recent biography, where I read the following: “Komitas’s opponents [among them Patriarch of Istanbul Ghevont Turian] contacted the Turkish secret police and falsely accused him of including politically subversive songs in his concert program.” (Rita Soulahian Kuyumjian, ARCHEOLOGY OF MADNESS: KOMITAS – PORTRAIT OF AN ARMENIAN ICON [Princeton, NJ], Gomidas Institute, page 74.)

Speaking of religious faith, Sartre says somewhere: “We believe that we believe, but we don’t believe. Likewise, we may believe that we understand Turks and Armenians, but we don’t.

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[ara baliozian]

Saturday, April 21, 2007

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WHY I WRITE THE WAY I WRITE

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Whenever I see someone’s two cents’ worth on my monitor, I am provoked into posting my own one-cent’s worth. If that’s vainglorious, I plead guilty as charged.

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There are many good Armenians, concerned readers remind me once in a while, but I keep harping on the bad ones thus projecting a bad image. Image is a PR concern and I have no desire to muscle in their territory. My concern is elsewhere. My concern is the nation’s direction. If you read our writers from Khorenatsi (5th century) to Zarian (20th) you may notice they too were concerned with the same thing.

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Good Armenians exist in the same way that good Turks do. But these good men are not represented in Yerevan and Ankara. There may even be good bosses, bishops, and benefactors, but they are as much at the mercy of their bad counterparts as the rest of us who are in no position to change the direction of our collective destiny.

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Those who oppose the war in Iraq today are convinced the Bush administration is ego-driven, misinformed, and wrong, in addition to being corrupt and incompetent. That doesn’t mean everyone in the executive branch is rotten. None of us can predict the future. If tomorrow or next month or year the Middle East is democratized, I am sure everyone will rejoice – everyone, including those who oppose the surge today. Likewise, if one of these days or before I drop dead, our leaders see the light and change direction, I will be the happiest Armenian alive. But until then I will continue to be critical of our charlatans and dupes who in the name of misguided patriotism try to convince us we are in good hands and Turks are the source of all evil.

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Finally, I don’t write against anyone. I write against the self-centered, prejudiced ignoramus that I was, and according to some of my gentle reader, I still am.

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Because I speak of tolerance I am accused of being intolerant. Because I speak against the knee-jerk anti-Turkism of our Turcocentric pundits, I am accused of being anti-Armenian. That’s not criticism. That’s infantile nonsense. And remember: bad leaders have ruined empires; bad writers – in addition to being unreadable -- have harmed no one but themselves.

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, April 22, 2007

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WANTED: A MESSIAH

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Those who see the best in themselves will tend to see the worst in others. We all need scapegoats. Turks are ours, and we are theirs. Naregatsi – our Dante and Shakespeare combined – saw the worst in himself but the best in God, who, he said, would forgive all his sins not because he deserved His forgiveness but because His love knew no bounds. And then there are those who say, we all swim in the same soup; there is good and evil in all of us. It’s all a question of perspective. Talaat is a statesman of vision to them and the worst villain that ever crawled between heaven and earth to us. Or, as the African chieftain is quoted as having said to C.G. Jung: “When my enemy steals my wives, it’s bad. When I steal his, it’s good.”

Sometimes I am told I am on the wrong path, my efforts are misguided. I should change my style, way of thinking, and attitude towards my fellow Armenians. Instead of seeing the worst in them I should see the best, emphasize the good, stress the positive, ignore the negative. I find it hard to believe that we have failed as a nation because our writers failed in their mission. The history of our literature goes back 1500 years during which we have produced an astonishing variety of writers, some of whom, like Khorenatsi, pointed out our shortcomings, others saw the best in us (Abovian), still others (like Baronian and Odian) saw the worst; and then there is Raffi, who saw the best as well as the worst. Even more revealing is the case of Zarian, who began his brilliant literary career by calling us the real chosen people and concluded it by saying we survive by cannibalizing one another.

Do we really need a messianic figure with a new style and belief system that will set us on the right path? Speaking for myself, I don’t believe in messiahs and quick fixes. I believe in self-criticism more than in criticism. This may explain why sometimes I am perceived as anti-Armenian and pro-Turkish. To be misunderstood, rejected, silenced, and ignored: so what else is new?

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[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

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THE TRIUMPH OF MEDIOCRITY

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Nothing can be more misleading than to approach reality with received or preconceived notions, especially notions cunningly and carefully chosen by those in power to flatter our collective ego and to cover up their mediocrity. If you want to understand your fellow Armenians or, for that matter, your fellow men, begin with yourself and forget what you were taught as a child. The first step in all learning is unlearning.

