as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

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

According to a news item on the radio this morning, sorryyyyy doesn’t work with 30% of patients suffering from erectile dysfunction. I could not help reflecting that if they ever discover a sorryyyyy-like pill that combats intolerance, it may not work with 90% of Armenians, and the chances are 99% of them will have no use for it because they don’t think of themselves as intolerant.

*

The first time someone called me a racist, I dismissed him as a politically correct fascist. A racist, I thought, is someone who lynches Negroes, massacres innocent women and children, or incinerates Jews in ovens. Since I had done none of these things, I could not qualify as a racist. I know better today.

*

I know now that whoever it was that called me a racist understood me better than I did. And now that I know better, I find it extremely difficult to be tolerant, and I suspect most people who sermonize and speechify against intolerance today are hypocrites whose favorite medium is double-talk.

*

If others are sometimes better judges of ourselves than we are it may be because objectivity is a rare virtue, especially among those who have been brainwashed at an early age to believe that they are good Christians and possess all those virtues unique to Christianity, among them love, compassion, and tolerance.

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

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

THEM AND US

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

They have fascist ideologues.

So have we. We even brag about our "tseghagrons," or partisans who elevated race to the status of religion.

*

They massacred indiscriminately defenseless women and children. So did we. Ask any Tashnak who is remotely acquainted with the history of his party and he will tell you General Antranik was expelled from the Party because he massacred indiscriminately. To this day Azeris think of him the way Jews think of Hitler.

*

For everyone we massacred, they massacred ten. That's because they outnumbered us ten to one.

*

What happens to a second-generation Armenian-American?

He behaves more like an American than an Armenian - assuming an authentic Armenian exists and we know his code of conduct.

*

What happened to a 24th-generation Ottoman-Armenian? Was he less Ottoman and more Armenian? Or was it the other way around?

*

Speaking for myself, I am neither a fascist nor a killer of innocent civilians; and I would resent it like hell if someone identified me with an Armenian in a leadership position. Which is a mistake we make when we identify the people with the regime. It is not the people who deny the Genocide, it is the regime. Likewise, it is not the people who adopted and implemented a genocidal policy but the leadership, which was not elected by the people and cannot be said to have represented them.

*

By identifying the people with the regime we succeed only in alienating the people, our best friends and greatest allies.

#

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, December 29, 2005

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

LOVE AND HATE

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

“When the rich fight, it is the poor who die.”

*

Power begins with the power to redefine words by perverting their meaning.

*

Patriotism redefined means to hate your enemy’s patriotism.

*

In time of war the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” becomes “Thou shalt kill!”

*

The poor are brainwashed to die in the name of patriotism. The rich are educated to lie and deceive in defense of their powers and privileges.

*

A hero is one who dies in the name of a Big Lie.

*

When I use the word hate in a political or religious context it also means to hate unto death.

*

To believe in your god also means to question and reject the existence of all other gods.

*

To love god also means to hate those who do not share your love.

#

[phantom22]

Ara,

 

Are there Armenians who have been killed since 1850 by other Armenians because they have not been deemed to be sufficiently nationalistic or tried to open dialogue with Turks?

 

 

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

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

THEM AND US

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

They have fascist ideologues.

So have we. We even brag about our "tseghagrons," or partisans who elevated race to the status of religion.

*

They massacred indiscriminately defenseless women and children. So did we. Ask any Tashnak who is remotely acquainted with the history of his party and he will tell you General Antranik was expelled from the Party because he massacred indiscriminately. To this day Azeris think of him the way Jews think of Hitler.

*

For everyone we massacred, they massacred ten. That's because they outnumbered us ten to one.

*

What happens to a second-generation Armenian-American?

He behaves more like an American than an Armenian - assuming an authentic Armenian exists and we know his code of conduct.

*

What happened to a 24th-generation Ottoman-Armenian? Was he less Ottoman and more Armenian? Or was it the other way around?

