as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Friday, November 19, 2004

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

We cannot change history, but we can try to understand it, beginning with the fact that political decisions are not acts of God (like earthquakes and volcanoes) but acts of men, with their own set of prejudices, loyalties, interests, blind spots, limitations, idiosyncrasies, fears, doubts, and anxieties. In short, politicians are people like us, totally disqualified to assert infallibility.

*

History may be summed up as a slow-motion avalanche of blunders and miscalculations by men of power whose central concern is to either maintain or increase their powers.

*

Talleyrand is right: sometimes errors of judgment can be far worse than crimes.

*

It has been said, and it is true, that we see things not as they are, but as we are. Our understanding is therefore enhanced whenever we think against ourselves, or we view reality as a succession of traps and ambushes.

*

A version of the past that supports a specific political agenda cannot be right. Also, between a version that flatters our vanity and one that does not, the chances are the unflattering version will be closer to the truth.

*

A Sudanese general on the genocide in Darfur: “It is not genocide; it is war, and in war bad things happen.”

Sounds familiar?

*

We have many kinds of literary awards except a Freedom of Speech Award. Can you guess why?

*

Because I dare to question the judgment and wisdom of our political leadership, I am sometimes accused of “self-hatred.” Figure that one out, if you can.

#

[ara baliozian]

Ara, science is a certainty. Mathematics is a certainty. Is there any evil in them?

Just like natural sciences have absolutely certain laws, so the spiritual realm has its laws that are even more certain. But what do you know about science? You are a layman, maybe you heard something but you really don't know science. Likewise, you know nothing about spiritual laws. To you it all sounds like a bunch of lies or illusions or dogmas. But are you right? Can an ignorant man be right judging about a field he doesn't know a thing? Of course no. If you don't know mysticism then why do you question it? What makes you think that you are right hypothesizing that a chemical imbalance is happening in a mystics brain? Why can't that same thing said about your brain if we are going to make empty speculations?

 

What evil are you talking about? Hitler and mysticism? You once again confirm your ignorance of mystic traditions. Wishful thinking and starting a world war are absolutely not what a mystic does.

 

Do you realize that you have adopted a dogma yourself, which consists of questioning and rejecting anything and everything including yourself and your questioning? That is one big confusion. And if you think that the world consists of uncertainties then you should not even attempt to make any assertion whatsoever, about anything. It is hypociritical to claim that you don't know anything and at the same time prove the whole world wrong. If you don't know then stop saying anything. Nobody needs to learn how to doubt and question, everyone does that very well as you can see around.

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the certainties of science and math have nothing to do with the certainties of faith and metaphysics.

 

everyone agrees 2+2=4, but everyone does not agree about the fundamental principles of religions.

[ara baliozian]

I see, in your twisted world you are a hero exposing bigots, charlatans, bishops, fanatics, lunatics, bloodsuckers, etc... people just like me.

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why would you want to argue with one who is an ignoramus and lives in a twisted world?

 

i consider myself lucky indeed that we don't live in the middle ages and i am not a heretic and you are not a bishop. / ara

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, November 20, 2004

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

It is a mistake to identify the people with the regime, especially if the regime is non-representative, and all regimes are to some extent non-representative, including democracies. Consider the case of the Bush Administration today. Roughly speaking it represents only the interests and values of only 25% of the people, since 50% don't vote and the remaining 25% voted against him. And of the 25% that voted for him, one is justifying in wondering how many of them did so on the basis of deceptive slogans that exploited their prejudices and fears. For more on this subject, see GAG RULE: ON THE SUPPRESSION OF DISSENT AND THE STIFLING OF DEMOCRACY by Lewis H. Lapham (New York, Penguin Press, 2004).

*

Speaking of the unpopularity of democracies and the ease with which they slide into fascism, Lapham writes: "Nobody ever said that democratic government was easy, which is why, during the twenty years between the last century's two world wars, it failed and was abandoned by the people of Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Albania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, and Germany."