Instead of bragging about being the first nation to convert to Christianity, ask yourself: “How good a Christian am I?” Next question to ask: if our ruling classes saw the light and converted to Christianity at the beginning of the 4th Century, they just as readily saw the darkness and converted to atheism in the 20th. What are we to make of that?

By teaching us to brag, our leaders hope to convince us we are in good hands and we have nothing to worry about, when the exact opposite is the case.

We brag about our survival in order to forget that most of us, including the best and the brightest, did not survive.

If we assume the invisible and hostile forces of history (assuming of course such forces are not within us but in a realm beyond our reach and control), had targeted us for extinction but only a few of us managed to survive, we could just as easily assume that, with less mediocre, corrupt, incompetent, and divided leaders not seven but seventy million of us could have survived. Very probably there are more than seventy million Armenians today, but most of them prefer to identify themselves as Americans, Hungarians, Italians, Bulgarians, Russians, even Kurds and Turks.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying there is something fundamentally wrong with our DNA. We are people like any other people. We have produced many great leaders, even leaders of mighty empires, and I don’t mean Dikran, the so-called,“Great” and his Mickey Mouse ephemeral empire. Oswald Spengler, one of the greatest historians of the 20th century has called such an Armenian leader (Basil I, founder of the greatest dynasty in the Byzantine Empire) “a Napoleonic figure.” And Toynbee, the other great historian of our time, has written a huge scholarly biography of Basil’s son and successor, Constantine Porphyrogenitus.

What I am saying here is that, where mediocrities are in charge, excellence will be persecuted; where crooks are in charge, honesty will be anathema; where fascists are in charge, the rule of law and accountability will be seen as unpatriotic; and where the unprincipled are in charge, opportunism will be the norm.

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[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

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IDEAS IN HISTORY

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Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were Greeks; the prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus were Jewish. And yet, the history of Greeks and Jews has been a concatenation of defeats, tragedies, and oppression. Now then, go ahead and blame Khorenatsi and Naregatsi, or Raffi, Baronian, and Zarian for all our problems.

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Trying to change a situation without first understanding it is like trying to put out a forest fire with a bottle of soda water.

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Some people have been traveling on the road of dishonesty for such a long time that honesty appears to them as cynicism, objectivity as charlatanism, and straight talk as venom.

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If Turkish denialists question the reality of the Genocide, we deny the depth of our malaise. There are those who think, if a handful of dedicated individuals with good intentions get busy within our communities, we have an excellent chance to extricate ourselves from the abyss. Inevitably, they reach the conclusion that things are not as easy as they thought they would be and they give up in disgust. Their line of thinking goes something like this: If I can be more useful to my fellow men in an alien environment, why bother with a bunch of ingrates who, in Zarian’s assessment, “survive by cannibalizing one another”?

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Instead of saying my assessment of our present situation is inaccurate, they call me, at best, a pessimist, and, at worst, a charlatan.

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The trouble with being brainwashed is that you become fixed in your thinking; you cannot move ahead or go beyond of what you think you think, and when it comes to thinking, what matters above all is going beyond and moving ahead.

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[ara baliozian]

Thursday, April 26, 2007

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THE ABUSES OF IDEALS

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To some misguided patriots, nationalism may appear as a noble, even a necessary, ideology; but like all ideologies (from Christianity to Marxism) it has had and will continue to have its share of abusers and perverts. Talaat was a nationalist, Stalin a Marxist, and Torquemada a Christian. Does that mean we should suspect all ideals and principles? Of course not! What we should suspect is power, doubletalk, and propaganda. That’s where critics come in, and that’s why brainwashed dupes are their greatest adversaries.

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All power is suspect; but even more suspect is the apathy of the average, well-intentioned, law-abiding citizen who thinks he is in good hands, and that those in power will leave him alone as long as he doesn’t dirty his hands by getting involved in politics. The root of all major tragedies may be traced to this mindset.

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The reason why I target Armenians rather than Turks for criticism is that there are better men than myself engaged in criticizing their fellow Turks. Another reason, attacking Turks has become a lucrative sport with our Turcocentric pundits and academics, whose aim is not so much to expose Turkish criminal conduct but to cover up our own. Besides, an Armenian criticizing Turks will not have much of an audience in Turkey; not that he will have much of an audience among Armenians, which may well be another thing we share with Turks, namely, a visceral, not to say, Ottoman intolerance of all dissent.