*

Speaking for myself, I am neither a fascist nor a killer of innocent civilians; and I would resent it like hell if someone identified me with an Armenian in a leadership position. Which is a mistake we make when we identify the people with the regime. It is not the people who deny the Genocide, it is the regime. Likewise, it is not the people who adopted and implemented a genocidal policy but the leadership, which was not elected by the people and cannot be said to have represented them.

*

By identifying the people with the regime we succeed only in alienating the people, our best friends and greatest allies.

#

[ara baliozian]

Ara,

 

Are there Armenians who have been killed since 1850 by other Armenians because they have not been deemed to be sufficiently nationalistic or tried to open dialogue with Turks?

 

a great many -- murdered, wounded, assaulted...the works!!!!!!!

also, we had a civil war in our own homeland -- and later in Lebanon..../ara

[ara baliozian]

Friday, December 30, 2005

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

"Was Santa good to you?" I asked an old Jewish friend in Texas. "Santa is an anti-Semite," he replied. "He never visits Jewish homes."

"You Armenians are lucky," this same friend once told me, "Only Turks are after your ass. The whole world is after ours!" Poor old overworked Santa too?

*

Because I use my common sense and make an honest effort to be objective, dupes call me a cynic, a charlatan, a hostile witness, an enemy, a denialist, and a number of other unprintable names. Questioning the validity of illusions can be a dangerous career move.

*

Armenians who portray themselves as victims sometimes forget the ruthlessness with which they victimize fellow Armenians who refuse to recycle their favorite brand of crapola.

*

Sheep and wolves can be easily identified.

Wolves in sheep's clothing can be exposed.

But sheep whose secret ambition is to be wolves can be as slippery as Turkish olive-oil wrestlers or used condoms.

*

Armenians: the most unassailable argument against Intelligent Design.

#

[Takoush]

a great many -- murdered, wounded, assaulted...the works!!!!!!!

also, we had a civil war in our own homeland -- and later in Lebanon..../ara

Ara:

 

One more place. Both my grandfather and father have told me that Ramgavars and Tashnagtsagans in Egypt fought against each other and assaulted and hurt each other a great deal. My maternal great uncle was one of the ones who got hurt. He was severely injured from his head; but I don't know if there were any who were killed. The two 'gousagtsoutyouns' have assaulted each other and wounded each other plenty. /anahid

Edited December 30, 2005 by Anahid Takouhi

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, December 31, 2005

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

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

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

THE IDIOT

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

To how many of my fellow men I could say, I was dead wrong to think of you as an idiot, and you were absolutely right to think of me as one.

*

THE POET

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

It happened about twenty years ago. The distinguished white-maned poet was reading one of his poems dealing with our tragic past, the martyrdom of Mother Armenia, and victims of massacres when suddenly an old man in the audience sprang to his feet and hollered, “Enough, for heaven’s sake, enough! What are you trying to do to us? Our heart is already broken!”

*

THE BROWN-NOSER

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

He is popular because his explanations flatter our collective ego. But to reject an explanation simply because it does not flatter us amounts to self-inflicted lobotomy.

*

THE SAINT

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

When I refused to deal with one of our bishops, he sent me his young secretary to inform me that he was a saint. Shortly thereafter he was exposed as a serial fornicator.

#

[ara baliozian]

Ara:

 

One more place. Both my grandfather and father have told me that Ramgavars and Tashnagtsagans in Egypt fought against each other and assaulted and hurt each other a great deal. My maternal great uncle was one of the ones who got hurt. He was severely injured from his head; but I don't know if there were any who were killed. The two 'gousagtsoutyouns' have assaulted each other and wounded each other plenty. /anahid

 

i once met an old tashnak known for his assaults on ramgavars in cairo.

it seems he had put some of them in the hospital.

he looked like a mafioso...but he was also sorry about his past actions. / ara

[Takoush]

i once met an old tashnak known for his assaults on ramgavars in cairo.

it seems he had put some of them in the hospital.

he looked like a mafioso...but he was also sorry about his past actions. / ara

Anyway Ara, Let's just forget all these crazy things for a day, and I wish you a happy, healthy and a prosperous New Year to you and your family! /anahid

Edited December 31, 2005 by Anahid Takouhi

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, January 01, 2006

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HAPPY NEW YEAR, INSHALLAH!