*

And finally, here is Spengler on the undemocratic nature of democracies: "A small number of superior heads, whose names are very likely not the best known, settle everything, while below them are the great mass of second-rate politicians selected through a provincially-conceived franchise to keep alive the illusion of popular self-determination."

#

[Sasun]

why would you want to argue with one who is an ignoramus and lives in a twisted world?

 

i consider myself lucky indeed that we don't live in the middle ages and i am not a heretic and you are not a bishop. / ara

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Being ignorant myself I always argue with ignorant forumers. That you are ignorant is no news to me. But I didn't know that you also harbored so much hate to spirituality and religions and lived in such a twisted world where your critics became your executioners - that is something extraordinary.

From now on I will argue with other ignorant people who no matter how ignorant nonetheless do not have paranoic feelings towards my person even if I kept criticizing them. Have a nice career in your world and hope you sleep well at night.

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 21, 2004

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

“He who knows does not speak”? Some truth in that. Socrates spoke a great deal but his central message was: “The only thing I know is that I don’t know.”

*

For every slogan there will be a counter-slogan, for the same reasons that the self-interest of one will conflict with the self-interest of another.

*

To approach history with a slogan or thesis or agenda and to defend it at all cost is to act like a lawyer who is hired to plead “not guilty" for a client he knows to be a serial killer. (Hence, the popular joke: “Please, don’t tell my mother I am a lawyer. She thinks I am a pimp.”)

*

To say that Turks are bloodthirsty savages is as racist as to imply that Armenians are compassionate because they were the first nation to convert to Christianity.

*

Perhaps what I have been trying to do is to expose the charlatanism and lies of elites or men at the top of the food chain (political and religion leaders) who pretend to know better but whose knowledge is disguised self-interest.

*

The American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, believed that sin is social, not just individual. The same could be said of prejudices, intolerance, and hatred.

*

Religion is one thing, imams and bishops another.

#

[ara baliozian]

Being ignorant myself I always argue with ignorant forumers. That you are ignorant is no news to me. But I didn't know that you also harbored so much hate to spirituality and religions and lived in such a twisted world where your critics became your executioners - that is something extraordinary.

From now on I will argue with other ignorant people who no matter how ignorant nonetheless do not have paranoic feelings towards my person even if I kept criticizing them. Have a nice career in your world and hope you sleep well at night.

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i hope i am not the first to observe in you some very deep resentment against all those who dare to disagree with your dogmatic and intolerant assertions. if you plan to speak in defense of spiritualism, i suggest you do so in a more spiritual manner...in the name of consistency if not logic. / ara

[Nakharar]

Ara, you have to step out of your little flat and go out into the real world. I know you suffer from agoraphobia, which is really a fear of people actually. Maybe your mind has already started playing tricks on you. It must be difficult to rehash the same old repetitious lines in a different order every day. Go out enjoy the little pleasures of daily life of which there are many. I can assure you it will make you feel much better. At least it will help you get out of your intellectual malaise. There is no need to be so bitter and suspicious of others. You seem to be the antithesis of Rousseau. Not all of us are augres and I'm sure that Sasun isn't the inquisitor himself.

 

i hope i am not the first to observe in you some very deep resentment against all those who dare to disagree with your dogmatic and intolerant assertions.

 

Maybe you didn't realize it, but this couldn't have been a better description of yourself. With one difference of course. Your "assertions" are sheathed with an appearance of self-effacing enlightenment.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, November 22, 2004

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

Jean Rostand: “Language common to all men: mathematics and erotics.”

*

Jean Rostand: “My Godlessness is no less mysterious than your God.”

*

It is said: “Do not judge a man by his own opinion of himself,” or a nation’s history by its own historians.

*

The human brain is the seat of reason as well as unreason, and unreason has played a far more decisive role in human history than reason.

*

The reason why we don’t understand God is that He does not want us to understand Him.

*

Polish proverb: “A guest sees more in an hour that the host in a year.”