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[ara baliozian]

Friday, April 27, 2007

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PAST AS PROLOGUE

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A few years ago Church Unity was the hot topic in our press. There was an endless stream of commentaries, polemics, and letters to the editor. Everybody was for it, it seems. Both proponents of unity and the two sides in the controversy agreed that unity was an important goal and the sooner it was reached the better for all concerned. In the end nothing was done because both sides kept stonewalling. As a result, the controversy died down not to rise again. I suspect something similar will happen to the Genocide issue. It’s our style – the Ottoman way.

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OLD TIME RELIGION

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In a democratic environment there are investigative reporters and the loyal opposition whose combined job is to contradict, criticize, and expose corruption within the executive. Where are our investigative reporters? Where is our loyal opposition? Throughout our millennial existence, did we ever have them? When some of my gentle readers identify me as an enemy of the people who takes his marching orders from Ankara, what they really mean is, we have no use for democracy and human rights like free speech. The Ottoman way is good enough for us.

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[ara baliozian]

Saturday, April 28, 2007

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BEN BAGDIKIAN ON U.S. MEDIA

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“Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach’s SAINT MATTHEW PASSION on a ukulele.”

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“The central function of journalism is to permit a more valid view of reality.”

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“Arguers against change like to say, 'You can’t legislate morals,' but it is hard to convince me that authority figures can’t evoke more humane attitudes, just as they obviously do the opposite.”

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“Our major media probably offer the narrowest range of ideas available in any developed democracy.”

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One point in favor of the American press: it has produced a major investigative reporter like Ben Bagdikian. Now then, name if you can a single Armenian journalist – and I don’t mean ghazetaji. I could name several who were rudely silenced by mediocrities whose “greatest enemy is free speech” (Zarian).

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, April 29, 2007

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THAT WHICH MAKES US WHAT WE ARE

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Being a human being is a privilege as well as a responsibility. Being a member of a group – be it club, party, tribe, nation, or race – promotes a herd mentality, which means, it allows one to behave like swine with a clear conscience.

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We have been divided, conquered, and ruled so often and for such a long time that dividing ourselves has become part of our behavioral DNA to such a degree that most of us see nothing wrong or remotely questionable in it. Even when no one divides us, we divide ourselves. I will know things are about to change only when we reverse this trend. Until then I will consider all talk of progress as empty verbiage whose sole intent is to deceive the deaf, blind, and stupid.

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Explanations may be transferable, understanding is not.

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For everyone who says one thing, there will be another who says something else or the exact opposite. Next time you meet a boss, bishop, or benefactor, ask him why he belongs or prefers to support group A rather than group B. You may notice that he will parrot received ideas and clichés. That’s one reason why I suspect anyone who places his nationality or ideology ahead of his humanity.

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[ara baliozian]

Monday, April 30, 2007

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PROFILE OF A GOOD ARMENIAN

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The more patriotic an Armenian, the more clearly defined his views on what it means to be a good Armenian; and no one can be as intolerant as an Armenian with clearly defined black-and-white views who believes truth and God to be on his side.

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An intolerant Armenian is a dogmatic and self-righteous Armenian of the you-are-either-with-me-or-against-me variant; and if you are against me you might as well pro-Turkish. Such an Armenian is a divider. His nationalism is disguised tribalism, and his patriotism a sham. And here is the irony: an intolerant Armenian is an Ottomanized Armenian, and an Ottomanized Armenian is an oxymoron (emphasis on the last two syllables). Which simply means, he is neither Armenian nor Ottoman. He is as programmed and fixed in his views and reactions as a robot. When he thinks, he doesn’t feel; and when he feels, he doesn’t think.

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An authentic Armenian is also an authentic human being. Think of the profound humanity, even universality, of our folk songs, liturgical music, and religious architecture that date back to a time when we were free and not yet contaminated by Ottoman venom and Levantine filth.

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When asked by English friends if he was really an Armenian, Michael Arlen is quoted as having said (I quote from memory): “Who would want to identify himself as an Armenian [or make such a painful admission] if it weren’t true?”

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The thought that comes naturally to all Armenians: “If he is Armenian, he is sure to be second rate.” Or, “If he is one of us, he is bound to be a loser and a mediocrity.” Which may explain why someone of Oshagan’s stature dismissed Zarian as a plagiarist without providing a single shred of evidence. And when Shahnour, quoting chapter and verse, proved Siamanto to be a plagiarist and Zartarian a second-rater, he was accused of being anti-Armenian and at one point publicly thrashed by superior type patriots. That’s what I call Ottomanism in action.

