as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, September 30, 2006

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THE MEANING OF MEANING

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James Joyce once bragged that some of his puns have as many as five meanings. It is said of Saadi (13th-century Persian poet) that each word of his has as many as seventy-two meanings. Can you guess the number of meanings in an autumn leaf, a raindrop, an atom, a massacre?

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Julien Green (1900-1998): “The young and not so young today speak platitudes, write platitudes, think platitudes. From one end of the world to the other – music, painting, architecture – it’s the triumph of mediocrity.”

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“Your negativity is killing us,” a reader complains. Translation: Critics, no! Brownnosers, yes!

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The only reason I concentrate on our failings is that we are in a position to do something about them. As for the failings of the rest of the world: what's the use of bitching?

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 01, 2006

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HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

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Yervant Odian ends his novel, THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE, abruptly in 1915 by saying most of his fictional characters, who had tried to inflict fatal damage on each other’s reputation, were arrested, jailed, and hanged. Those who survived ran away and joined the Russian army. The rest were allowed to stay in Istanbul on condition they refrain from getting involved in community affairs. One good thing about major catastrophes, Odian seems to be saying here, is that they solve all petty internecine problems.

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Odian died in 1926 and had no way of knowing that in our Soviet phase we would behave, and to some extent we continue to behave today in both the Homeland and the Diaspora, as though we had learned nothing from our tragedy of 1915 – nothing except to bitch about Turks.

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Odian had a sharp eye for Armenian doubletalk. Everyone in THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE speaks about his honor in whose defense he is more than willing to behave in a dishonorable manner.

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It is to be noted that the Soviets allowed the publication of Odian’s complete works, except his COMRADE PANCHOONIE, which is a savage attack on the misuse of language, political rhetoric, and Communist humbuggery. In one of his letters to the Central Committee (which ends, like all his other letters, with the words, “Send us a little money”) Panchoonie writes:

 

“We are all Armenians, we are brothers. Why can’t we live together? Why must we fight?” that filthy bourgeois kept repeating, not being able to comprehend that conflict is the basic condition of life, that class conflict is essential to socialist victory, and that it is impossible to do any good at all without at least a little bloodshed…. In vain did I repeat that violent class conflict must be waged between us, that they had to use against us every evil means at their command – betrayal, false accusation, force; without these it would not be possible to have a dirty bourgeois class, the existence of which was essential if we were to wage our noble revolutionary struggle against it.

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 01, 2006

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HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

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Yervant Odian ends his novel, THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE, abruptly in 1915 by saying most of his fictional characters, who had tried to inflict fatal damage on each other’s reputation, were arrested, jailed, and hanged. Those who survived ran away and joined the Russian army. The rest were allowed to stay in Istanbul on condition they refrain from getting involved in community affairs. One good thing about major catastrophes, Odian seems to be saying here, is that they solve all petty internecine problems.

*

Odian died in 1926 and had no way of knowing that in our Soviet phase we would behave, and to some extent we continue to behave today in both the Homeland and the Diaspora, as though we had learned nothing from our tragedy of 1915 – nothing except to bitch about Turks.

*

Odian had a sharp eye for Armenian doubletalk. Everyone in THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE speaks about his honor in whose defense he is more than willing to behave in a dishonorable manner.

*

It is to be noted that the Soviets allowed the publication of Odian’s complete works, except his COMRADE PANCHOONIE, which is a savage attack on the misuse of language, political rhetoric, and Communist humbuggery. In one of his letters to the Central Committee (which ends, like all his other letters, with the words, “Send us a little money”) Panchoonie writes:

 

“We are all Armenians, we are brothers. Why can’t we live together? Why must we fight?” that filthy bourgeois kept repeating, not being able to comprehend that conflict is the basic condition of life, that class conflict is essential to socialist victory, and that it is impossible to do any good at all without at least a little bloodshed…. In vain did I repeat that violent class conflict must be waged between us, that they had to use against us every evil means at their command – betrayal, false accusation, force; without these it would not be possible to have a dirty bourgeois class, the existence of which was essential if we were to wage our noble revolutionary struggle against it.

#

[ara baliozian]

Monday, October 02, 2006

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ON FREE SPEECH

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John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), English economist and philosopher: “We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.”

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HOW TO JUDGE A NATION

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Jean-Francois Revel (1924-2006), French essayist and critic: “One can measure how civilized a nation is by its willingness to consider itself an object of ridicule or contempt.”

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On Freud: “Since time immemorial all men have had an Oedipus complex except Oedipus.”

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On French influence: “When the sun of France was at its zenith, I wonder why the world did not die of sunstroke.”