*

Alexander Chase: “Memory is the thing you forget with.”

*

Latin proverb: “Hay is more acceptable to an ass than gold.”

*

Abbie Hoffman: “The idea that the media is there to educate us, or to inform us, is ridiculous because that’s about tenth or eleventh on their list. The first purpose of the media is to sell us shit.”

*

Shavarsh Missakian: “I see charlatanism and cheap chauvinism everywhere, but not a single trace of self-sacrifice and dedication to principles and ideals.”

*

Gostan Zarian: “The Armenian nation is like a family whose members devour each other because of conflicting interests.”

#

[ara baliozian]

Ara, you have to step out of your little flat and go out into the real world. I know you suffer from agoraphobia, which is really a fear of people actually. Maybe your mind has already started playing tricks on you. It must be difficult to rehash the same old repetitious lines in a different order every day. Go out enjoy the little pleasures of daily life of which there are many. I can assure you it will make you feel much better. At least it will help you get out of your intellectual malaise. There is no need to be so bitter and suspicious of others. You seem to be the antithesis of Rousseau. Not all of us are augres and I'm sure that Sasun isn't the inquisitor himself.

Maybe you didn't realize it, but this couldn't have been a better description of yourself. With one difference of course. Your "assertions" are sheathed with an appearance of self-effacing enlightenment.

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one reason i don't travel is the prospect of meeting people like you.

I urge you to go underground and stay there. you will be doing mankind a great favor! / ara

[Nakharar]

one reason i don't travel is the prospect of meeting people like you.

I urge you to go underground and stay there. you will be doing mankind a great favor! / ara

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Why should I go underground? Heaven forbid, I might bump into you.

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

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

Burmese proverb: “Futility: playing a harp before a buffalo.”

*

William Hazlitt: “Everyone in a crowd has the power to throw dirt: nine out of ten have the inclination.”

*

Samuel Johnson: “A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.”

*

In his book of travel impressions, UN NOTRE PAYS (TROIS VOYAGES EN TROISIEME ARMENIE), Denis Donikian quotes an old lady in Yerevan as saying: “Our political leaders today are engaged in a policy of national devastation. Things are happening today that did not happen under the Soviets. Which means we are being slaughtered not with ordinary blades but with dull ones. And we are told to shut up about it.”

*

Elsewhere: “I give a hundred drams to a panhandler. He says nothing – neither a thank-you nor a blessing. Nothing. Complete silence. ‘Tell me, my good man, I just gave you a hundred-dram note and you said nothing, not even a simple thanks. How come?’ ‘What’s the use of saying thank you to hundred drams? I say thank you only to those who give me a thousand or more.’”

*

To readers who complain that I repeat myself, I say: “You and I share one thing in common: a dislike of repetition. I too dream to live as an Armenian among Armenians and not to be exposed to the same old clichés ad nauseam. I too would like to read a commentary by one of our dime-a-dozen pundits that does not blame all our misfortunes on others – if not Turks then the corrupt West. I too would like to read a letter from one of our philanthropic organizations that does not end with the Panchoonie punch line: “Mi kich pogh oughargetsek” [send us a little money], with a footnote informing me that my contribution is tax deductible. I too would like to meet an Armenian who does not just brag about Armenians being the first nation to convert to Christianity but whose words and actions are motivated by love and compassion as opposed to venom and intolerance. Will I live long enough to see these dreams realized? Did I say dreams? Make it, daydreams based on illusions, animated by wishful thinking, and born of chauvinist propaganda. Did I say daydreams? Make it, snowballs in hell.”

*

There is no God.

At last I can prove it:

Bush’s reelection.

But the Devil exists.

I can prove that too:

Dick Cheney’s reelection.

*

[ara baliozian]

Why should I go underground? Heaven forbid, I might bump into you.

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one of us must be a turk or an ottomanized armenian. / ara

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

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

Puzant Granian is dead. I wonder how many of my readers will recognize his name. He was a teacher, a poet, and a prolific author of fiction, essays, and criticism; also a community leader and a gifted orator.