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Please note that everything I have said so far is based on self-analysis. If it doesn’t apply to you, feel free to consider yourself a good Armenian, an exemplary human being, and a role model.

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[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

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THE PUNCH LINE

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If you want to know what it means to be an Armenian, read our writers, the explorers of our psyche. As for the sermons of our bishops and speeches of our bosses and their assorted hirelings, they all lead to the same predictable punch line, “mi kich pogh oughargetsek” (send us a little money).

What happens to the money after they get it? Only they know. Accountability is not in our DNA. Once, when an editor in Los Angeles exposed the corruption within one of our political parties, he was beaten within an inch of his life.

I wonder how some of my readers would react if I were to add that punch line to everything I write. My guess is, they will tell me to shut up, mind my own business, and leave them alone. They are saying as much now, when it hasn’t even crossed my imagination to make any demands on them. In their view, there is only one thing wrong with our community life, namely, malcontents like me who have an eye only for the negative.

Corruption? Sure, we have our share of it, who doesn’t?

Incompetence? Ditto.

Critics? Well, yes, they too are everywhere, but we’d rather not have them, you see. We’d rather not be reminded we are people like any other people. We’d much rather be told we are special, we are unique, and we have nothing to worry about because we are in good hands.

When on the eve of the Genocide, Krikor Zohrab predicted the coming catastrophe, he wasn’t believed. “Zohrab effendi is exaggerating,” they said. If the Great Powers of the West and the Good Lord are on our side, what could possibly go wrong?

The support of the Great Powers was of course only verbal, and the Good Lord has at no time shown any inclination to interfere in our affairs, but we prefer to be brainwashed to believe otherwise and to ignore, and whenever possible, to silence the pessimists who see only the dark side of things.

Please note that, seven years after the Genocide, history repeated itself. Armenians of Smyrna were brainwashed by their bishop to believe they had nothing to worry about and that Ataturk was a friend. And what was bound to happen, happened.

Who was that particular bishop and what happened to him? As they say, thereby hangs a tale. He was none other then the very same Ghevont Tourian (1879-1933), (brother of poet Bedros Tourian) who had betrayed Gomidas Vartabed to the Turkish secret police. In the SOVIET-ARMENIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA (volume 3, page 462) we read the following: “Because of his patriotic activities, Tourian was persecuted by members of the ARF (Tashnagtsoutiun) and knifed to death on 24 December 1933 in the Holy Cross Church of New York.”

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[ara baliozian]

 

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

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TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

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Gentle reader:

If you have had enough of my nonsense, please feel free to spam or block me. It’s easy – all it takes is a fraction of a second. No need to ask me to remove your name from my address book when your name has at no time been there to begin with. Nothingness cannot be removed. Thank you! / ara

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ON THE ROLE OF INTELLECTUALS

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Where fascists enter, intellectuals exit.

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“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Everyone is familiar with this line from the Bible. It’s not only common knowledge, it’s also common sense – the least common of all faculties, it has been said. For 1500 years our intellectuals have been trying to convince our leadership that “solidarity is the mother of good deeds, divisiveness of evil ones” (Yeghishe). And yet, we stand as divided today as we were in the 5th Century. This may explain why even our-dime-a-dozen pundits are smart enough to concentrate their efforts on reasoning with Turks: deep down they know they have a better change with them than with our own.

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The role of intellectuals? Sound and fury signifying nothing. I rest my case. Nothing further, your honor!

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A final question: Why go on writing when the written word will change nothing? Can anyone in his right mind be megalomaniacal enough to entertain the hope that what he says or writes matters in our environment? Has anyone of our bosses, bishops, and benefactors ever come close to admitting to have been on the wrong track or to have behaved not as a servant of the people or of God but as a Master accountable to none but himself?

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The role of intellectuals? Unmask the swindlers and even if you give them insomnia for a fraction of a second, consider your mission accomplished.

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I quoted Yeghishe (circa 410-470 AD) above. Allow me to quote him again if I may:

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“We may not be allowed to question the integrity of princes, but neither should we praise men who pit themselves against the Will of God.”

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“In the same way that a man cannot serve two masters, a nation cannot have two kings. If a nation is ruled by two kings, both the kings and their subjects will perish.”

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[ara baliozian]

Thursday, May 03, 2007

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IN SEARCH OF AUTHENTICITY

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Who is an authentic Armenian? I don’t know. No one does.