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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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As I grow older I become increasingly aware of my shortcomings and the good qualities of those I held in contempt.

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When a man of power ceases to think of himself as a servant of the people, he becomes a tyrant. Where there is power there will also be abuse of power. I never had much power to abuse but on those extremely rare occasions when I did, the temptation to abuse it was irresistible and I don’t remember to have ever made any effort to resist it.

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As sinners we don’t mind confessing to other sinners. What we mind is confessing to hypocrites who pretend to be better than we are.

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Remember me? The more correct question should be: Do you consider me worth remembering?

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When I was young I had a solution for every problem. I must have been an unbearable pain in the ass. Some of my readers are eager to inform me that I still am. In a year or two I may agree with them.

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On more than one occasion I have been taken to task for my negativity. What could be more negative than six centuries of subservience to Turks followed by a series of massacres? And yet, I wasn’t even born when these things happened. Have we fallen so low that all talk of reality has become negative?

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Speaking of his Nazi past, Guenter Grass said, “I was too young to be guilty.” I have every reason to suspect, had Germany won, he would have bragged about his service to the nation.

#

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

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FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY

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As a humorist, Yervant Odian (1869-1926) could be screamingly funny, but he could also be a realist in the manner of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Zola (all of whom he translated into Armenian). The intent of his two major novels, THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE and FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY, both written shortly before the Genocide, is not to amuse or entertain but to expose the hypocrisy, arrogance, and moral bankruptcy of wealthy Armenians who parade as pillars of society, and benefactors.

When an impoverished widow with a sick daughter, following the advice of friends and neighbors, applies for financial support to an Armenian benevolent institution in Istanbul, she is told she must wait two or three weeks until her case is thoroughly investigated. When she explains that she has no source of income or savings, not even enough money to buy coal with which to heat her room (it’s winter), she is told by Ghougas effendi, the central character of FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY, and one of the pillars and benefactors mentioned above: “Impossible, no way, can’t be done! We have rules and regulations here. No investigation, no money. We don’t know who you are and where you come from. You could be lying to us. We must first make sure what you are telling us is true. We are not in the habit giving away money to whoever walks in here, understand? For all we know you could be a whore.”

Ghougas effendi, like most of Odian’s fictional characters, is the quintessential Ottomanized Armenian. He sprinkles his speech with Turkish words, expressions, and proverbs, among them “pij,” “pezeveng,” “khaltakh,” (freely translated: bastard, pimp, floozy).

It is to be noted that, in addition to being a great novelist, Odian was also an investigative reporter. He invented nothing. To his contemporary readers, all his fictional characters had real and recognizable counterparts.

When he is publicly exposed as a fraud, a liar, and a rapist, Ghougas effendi muses: “Let them bark all they want… After I make a few generous financial contributions to the hospital, orphanage, and to a few newspapers, I will be once more a respected pillar of society.” Which is exactly what happens.

I challenge anyone to read FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY and say he is proud to be an Armenian.

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

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NOTES AND COMMENTS

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The most effective counterargument is not questioning the common sense and decency of an adversary but mentioning a fact, no matter how marginal, that has been ignored.

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I never say anything about my fellow men that I am not prepared to say about myself. Lying to others is bad enough. Lying to oneself is infinitely worse.

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Suicide is a luxury the very poor can’t afford because they are too busy trying to survive.

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In a corrupt democracy as soon as you throw one set of rascals out, another set moves in. Very often voting consists in rejecting a barrel of rotten apples for the sake of another.

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To write means barking up the wrong tree in a desert.

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If you think you know better, sooner or later you will run across someone who knows better.

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Never underestimate the strength of underdogs and the weakness of top dogs.

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The worst thing a mathematician can say about the work of another mathematician is, “That’s not math – it’s religion.”

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Only after we reject all role models we may discover our true selves. Role models, even the very best, have the validity of hearsay evidence.

#

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 05, 2006

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GET A LOAD OF THIS!

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Bosses, bishops, and benefactors are Yervant Odian’s favorite targets too, and he is much tougher on them than I am, perhaps because concentrated as they were in Istanbul, the way beasts of prey are in a zoo, they could be observed and studied closely and at leisure.