*

I reread an interview published in 1980, where he speaks of Levon Shant (his teacher), Hamo Ohanjanian ("an undeniable moral force"), Roupen Der Minassian ("a man of immense power, spiritual as well as physical"), Gostan Zarian ("a daring explorer of the Armenian psyche"), and Nikol Aghbalian ("a writer of undeniable genius" with an "intense commitment to ideals"), and what comes to mind is the prince, in Giuseppe di Lampedusa's LEOPARD, who at one point says: "We were the leopards, the lions; those who will take our place will be little jackals, hyenas."

Our situation in a nutshell.

Jackals and hyenas.

Scorpions and frogs.

*

Hindu proverb: "When an elephant is in trouble, even a frog will kick him."

Exactly! Our frogs have kicked our elephants to death.

*

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."

*

After an exchange of insults, disguised as views, with one of my gentle readers: "Now that you know me and I know you, let us do our utmost to avoid each other."

*

Between a philosopher and a slave, the state will invariably choose the slave.

#

[Armat]

I just don’t understand how brittle and aggressive some people are in their “criticism” of Ara.

I like reading constructive criticism since there is much to learn from different points of view however calling names does not conjure up my brain cells. Why waste the energy.

Ara never claims to be infallible.

[ara baliozian]

NOTES / COMMENTS

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

André Gluckmann is a contemporary French philosopher and the author of over twenty books, the most recent being A TREATISE ON HATRED. The following three quotations are from an interview dealing with this book.

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“It is said that hatred is born of oppression, destitution, and humiliation, as if everyone living in deplorable conditions were ravaged by hatred. What could be more offensive to the poor and the disadvantaged of this world!”

*

“The terrorist is not a robot manipulated by material conditions. The terrorist is an assassin who takes pleasure in indiscriminate killing….”

*

“The great writer is a prophet of doom. He exposes that which has gone wrong and that which is evil."

*

Portuguese proverb: “Better a red face than a black heart.”

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Stephen Leacock: “A half truth in argument, like a half brick, carries better.”

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Bulgarian proverb: “Other people’s eggs have two yolks.”

*

Speechifiers and sermonizers are like men who praise vegetarianism while dining on shish kebab.

*

When it comes to thinking, real thinking, asking questions and raising doubts are more important that making dogmatic assertions and relying on authority.

*

I am an Armenian, which means when I think of my fellow Armenians, I lose both sleep and appetite.

#

[ara baliozian]

Friday, November 26, 2004

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

Whenever I question Zarian's contemporaries, I notice again and again that they refuse to discuss the work and prefer to gossip about the man, and more specifically the insults he apparently inflicted on them.

A minor novelist: "We organized a picnic in his honor and instead of thanking us he complained about the food."

A third-rate versifier who considers himself a first rate poet: "He was an arrogant name-dropper. Unamuno told me this, Verhaeren told me that, Picasso told me, me, me, me!"

An academic in Yerevan: "He was unbearably self-centered. No one liked him."

An occasional journalist: "Once, when I was a boy, I carried two of his atrociously heavy bags to the top of a mountain in Cyprus and he didn't even thank me."

Of Zarian we can truly say that he was too good for his people, including our so-called intellectual elite. To those who say, "But there must be some truth in all that anecdotal evidence. The man must have been inconsiderate, perhaps even rude, in his dealings with his fellow Armenians"; I say, yes, certainly, I agree. Rudeness is unforgivable in any man, including writers, especially writers. But then, Charents was an attempted murderer: that doesn't seem to stop our academics from studying his works and the public from idolizing him.

*

More from André Gluckmann’s interview:

“Anti-Semitism antedates any encounter or dealing with a real Jew.”

*

“Hatred is directed at imaginary objects of a certain type: reflections of oneself that one refuses to recognize.”

*

Simone Weil: “It is impossible to forgive whoever has done us harm if that harm has lowered us. We have to think that it has not lowered us but revealed our true level.”