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During World War I, when Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were being transported from one place to another “for their own safety” (in the Turkish version of the story), Thomas Mann was busy writing a big book, titled REFLECTIONS OF A NON-POLITICAL MAN, in which he attempted to define “the authentic German.” When the book was published, Heinrich Mann, his brother, himself a writer, disagreed with it. Sometime later Thomas Mann himself recognized it as dangerous.

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In his magnum opus, BEING AND NOTHINGNESS, written during World War II, Sartre tells us, men cease to be authentic when they adopt an identity imposed on them by society, and play the part for the rest of their lives. In another book, ANTI-SEMITE AND THE JEW, he advances the theory that the Jew is a creation of the anti-Semite, the way, one might say, the Ottomanized Armenian is a creation of Turks, and the Sovietized Armenian is a creation of the Soviet system.

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Long before Mann and Sartre, Karl Marx explored the concept of dehumanization, which may be said to be the opposite of authenticity. Capital, he said, dehumanizes not only the worker, but also the capitalist, society as a whole, and all social relations. Capital is the real Leviathan.

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At all times and everywhere we are pressured by forces, that are as invisible and omnipresent as the force of gravity, to be not who we are or what we would like to be, but what others want us to be.

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The headline of the editorial in our local paper today reads: “Free people need a free press.” A free press is unthinkable, we read here, “if journalists are restricted from seeking and reporting facts – particularly facts that are embarrassing to someone who is powerful.” And: “People cannot make good decisions if they do not have good information. A democracy cannot exist in an information vacuum.”

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Speaking of our press, one of our Ottomanized benefactors (let’s call him Jack S. Avanakian) and their role models, the Sultan, an editor once recounted the following to me: “He promised to subsidize our paper on condition that I print an article about him with a photo in every issue.” I no longer get that particular weekly but I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if an article with a photo of Jack S. Avanakian appears regularly in every issue. As Brecht used to say: “Grub first, then ethics.”

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[ara baliozian]

Friday, May 04, 2007

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RE-WRITING HISTORY

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Where politics enter, propaganda is sure to follow; and where propaganda enters, truth is bound to be the first casualty. Turks re-write history. So do we. So does everyone else. Imagine, if you can, a history of the United States written from the perspective of native Indians. A Mekhitarist scholar and the foremost Armenian medievalist once told me the Battle of Avarair, the most famous battle in our history, never happened. It’s not just propaganda but pure fabrication by a pro-Mamikonian chronicler. True or false? Draw your own conclusions (or confusions). Speaking of our more recent past: we have as many versions of it as we have political parties. In the eyes of Ramgavars and Bolsheviks, Archbishop Ghevont Tourian was a dedicated patriot, a martyr, and a saint. In the eyes of the opposition he was a cowardly rascal, an unprincipled opportunist, a womanizer, a Stalinist, and a traitor.

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We like to say that if and when the Ottoman archives are opened we will have access to the truth. A Turkish friend tells me the same about Tashnak archives. It seems the Tashnaks have consistently refused to open their archives to scholars. True or false? I plead ignorance. I wasn’t even aware of the existence of these archives.

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Whenever I mention Tourian’s role in Smyrna, my credibility is questioned. About twenty years ago an angry reader threatened to expose my lies by checking with Marjorie Housepian, the foremost authority on the subject. I am still waiting to hear from him. The SOVIET-ARMENIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA states that Tourian was active in “Istanbul, Smyrna, and Manchester,” before his transfer to the U.S. in 1931 “where he attempted to bring together the Armenian-American community under Etchmiadzin.”

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Was Ghevont Tourian Bedros Tourian’s brother? According to the ENCYCLOPEDIA their real name was not Tourian but Zembayan and they were both born in Istanbul. In saying all this I do not claim infallibility on behalf of my sources, let alone myself. I welcome facts that will contradict or question the accuracy of my sources. History is not a belief system but an investigation. If you place your belief system above facts, you contaminate both with prejudice and propaganda.

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[ara baliozian]

Saturday, May 05, 2007

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QUESTIONS

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Who are we?

Where do we come from?

Where are we going?

Is there a single belief system that can answer these questions to the satisfaction of all?

Is it necessary to have answers to these questions in order to lead a productive or creative life?

Did our medieval ancestors have the answers to these questions?

Did they, for that matter, ask them?

What is the place of Turcocentrism in our psyche?

Can Turcocentrism contribute anything positive to our identity?