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

You may have noticed that Turcocentric Armenians, that is, Armenians who think more about Turks than their fellow Armenians, or Armenians who hate Turks more than they love their fellow Armenians, sooner or later end up hating a fraction of their fellow Armenians too.

*

In the same way that man tames wild animals, imperial powers divide and rule. Victims may think they are smarter than their victimizers but victimizers know better.

*

If you are honest and speak the truth as you see it, your enemies will outnumber your friends, that’s because fools, dupes, liars and crooks have at all times and everywhere outnumbered honest men.

*

Overheard: “I don’t see movies because they are trash, and I don’t read books because if they are any good they will be made into movies.”

*

Last time I visited my family doctor, I noticed a big book on his desk titled THE HEART by N. Boyadjian.

*

Speaking of our problems I sometimes use the word “internecine.” Some of my readers may not know that one definition of this word is “bent on mutual destruction.”

#

[ara baliozian]

Anyway Ara, Let's just forget all these crazy things for a day, and I wish you a happy, healthy and a prosperous New Year to you and your family! /anahid

 

yes, yes, let's forget we are armenians for at least one out of 365 days...if we can! / ara

[ara baliozian]

Monday, January 02, 2006

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

The execution of Socrates, the crucifixion of Christ, the excommunication of Tolstoy, the imprisonment of Gandhi, yesterday’s best-seller list, countless wars and massacres: so much for conventional wisdom, the judgment of the mob, the establishment, and the rule of law.

*

As an alienated Armenian, I speak in the name of alienated Armenians everywhere, which means I speak in the name of the vast majority, and my message is as follows: Those who alienated us may consider themselves as representatives of the nation but they are nothing of the kind: what they are is a trashy collection of bunglers, windbags and wheeler-dealers who have been successful only in dividing the nation and alienating the majority.

*

My ideas are not mine; they belong to the world of ideas, some of which are as old as mankind. If they seem strange to you it may be because you have not allowed them to register on your consciousness.

*

Never insult someone on the grounds that you are invulnerable. The thirst for revenge can be a great source of inspiration and creativity.

*

As an Armenian I have seen many of my friends turn into enemies, and when I say enemies I don’t mean the garden but of the mortal variety, but I have yet to witness the miracle of an enemy turning into a friend, and if I ever read a work of fiction in which this happens, I won’t believe a word of it.

#

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

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

During a radio interview with former Prime Minister of Canada Kim Campbell I heard the following definition of democracy: “A mechanism whose aim is to defend good people from bad people.” By extension, tyranny may be said to be a mechanism whose aim is to allow bad people to abuse good people with impunity.

*

Since I reject everything I believed as a dupe, I disagree with all dupes.

*

Most Soviet citizens under Stalin did not feel oppressed or threatened by the regime. It is in their treatment of dissent that a tyrant exposes his real face.

*

As a boy I was exposed to many sermons and speeches and believed every word of it, perhaps because I had a Platonic view of life. Words and ideas, I thought, had an independent existence in an abstract dimension, and reality was only a transitory stage of ephemeral importance. What mattered about a sermonizer or speechifier were his words. And when I grew up and became aware of inconsistencies and contradictions I ignored them. In short, I was a dupe.

*

For a long time it never even occurred to me to ask: Why is this man saying what he is saying? In whose name is he speaking? Whose interests is he defending? Or, as Yanks are fond of saying: “Follow the money.”

*

To sum up my situation: when I was a dupe I was popular with fascists. I am now persona non grata. That’s what I call progress.