*

Writes Olivier Messiaen: “Among birds most fights are settled by tournaments of song.”

Imagine, if you can, American marines and Iraqi insurgents (or, for that matter, Armenians and Turks, or even Armenians and Armenians) today, settling their differences by bursting into song. And to think that homo sapiens thinks he has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.

*

My favorite three funeral marches: the slow movement from Beethoven Eroica Symphony, the first movement of Mahler’s 5th Symphony, and Siegfried’s orchestral threnody from the final act of Wagner’s GOTTERDAMMERUNG (which was also Hitler’s favorite).

#

Edited November 27, 2004 by ara baliozian

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, November 27, 2004

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

There are those who think by writing one or more articles in our weeklies they have made a valuable contribution to the solution of our problems. There are even those who think if they succeed in solving all our problems, the nation will be grateful to them. I thought so too when I was young, naïve and inexperienced - in short, a dumb jerk. The truth is (and historic evidence is clear on this point) no power on earth, not even a messiah, can solve the problems of a nation that does not want to solve its problems. And if you are ever successful in solving all our problems, consider yourself lucky if they let you live.

 

It was Maimonides, a medieval Jewish philosopher, who said that for every wise man you meet, be prepared to deal with ten thousand fools, or words to that effect. He also said: "Astrology is a disease, not a science."

A thousand years of progress and what do we have? For every astronomer today there are probably ten thousand astrologers and a hundred thousand fools who believe in them.

*

It is the same in politics. Think of the millions of dupes who were taken in by the likes of Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini and completely ignored the voices of such dissidents as Thomas Mann, Gramsci, Solzhenitsyn and our own Zarian.

If this be progress then it must be the progress of a disease.

*

Denis Donikian: "Being Armenian means to have a license to exploit fellow Armenians in the name of Armenianism."

*

Russian proverb: "Dwell on the past and you will lose an eye. Ignore the past and you will lose both of them."

*

With enough checks and balances even a mediocrity may behave like a statesman. Without checks and balance even the greatest statesman may behave like a serial killer.

#

[Armen]

It is the same in politics. Think of the millions of dupes who were taken in by the likes of Stalin, Hitler  and Mussolini and completely ignored the voices of such dissidents as Thomas Mann,  Gramsci, Solzhenitsyn and our own Zarian.

If this be progress then it must be the progress of a disease.

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I cannot believe the level of your hypocricy. And the biggest evil of our times are the Arab terrorists right? You sound like CNN.

[Armat]

Armen I think you are harsh on Ara. He was very clear that his last essay was about individuals “thinking” for themselves verses masses following “leaders” like sheep.

[Armen]

Armat, I'm saying that it would not be a bad idea to consider making the U.S. more oftenly an example where people follow leaders like sheep. I agree that I was harsh. And please consider Armenians totaly free of that "illness".

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 28, 2004

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

The positive or optimistic view of history emphasizes progress, the negative or pessimistic view emphasizes moral decline, and the objective view tells us it is wrong to blur the line that separates technological from moral progress.

*

Two things an Armenian will never forget: the massacres in the Ottoman Empire and the fact that Armenians are smart, and so smart that it takes seven Jews to fool an Armenian. It follows, as night follows day, that as an Armenian he too qualifies. Hence the embarrassing spectacle of a loud-mouth imbecile with a negative IQ who, after assessing himself as a genius and an authority on any given subject, will accuse you of hating Armenians if you fail to look up to him, as if it were the patriotic duty of every Armenian to love and cherish white trash.

*

We don’t have an Armenian Sultan Abdulhamid because we didn’t have an empire.

*

Some readers expect me to be polite, tolerant, civilized. They drown me in verbal crap and demand style. You want manners? Read Emily Post and quit bothering me.

*

Anyone who considers himself infallible inhabits a realm that is not open to reason.

*

The easiest way to deal with an unpleasant truth is to call the speaker a liar.