What if Turcocentrism threatens to turn us into pillars of salt?

What if identity consists not in answering these questions but in the honesty and commitment with which we search for their answers?

What if our identity, like the solution to all our problems, is not a verbal formula accessible to a select few, but a process that consists in rejecting everything that is dishonest, corrupt, and mediocre?

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, May 27, 2007

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SUNDAY MUSINGS

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Turkish and Armenian nationalists have created an environment in which half-Turks and half-Armenians, who may outnumber them, are afraid to identify themselves and be counted.

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There are good Turks as there are bad Armenians. It is up to us to identify them because they will never do so themselves.

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The quintessential dupe is he who believes in his flatterers or in his own assessment of himself.

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Religions, ideologies, cults, propaganda, public relations, advertisements: it seems most of the time the very few who believe in nothing are engaged in deceiving the many who will believe anything.

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Memo to young Armenian writers:

The inflexible law of demand and supply tells us, garbage collectors will always be in greater demand than Armenian writers.

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Einstein: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

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A man with a fragile ego may think the whole world is against him when the world is not even aware of his existence.

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Our imagination and understanding are limited, the complexities of reality limitless. We are often wrong because our actions are based not on reality but on a tiny fraction of it.

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Monday, May 28, 2007

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FROM PROPAGANDA TO PROPHECY

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To a man of faith who believes in his particular ideology or religion, propaganda is not propaganda but a selfless act of generosity, and more particularly, that of sharing the truth, the only source of enlightenment, and the good news. When Cardinal Aghajanian was Vatican’s propaganda minister, the word propaganda was not used. What was used was “propagation of the faith.” Not a faith, but the faith, the implication being, there is only one true belief system, one truth, one god, one messiah, and one church.

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Armenians have disagreed with one another for centuries and they will continue to disagree until the end of time -- if they survive that long. Nothing new in that. What’s new is the verbal abuse. When confronted with the option of saying, “I disagree with you,” and verbal abuse, some of my readers choose verbal abuse. That’s another symptom of our Ottomanism.

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According to Sayre’s Law (after American political scientist Wallace Sayre): “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the stakes at issue.”

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I think it was Nietzsche who said, if you speak too much about fools you are liable to become a fool yourself. One could also say, if an Armenian speaks too much about Turks, he is liable to become a Turk himself, or rather his conception of a Turk, that is, the lowest form of animal life.

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Prophecy consists in adding two plus two and coming up with the obvious answer.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

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THREE BOOKS

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The tree books I am reading are EINSTEIN: HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE by Walter Isaacson (New York, 2007), PLATO’S REPUBLIC: A BIOGRAPHY by Simon Blackburn (Vancouver, 2007), and WEIMAR IN EXILE: THE ANTIFASCIST EMIGRATION IN EUROPE AND AMERICA by Jean-Michel Palmier, translated by David Fernbach (New York, 2006).

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Walter Isaacson, the latest biographer of Einstein, belongs to the André Maurois school of biography, which consists in reading everything that has been written on the subject, quoting the most important and revealing lines, and abridging and paraphrasing the rest.

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Simon Blackburn, the author of the second book on Plato, admits in his introductory notes that he does not particularly care for Plato, which is why he gives as much space to Plato’s critics (of which there are many) as to his admirers (of which there are many more). The result is a balanced and objective assessment of one of the most influential books of all time.

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When Hitler came to power, some of the greatest intellects in Germany, among them Thomas Mann, Freud, and Einstein, chose exile. The very famous, like the three mentioned above, survived the ordeal of deracination, but many others, among them Stefan Zweig and Mann’s son, Klaus Mann, committed suicide. I cannot help thinking that, had Hitler been more tolerant and democratic, very probably he would have won the war, and I would now be writing these lines in German. One could say that, long before Nazi Germany was defeated by the Allies, it committed suicide. Something similar could be said about the suicidal tendencies of all anti-democratic power structures, including our own today.

#

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

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THE NEGATIVE SIDE OF TURCOCENTRISM

******************************************************

It preaches to the choir.

It reminds the victims of their past victimization thus reinforcing their status and identity as perennial victims.

It misleads them into thinking they can be victimized only by foreign powers, never their own.

*

Is there a single Armenian leader today whose words can be quoted and believed?

*

The bigger the ego, the more fragile its structure, and the more uncertain its future.

*

It took me many years to realize that I can change nothing and no one, but I go on writing the way an atheist goes on praying only because he was taught to pray as a child.