#

[Takoush]

I understand now. You have been exposed to a great deal of fascism thinking and exposure of ideas and within the Armenian circles. You have been fooled yet along the way you have changed your ways and your thinking process as well as your idealisms. And as you have become more mature you ignored them all, and psychologically you are now happier with yourself with your liberal ideas and behaviour; despite the fact that many are disagreeable with you. Because you have outgrown them. Interesting.

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

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

Why did it take me twenty years to learn from my mistakes?

Because I refused to acknowledge them.

*

Why is it that our leaders persist in dividing us?

Because by confusing intolerance with non-negotiable principles, they refuse to acknowledge their blunders.

*

"Democracy," the former Prime Minister of Canada also said in her interview yesterday, "is a work in progress." I quote this line for those readers who are fond of saying it may take two or three generations to democratize Armenia. I suggest it may take much longer if we think it is only a matter of time and does not require our participation.

*

Most men are potential fascists because they prefer power to service. Left to their own devices and in the absence of checks and balances, a politician will prefer to assume the role of leader as opposed to that of public servant.

*

Checks and balances mean the rule of law and the fundamental human right of free speech, without which the press becomes an instrument of fascist propaganda.

#

[Takoush]

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

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

Why did it take me twenty years to learn from my mistakes?

Because I refused to acknowledge them.

*

Why is it that our leaders persist in dividing us?

Because by confusing intolerance with non-negotiable principles, they refuse to acknowledge their blunders.

*

"Democracy," the former Prime Minister of Canada also said in her interview yesterday, "is a work in progress." I quote this line for those readers who are fond of saying it may take two or three generations to democratize Armenia. I suggest it may take much longer if we think it is only a matter of time and does not require our participation.

*

Most men are potential fascists because they prefer power to service. Left to their own devices and in the absence of checks and balances, a politician will prefer to assume the role of leader as opposed to that of public servant.

*

Checks and balances mean the rule of law and the fundamental human right of free speech, without which the press becomes an instrument of fascist propaganda.

#

 

Ara:

 

And you would like to carry out and exercise your rights to free speech and ignore the rest of the propagandists. Well, you know I am taking up journalism and Engl Lit. Once I'm through I would despise anyone censoring me and my writings and the will of my free thoughts. If anyone does that to me, I'd personally quit. So I agree with you there. But I'm afraid there will be plenty; and I'm sure within odars too. I may be able to handle Armenians; but it'll probably be more difficult to handle odars when there'll be a lot of competition as well, I'm sure of it.

 

Ara, what kind of good books do you recommend that you know of for journalism and also Literature? Any good suggestions is most welcomed. thanks. /anahid

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, January 05, 2006

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

In Cormac McCarthy’s ALL THE PRETTY HORSES I read the following: “Those who have suffered great pain of injury or loss are joined to one another with bonds of a special authority.”

If only! I thought.

Further down: “What is constant in history is greed and foolishness…and this is a thing that even God seems powerless to change.”

*

Speaking of foolishness, once in a while a reader takes it upon himself to inform me that I am not an Armenian writer because I write in English, as if my sole aim in life were to be mentioned or discussed in a future text on Armenian literature.

*

If I write about Armenian problems, if I say what must be said, or if I say what matters, even if I take a fraction of a step in the right direction, does it matter if I am a member of this or that tribe?

*

I write in English because had I chosen to write in Armenian I would have been ignored as well as starved. Because I write in English I was awarded a series of literary prizes and grants that allowed me to devote my full time to writing and to publish thirty books half of which are translations from the Armenian.

*

What happened to Zarian who chose to write in Armenian? He was ignored in the Diaspora, silenced in the Homeland, and ended his days thinking, “Armenians survive by cannibalizing one another.”

*

What happened to Baruir Massikian who also wrote in Armenian? How many Armenians read him today because he was an Armenian writer?

*

On the subject of our problems, of which we have more than our share: one that I have discussed on several occasions is the academic or self-appointed pundit who operates on the assumption that he can cover his foolishness beneath a cloak of patriotism on the grounds that his readers are even more ignorant than he is.