*

Only those who think of themselves as indestructible attempt to destroy an idea and they are invariably destroyed by the idea.

*

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.

#

[ara baliozian]

Monday, November 29, 2004

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

About Baruch Spinoza I read the following:

“At the age of six he lost his mother. That’s when he questioned the existence of God. At the age of twenty he fell in love with Clara Maria Van den Enden, his mentor’s daughter. She rejected him. That’s when he completely lost his belief in the existence of God. In 1656 a Jewish fanatic tried to kill him. On July 27 of the same year he was excommunicated (Spinoza was, not the fanatic) by the Synagogue of Amsterdam.”

*

From an interview with the eminent contemporary French philosopher Edgar Morin:

“The principles of love and compassion within both Christianity and Islam have now been replaced with hatred… The world is cursed with an excess of love for idols and abstractions. I maintain we should love the transitory and the perishable more than the eternal. That which is more deserving of our love is also most fragile: conscience, beauty, tenderness… And by understanding I mean understanding others as well as ourselves.”

*

Understanding reality means understanding our fellow men and, through them, ourselves.

*

Jules Renard: “There is no paradise; even so, one must do one’s best to deserve it”.

*

In a democracy, the function of an editor is to separate fact from propaganda and to print the fact.

In an authoritarian regime, the function of an editor is to separate fact from fiction and to print the fiction.

Among Armenians, the function of an editor is to print the trash.

#

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

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

I have heard many Armenians say that Naregatsi is our Shakespeare. But I have heard only one Armenian quote a line from his Book of Lamentations not as proof of literary excellence but of its perversity. The line in question? All about our sins, when added, exceeding in volume that of Mount Ararat.

*

Armenian identity begins with the massacres in the Ottoman Empire and ends with hatred of Turks. Any deviation from this line is seen as loss of identity, even betrayal.

*

The oppressed yearn for freedom. The oppressor demands subservience, which he calls loyalty. And when the oppressed acquire freedom, what do they do with it? They oppress – what else? -- because like their former masters they confuse free speech with disloyalty. In the eyes of our bosses, bishops and benefactors (and their flunkies) I am an enemy because I yearn for free speech. You may now guess the identity of our role models.

*

I am tempted to introduce every sentence I write with the words: “I have said this before…” or even better, “This has been said before, but it bears repeating.”

*

It is a mistake to identify a political party, an ideology, or a regime with the nation and, by extension, with patriotism. Parties, ideologies, regimes are ephemeral things, here today, gone tomorrow. But the nation endures, provided of course it values freedom above subservience.

*

It is the destiny of all oppressors to bite the dust. History is very clear on this point and it recognizes no exceptions to this rule. What remains in dispute is when. The Ottoman Empire lasted 600 years, the Soviet Empire a little over 60. As for our own oppressors: judging by the rate of assimilation in the Diaspora and exodus in the Homeland, the when is not sometime in the near or distant future but in modern parlance, “history.”

#

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 28, 2004

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

The positive or optimistic view of history emphasizes progress, the negative or pessimistic view emphasizes moral decline, and the objective view tells us it is wrong to blur the line that separates technological from moral progress.

*

Two things an Armenian will never forget: the massacres in the Ottoman Empire and the fact that Armenians are smart, and so smart that it takes seven Jews to fool an Armenian. It follows, as night follows day, that as an Armenian he too qualifies. Hence the embarrassing spectacle of a loud-mouth imbecile with a negative IQ who, after assessing himself as a genius and an authority on any given subject, will accuse you of hating Armenians if you fail to look up to him, as if it were the patriotic duty of every Armenian to love and cherish white trash.

*

Anyone who considers himself infallible inhabits a realm that is not open to reason.

*

The easiest way to deal with an unpleasant truth is to call the speaker a liar.

*

Only those who think of themselves as indestructible attempt to destroy an idea and they are invariably destroyed by the idea.

*

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.