When Ghougas effendi, the main character of FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY (a wealthy merchant and one of the most repellent characters in all of Armenian literature), when Ghougas effendi dies a horribly slow death of a knife-wound sustained in a bordello scuffle, his funeral service is conducted “by the Patriarch, six bishops, fourteen vartabeds, and thirty-two kahanas.” In his eulogy, Odian writes, the Patriarch speaks of him as one “who enjoyed the affection and respect of the entire community…. His rectitude and unassuming nature were legendary and made of him an exemplary husband and father. His family was an altar whose sanctity he defended until his last breath. He dedicated his entire life to three principles – family, honor, and morality. Even in his generosity, which was boundless, he did his utmost to uphold these principles and consistently refused to help anyone who did not share his unwavering dedication to family, honor, and morality. To his friends and acquaintances he was a wise mentor, and to the perplexed, a lighthouse. Even a glancing acquaintance with him was enough to make the confused and lost to return onto the righteous path…” and so on and so forth. The Patriarch unload this verbal crap with the expertise of someone who has done it all his life; so much so that even those in the congregation, who know better, burst into tears. Who says you can’t fool all the people all the time?

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[ara baliozian]

Friday, October 06, 2006

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THE USES AND ABUSES OF THE PAST

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Guenter Grass (contemporary German author and winner of the Nobel Prize): “History is a clogged toilet. We flush and flush, but the shit keeps rising.” Why is it that we Armenians are incapable of producing such a sentence?

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By ignoring the dark side of our history, we sink deeper into filth. Is it conceivable that we will wake up from this nightmare only on the day we drown?

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To pretend that we had nothing to do in shaping our destiny as a nation and by extension our identity, or to pretend the Genocide was engineered by the doubletalk of the West and the savagery of the Turks, is to admit that adopting a passive stance has become an integral part of our identity, and so far we have done nothing to expose this scandal and to combat against it.

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The average Armenian thinks all he has to do to discharge his patriotic duty is to make periodic contributions to our Panchoonies.

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The average Greek today brags about Socrates but ignores the fact that it was average Greeks like him who condemned him to death. This is true not only of Greeks but also patriots of all nations. Patriotism is unthinkable without propaganda. No one who knows and understands history says, “My country, right or wrong!”

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When Jesus said “They know not what they do,” he was talking about the average citizen who is capable of committing the most unspeakable crimes with a clear conscience on the grounds that his conduct is motivated by such selfless and noble principles as obedience to established laws and love of country. Even as he sinks deeper and deeper into filth, he pleads not guilty by reason of unawareness and ignorance.

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[ara baliozian]

Saturday, October 07, 2006

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WHO LOVES ARMENIANS?

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Let us not speculate about others and the rest of the world, most of which may not even be aware of our existence, and if it is, may not give a damn whether we live or die. Let us begin with ourselves. Do Armenians love Armenians? Is an Armenian capable of loving himself? Gregory of Narek or Naregatsi (our Dante and Shakespeare combined) was not particularly fond of himself; and very much like Yervant Odian, most of our ablest writers had no illusions about their fellow countrymen. As for our partisans: the less said about them the better. You may now draw your own conclusions.

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ATHEISTS

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My guess is there are as many atheists and agnostics in the Muslim Middle East as there are in the Christian West. If they refuse to stand up and be counted, it may be because martyrdom is incompatible with negation. It is easier to die for something you believe in than for something you don’t believe in.

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ON TRUST

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On the day Muslims see a connection between religion and progress or capacity to inflict pain on others without committing suicide, they will be tempted to convert to Christianity because their need to live and to win must be greater than their trust in their mullahs.

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ON FOLLOWING ORDERS

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When the Lord ordered Abraham to butcher his own son, Abraham did not object or ask any questions. Ever since then absolute and blind obedience has been the source of some of the most unspeakable crimes against humanity.

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ON PROPAGANDA

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Everybody engages in it, why shouldn’t we? One tentative answer: It hasn’t been working for us.

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THE REALITY OF WORDS

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Truth is only a word, like god and infinity. We have no way of knowing if it exists; and if it exists, whether or not our mind can grasp it.

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BOOMERANG

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By making me a charlatan, my education provided me with the means to recognize charlatanism when I see it.

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NEGATIVE ROLE MODELS

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Great men of wisdom have said many foolish things. We who are neither great nor wise must be careful to speak only words of wisdom.

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ON HAPPINESS

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It is possible to experience brief intervals of happiness, or the illusion of it, provided one forgets yesterday’s blunders and to ignore tomorrow’s hardships.

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ON STYLE

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Even when one is brief, clear, and impossible to misunderstand, one will be misunderstood. It comes with the territory. You may choose your style but you cannot choose your readers.

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 08, 2006

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ON THE MARK FOLEY SCANDAL

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Most crimes are never solved. Likewise, most cover-ups are never uncovered. Placed in this context, the Mark Foley cover-up makes perfect sense.

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ON ORGANIZED RELIGIONS

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If you have been successful in fooling millions of people for a thousand years or more, you have a good chance of fooling them for at least another thousand.