#

[ara baliozian]

Ara:

 

And you would like to carry out and exercise your rights to free speech and ignore the rest of the propagandists. Well, you know I am taking up journalism and Engl Lit. Once I'm through I would despise anyone censoring me and my writings and the will of my free thoughts. If anyone does that to me, I'd personally quit. So I agree with you there. But I'm afraid there will be plenty; and I'm sure within odars too. I may be able to handle Armenians; but it'll probably be more difficult to handle odars when there'll be a lot of competition as well, I'm sure of it.

 

Ara, what kind of good books do you recommend that you know of for journalism and also Literature? Any good suggestions is most welcomed. thanks. /anahid

 

all great writers and historians and philosophers will teach you to think, to write, to be objective...i don't know of any short cuts in that direction, sorry. / ara

[Takoush]

all great writers and historians and philosophers will teach you to think, to write, to be objective...i don't know of any short cuts in that direction, sorry. / ara

Ara, I wasn't looking for a short cut; I was wondering if you had any good suggestions or exceptional books that you could recommend me as an accomplished writer that you are. /anahid

Edited January 6, 2006 by Anahid Takouhi

[ara baliozian]

Friday, January 06, 2006

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

ON A COMMON ABERRATION

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

Arrogance is based on two fallacies: (one) that one knows better, and (two) that others know less. The first is based on self-assessment (a notoriously unreliable index), and the second on ignorance (no one is in a position to know with any degree of certainty what others know).

*

Sooner or later arrogance is punished not because the gods feel challenged (as the Greeks believed) but because men hate to be short-changed by a self-satisfied bastard.

*

The antidote to arrogance is the formula “from dust to dust.” We are all born with the certainty that we are the center of the universe, but gradually life drives home the realization that we are no better than inanimate particles at the whim of the winds.

#

[ara baliozian]

Ara, I wasn't looking for a short cut; I was wondering if you had any good suggestions or exceptional books that you could recommend me as an accomplished writer that you are. /anahid

 

i suggest Plato's Dialogues

and Toynbee's RECONSIDERATIONS (volume xii of his STUDY OF HISTORY). / ara

[Takoush]

i suggest Plato's Dialogues

and Toynbee's RECONSIDERATIONS (volume xii of his STUDY OF HISTORY). / ara

Ara,

 

I have read the following:

 

'Anthology of Drama' (Oedipus the King, Sophocles);

Voltair's Candide;

Wolfgang Von Goethe's 'Faust' Part One;

Tolstoy's 'The Kreutzer Sonata', How Much Land Does a man Need?, The Death of Ivan Ilych;

Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein';

Plato's 'Symposium' and

Plato's 'Phaedras' on "Love, Rhetoric, and Writing";

On Socrate's

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Winter Dreams'';

William Faulkner's 'A rose for Emily' and

Faulkner's 'Barn Burning';

Tennessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire';

Ernest Hemingway's 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro';

Sherwood Anderson's (From Winesburg, Ohio, Mother);

Ethan Frome's 'Edith Wharton';

Albert Camus' 'The Plague';

Camus' 'L'Etranger';

Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables'

Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis';

Eugene O'Neill's 'A Moon for the Misbegotten';

Eugene O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey Into Night (Acts i thru iv);

Kate Chopin's 'At The Cadian Ball' and 'The Storm';

Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin In The Sun';

David Guterson's 'Snow Falling On Cedars';

'Growing Up Ethnic In America' Edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan

(various writers and various short stories, btw; Amy Tan, Gary Soto, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Lynne Sh. Schwartz, Beena Kamlani, and much more);

Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights';

Farenheit 459;

Rita Ciresi's 'Blue Italian'; and

James Dickey's 'Deliverance';

I read more stories and books; but this is what I am jotting down now.

 

I loved them all. Wonderful writings, great books and stories all of them.

 

I have the book in my posession and want to read Friedrich Nietzche's 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'.