#

Monday, November 29, 2004

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

About Baruch Spinoza I read the following:

"At the age of six he lost his mother. That's when he questioned the existence of God. At the age of twenty he fell in love with Clara Maria Van den Enden, his mentor's daughter. She rejected him. That's when he completely lost his belief in the existence of God. In 1656 a Jewish fanatic tried to kill him. On July 27 of the same year he was excommunicated (Spinoza was, not the fanatic) by the Synagogue of Amsterdam."

*

From an interview with the eminent contemporary French philosopher Edgar Morin:

"The principles of love and compassion within both Christianity and Islam have now been replaced with hatred… The world is cursed with an excess of love for idols and abstractions. I maintain we should love the transitory and the perishable more than the eternal. That which is more deserving of our love is also most fragile: conscience, beauty, tenderness… And by understanding I mean understanding others as well as ourselves."

*

Understanding reality means understanding our fellow men and, through them, ourselves.

*

Jules Renard: "There is no paradise; even so, one must do one's best to deserve it".

*

In a democracy, the function of an editor is to separate fact from propaganda and to print the fact.

In an authoritarian regime, the function of an editor is to separate fact from fiction and to print the fiction.

Among Armenians, the function of an editor is to print the trash.

#

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

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

I have heard many Armenians say that Naregatsi is our Shakespeare. But I have heard only one Armenian quote a line from his Book of Lamentations not as proof of literary excellence but of perversity. The line in question? All about our sins, when added, exceeding in volume that of Mount Ararat.

*

Armenian identity begins with the massacres in the Ottoman Empire and ends with hatred of Turks. Any deviation from this line is seen as loss of identity, even betrayal.

*

The oppressed yearn for freedom. The oppressor demands subservience, which he calls loyalty. And when the oppressed acquire freedom, what do they do with it? They oppress -- what else? -- because like their former masters they confuse free speech with disloyalty. In the eyes of our bosses, bishops and benefactors (and their flunkies) I am an enemy because I yearn for free speech. You may now guess the identity of our role models.

*

I am tempted to introduce every sentence I write with the words: "I have said this before…" or even better, "This has been said before, but it bears repeating."

*

It is a mistake to identify a political party, an ideology, or a regime with the nation and, by extension, with patriotism. Parties, ideologies, regimes are ephemeral things, here today, gone tomorrow. But the nation endures, provided of course it values freedom above subservience.

*

It is the destiny of all oppressors to bite the dust. History is very clear on this point and it recognizes no exceptions to this rule. What remains in dispute is when. The Ottoman Empire lasted 600 years, the Soviet Empire a little over 60. As for our own oppressors: judging by the rate of assimilation in the Diaspora and exodus in the Homeland, the when is not sometime in the near or distant future but it might as well be, in modern parlance, "history."

#

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

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

Some agree, others disagree, still others tell me it's a waste of time - writing for Armenians, that is. I am beginning to think so too, and I look forward to the day when I will grow the skin of a crocodile, say "A plague on all your houses!" give up writing, live happily ever after, and die in peace.

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We remember our massacres and lament our victims even as we verbally massacre one another and would prefer to remember our adversaries as corpses.

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"Being an Armenian," a friend tells me, "is enough to give an insomniac nightmares."

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To reason, to negotiate, and to compromise is better than to fight. Good advice. It makes sense. I am all for it. But can you negotiate with an adversary who is in a position to silence you? Can a poet negotiate with a commissar? Can a rabbit reason with a wolf? Can a sardine and a shark reach a consensus?

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What is it that has made of us perennial losers and victims? Everyone who has been brainwashed by a master of the blame game will advance his own historical, demographic, or geopolitical theory. My own explanation: We have been at the mercy of dividers who have at no time mastered the difficult art of thinking against themselves and questioning their own judgment. In other words, individuals who understand neither the world in which they live, nor the consequences of their actions and fundamental beliefs. Charlatans who operate on the assumption that the best way to deal with critics and dissenters is to starve or silence them - all in the name of patriotism, of course.

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