*

Irving Howe on Sholom Aleichem: “He ridiculed their pretensions, he mocked their vanity, and …the irony of their claim to being a Chosen People.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, May 31, 2007

 

***************************************

 

NOTES / COMMENTS

 

***********************************

 

A good nationalist believes to lie in the name of patriotism is morally superior to speaking the truth.

 

*

 

When man goes out in search of God, he is sure to come face to face with the devil; and when he speaks or acts in His name, the chances are he does so in the name of the devil.

 

*

 

We study history not to prove ourselves right and everyone else wrong, but to learn from our blunders.

 

*

 

Since identity is an abstraction, all kinds of absurd claims are made in its name. Some of these claims may be relatively harmless but others, such as claims of racial, moral, or intellectual superiority, have been the source of much misery, including wars, massacres, and genocides. “I know better,” is very probably one of the most dangerous assertions one can make.

 

*

 

Those who are most in need of advice are the least receptive to them.

 

*

 

The Turks and our leaders have combined forces to turn us into pillars of salt.

 

#

 

 

[ara baliozian]

Friday, June 01, 2007

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REFLECTIONS

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The unstated aim of propaganda is to make you feel good about yourself. Hence its popularity. Literature has no interest in that direction.

*

When a charlatan calls me a charlatan, I conclude that (one) he knows the meaning of the word, and (two) he has too large an ego to suspect he may qualify as one.

*

To allow a past crime to define your future is to consent being permanently at the mercy of the criminal.

*

Jean Francois de la Harpe: “In France, the first day is for admiration, the second for criticism, the third for indifference.” Among Armenians, there are no first days.

*

Colette: “If you are incapable of magic, you should stay out of the kitchen.” I suspect what she had in mind was not the kitchen but literature.

*

Einstein: “I am a deeply religious nonbeliever.”

*

What made Einstein great was his refusal to accept the word of established authority and to reject all obvious answers as final.

#

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, June 02, 2007

****************************************

ON PROUD ARMENIANS

************************************

Speaking for myself, I prefer humble Armenians, if only because we have many more reasons to be humble than proud.

*

The word denialist is applied to those who refuse to acknowledge the reality of the Genocide. It could also be applied to Armenians who deny the fact of their Ottomanization.

*

I was brought up to see religion and patriotism as noble concepts, but I know now that they are noble only when applied to fundamentally decent men. In the hands of a dupe who cannot think for himself, both God and Country may become instruments of intolerance and oppression, and ultimately justifications of war and massacre.

*

After accusing me of being a foreign agent, one of my readers identifies himself as “a proud Armenian.” There is a type of chauvinism and paranoia that are unmistakable symptoms of fascism.

*

In the presence of someone who identifies himself with a group – be it tribal or religious – I feel like a potential victim, someone who some day, given the right combination of conditions, may be killed in the name of God and Country.

*

A “proud Armenian” is not just a single person but a fraction of a lynch mob.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, June 03, 2007

******************************************

MEMO TO OUR PUNDITS

**********************************

You will never write a single decent line as long as you think your readers are lesser men, perhaps even naïve dupes like yourself.

*

Since we don’t know everything there is to know – no one does – let us agree to listen to one another on the grounds that we may become aware of facts that so far have escaped our perception; and by one another I don’t just mean Armenians and Turks, but also Armenians and Armenians, or rather, Ottomanized Armenians and human beings, who place their humanity above their tribal or partisan loyalties. It is therefore to our advantage to treat our adversaries not as mortal enemies but as future friends.

*

Changing our perception of the past is as good as changing the past.

*

My writings are perceived by some as anti-Armenian. I reject the label. I am critical of certain Armenians because I see them not as Armenians but as by-products of Ottoman culture.

*

What we learn from defeats and failures we may unlearn from victories and successes.

*

If the atomic structure of the universe proves the existence of God, the atomic bomb proves the existence of the devil, or the other face of God, the one we pray to every day with the words, “Do no lead us into temptation.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Monday, June 04, 2007

*********************************************

WHAT IS IMPOSSIBLE

CANNOT BE DESIRABLE

**************************************

Tolstoy: “Aren’t we all of us flung onto this earth to hate and torment each other?”

*

You cannot reason with someone who is infatuated with his own infallibility.

*

Since dead-end controversies that are destined to remain unresolved to the end of time have become an integral part of our collective existence and mindset, the chances that we will ever reach a consensus with the Turks are “as dark as the prospects of an honest politician” (Chandler).