 

Furthermore, I went today and purchased the 'Essential Dialogues of Plato';

and I have just ordered 'The Complete Works of Plato' and

I also ordered Toynbee's (Volume Vii of his Study of History)

 

Thanks very much for your suggestions, Ara. I appreciate it.

 

All the best, /anahid

Edited January 7, 2006 by Anahid Takouhi

[ara baliozian]

Ara,

 

I have read the following:

 

'Anthology of Drama' (Oedipus the King, Sophocles);

Voltair's Candide;

Wolfgang Von Goethe's 'Faust' Part One;

Tolstoy's 'The Kreutzer Sonata', How Much Land Does a man Need?, The Death of Ivan Ilych;

Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein';

Plato's 'Symposium' and

Plato's 'Phaedras' on "Love, Rhetoric, and Writing";

On Socrate's

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Winter Dreams'';

William Faulkner's 'A rose for Emily' and

Faulkner's 'Barn Burning';

Tennessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire';

Ernest Hemingway's 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro';

Sherwood Anderson's (From Winesburg, Ohio, Mother);

Ethan Frome's 'Edith Wharton';

Albert Camus' 'The Plague';

Camus' 'L'Etranger';

Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables'

Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis';

Eugene O'Neill's 'A Moon for the Misbegotten';

Eugene O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey Into Night (Acts i thru iv);

Kate Chopin's 'At The Cadian Ball' and 'The Storm';

Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin In The Sun';

David Guterson's 'Snow Falling On Cedars';

'Growing Up Ethnic In America' Edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan

(various writers and various short stories, btw; Amy Tan, Gary Soto, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Lynne Sh. Schwartz, Beena Kamlani, and much more);

Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights';

Farenheit 459;

Rita Ciresi's 'Blue Italian'; and

James Dickey's 'Deliverance';

I read more stories and books; but this is what I am jotting down now.

 

I loved them all. Wonderful writings, great books and stories all of them.

 

I have the book in my posession and want to read Friedrich Nietzche's 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'.

 

Furthermore, I went today and purchased the 'Essential Dialogues of Plato';

and I have just ordered 'The Complete Works of Plato' and

I also ordered Toynbee's (Volume Vii of his Study of History)

 

Thanks very much for your suggestions, Ara. I appreciate it.

 

All the best, /anahid

 

my other advice is: never force yourself to read a book if you don't enjoy every line of it.

sometimes timing is essential -- by that i mean, when or at what age or after which experience you read a book.

 

i meant Toynbee's volume xii ( 12) rather than vii (7). if i made a mistake i apologize.

 

another point: i prefer borrowing books from the library rather than buying them because i must return library books after 3 weeks. my bookcases are full of half-read or non-read books....

 

P.s.

 

Try Tolstoy's HADJI MURAD

and Lesley Blanch's THE SABRES OF PARADISE. / Ara

Edited January 7, 2006 by ara baliozian

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, January 07, 2006

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

"Poverty breeds crime," reads a headline in our paper today, and I think of Ken Lay, Koslowsky, Abramoff, and Co. I also think of Talaat, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin Dada, and Genghis Khan…

*

Once upon a time I knew an Armenian so rude in argument and so eager to go down into the gutter that very few wanted to follow him there, so that after a while he thought of himself as a 20th-century reincarnation of the famous medieval Armenian philosopher David Anhaght ("Invincible") so called because he is said to have been invincible in argument.

*

To say that in one or two generations conditions will improve in Armenia is not just nonsense but Ottomanized and Sovietized rubbish, because it means only one thing: we will adopt a passive stance because doing so comes naturally to us after 600 years in the Ottoman Empire and 70 years in the Soviet Union.

*

I am wide open to all arguments except ones that I would have voiced myself as a dupe.

*

It has been said that forgiveness can be a spiritual victory. I am not sure about that. Forgiving commissars and fascists can also mean legitimizing criminal conduct.

##