*

If we assume consensus to be to our mutual advantage, willingness to compromise becomes not only inevitable but also necessary, because the alternative – negotiating without compromise – is not negotiating but imposing one’s will on others. Only the mighty may impose their will on the weak. To those who say, “If we have truth and the world on our side, we might as well have God on our side, and who could be mightier than the Almighty?” May I remind them that the world was on our side in 1915 too, and that what motivates the world is not truth but self-interest. As for God: unlike our pundits, I am more than willing to admit that not being an authority on the subject, I am in no position to make any pronouncements in His name.

*

If on the other hand the Turks compromise and make concessions, our side will simply escalate their demands. It follows, our self-righteous and dogmatic defenders of the faith will do their utmost to never resolve our differences with the Turks. Because, if they are ever resolved, they may run out of their favorite subject and may even be condemned to irrelevance -- not a pleasant prospect for monomaniacal megalomaniacs.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

****************************************

ON NATIONALISM

*******************************

As far as I can see, the only reason nationalism is popular with some Armenians is that it allows them to divide the nation into nationalists (the good guys) and anti-nationalists (the lowest form of animal life).

*

If nationalism is a good thing, was it good for the Germans, the Turks, and in general all fascist regimes that claimed to be nationalist? Can anything that divides us be good? If Armenian nationalism is good, can we say then all non-Armenian nationalists are bad? If that which divides us is good, does it mean, that which unites us is bad? There is only one thing that unites us, the Genocide. Does that mean by killing us the Turks did us a favor?

*

We hate to be deceived, and yet, self-deception is the most widely practiced form of deception. Nationalism teaches us to brag by asserting our uniqueness and superiority to all other nations. If we are unique, that’s because all nations are unique. To confuse uniqueness with superiority is the height of self-deception.

*

The flattery of brown-nosers: what is it worth?

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

*******************************************

PAST INJUSTICES & FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

*******************************************************************************

The deepest wounds are self-inflicted.

*

A man obsessed with past injustices will be blind to future opportunities.

*

A less than perfect settlement, even a bad settlement, is better than no settlement.

*

During the last century, we have failed to reach a consensus with the Turks. Things may change in the next century and we may do better, but hope is not a policy.

*

If we have failed it may be because we have allowed the wrong people to represent us. Who should represent us? Not politicians, ideologues, or for that matter, nationalist historians, but lawyers, preferably odar lawyers, not because they are better or smarter, but rather because they care less about the truth (a metaphysical concept) and more about the evidence.

*

To negotiate and compromise is better than not to negotiate, if only because to compromise for the uncompromising is a step in the right direction. If we compromise and reach a consensus with the Turks, some day we may even compromise and reach a consensus with our fellow Armenians. If that happens, future historians may open a new chapter in our history subtitled “The Birth of a Nation.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, June 07, 2007

**************************************

A QUESTION OF IDENTITY

**********************************************

We are not what we think are. When we speak about ourselves most of what we say is bound to be nonsense. And when we speak of others, of whom we know even less, we are bound to discharge an even greater quantity of nonsense.

*

What could be more inconsistent, not to say absurd, than to say, Armenophile historians are men of integrity but Turcophile historians are hirelings, charlatans, and pathological liars? Is our position so precarious that we need an outsider’s assessment to feel good about ourselves?

*

In ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE! - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF REBEL JOURNALIST I.F. STONE by Myra MacPherson (New York, 2006) I read the following: “I think it is a basic law of human history that anybody that tries to be a good human being is going to get in trouble sooner or later with his own tribe.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Friday, June 08, 2007

***************************************

ON NATIONALIST BIAS

*********************************

I.F. Stone: “Establishment reporters undoubtedly know a lot of things I don’t. But a lot of what they know isn’t true.”

*

To prove me wrong, a Turkish friend quotes Ataturk. I resist the temptation of proving him wrong by quoting General Antranik.

*

It is astonishing to the point of being unbelievable the dirty tricks nationalist bias plays on our perception of reality.

*

Deceiving ourselves is easy, deceiving others…that’s different.

*

Adopting an anti-Armenian or anti-Turkish stance comes naturally to some Turks and Armenians. That doesn’t make it right. Neither does it enhance our credibility in the eyes of the world.

*

Judging others is easy; understanding them much more demanding, which is why it is less popular.

*

Adopting a morally superior stance is not the same as being morally superior. On the contrary!

*

After saying, “There is something rotten in the State of Denmark,” Hamlet died in his efforts to set it right. The fate of all reformers.

#