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GOOD VERSUS BAD IDEAS

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Even the best ideas are vulnerable to perversion. A good idea in step one may be a bad idea in step two. This explains why very often it is not easy to discriminate good from bad ideas.

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ON EDUCATION

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The true aim of education consists in preparing young minds to oppose injustice even if doing so may be against one’s own self-interest.

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ON UNDERSTANDING

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Understanding is acquired less by means of explanations and more through painful experiences.

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ON WRITING

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In a school textbook on how to write, I read: “Turn someone you dislike into an animal.” I have never done that, but I have turned someone I disliked into two animals by calling him “Jack S. Avanakian.”

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Franz Kafka: “In the battle between the world and you, back the world.” He should have added: To write means backing yourself even when you know you are backing a sure loser.”

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[ara baliozian]

Monday, October 09, 2006

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In the preamble of Arshak’s THE SOLITARY WOLFE: NOVELLAS (700 pages, Yerevan: 2005) we read the following: “In the 20th Century predatory nations used religion and ideology as weapons with which to annihilate their enemies. By contrast, we the naïve were taken in by new and old religions and sacrificed our homeland to them.”

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We the naïve? I find that hard to swallow. I was brought up to believe Armenians are just about the smartest people on earth. So much so that even when I was taken in by idiots I thought of myself as smart. It took me not just years but decades to catch up with reality. Which may suggest that neither the Ottomans nor the Soviets were as successful in brainwashing us as we were in brainwashing ourselves.

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Bernard-Henri Levy (French critic and philosopher): “The Pope’s interpretation of jihad may have been offensive, but infinitely more offensive is justifying in the name of Islam human bombs, 9/11, the stoning of women caught in adultery, the beheading of a Jewish journalist, and the indiscriminate massacre of fellow Muslims not only in Darfur but also in Iraq, as they stand by the gate of a mosque. The Pope should have mentioned these things.”

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[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

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HOW TO COMBAT CORRUPTION

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Corruption means much more than the penetration of the social fabric by crooks and bloodsuckers; corruption means the systematic alienation of all honest men, in the same way that mediocrity means the systematic alienation of all those whose aim is to achieve excellence.

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Corruption is as old as mankind; so are ways of combating it. History provides us with many examples. The following suggestions are based on methods that have been employed in the past with some degree of success.

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To editors and publishers: print more articles, case histories, and commentaries on corruption and less on Turkish denials; and if that’s too much to ask, adopt an equal opportunity policy: for every headline on Turks publish one on Armenians -- and I don’t mean bald-headed tennis players.

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To lawyers: provide pro bono services to victims of corruption, take the bloodsuckers to court, and if necessary go to jail. They may jail a few, but they don’t have enough jails to lock up everyone.

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To benevolent institutions: withdraw financial support from organizations that lack high standards of accountability.

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To tourists: let the relevant agencies and bureaucracies know that henceforth you plan to stay home or travel only to countries where you are welcome.

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To those who say some of these tactics may penalize the victims more than the victimizers, I say, maybe, but for only a limited time (less than a year or at most two). Which is far more preferable than the alternative of adopting a wait-and-see and hope-for-the-best stance until the rotten structure collapses under its own weight (which may take forty or fifty years).

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History is clear on this point: corrupt power structures do not as a rule reform themselves. Consider the cases of the Roman Empire, and more recently of the Ottoman and Soviet Empires? This much said, I am willing to concede that all this talk about combating corruption in our context might as well be an academic exercise in futility because we are as much victims of corruption, mediocrity, and incompetence in the Diaspora as they are in the Homeland. That’s because the number one concern of our self-appointed elites is number one, and to hell with underdogs and victims, even when they happen to be our brothers.

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[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

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MEN AND BOOKS.

GOD AND THE DEVIL.

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I approach a new book as if it held a secret that may change the course of my life. If most books disappoint me, it may be because I expect too much from them.

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If most men disappoint us, it may be because we make too many unreasonable demands on them. On the day we convince ourselves that the average man is very much like ourselves, a bundle of contradictions and a self-centered bastard with the potential of a hero or a saint, we may be more willing to see the potential and to ignore the actual.

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Divine impartiality makes sense only if both sides of a conflict are evenly matched. But when a hoodlum rapes and kills a child, we can no longer speak of divine impartiality, only of satanic indifference.

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For millions of years men believed in an Unnamable and Incomprehensible Being who was the source of good as well as evil. Traces of this belief survive today in the Lord’s Prayer when we say to God “Lead us not into temptation,” which we are taught to believe belongs to the Devil’s agenda.

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By departmentalizing the Incomprehensible into God and the Devil, so-called civilized man has allowed bloodthirsty fanatics to commit all kinds of atrocities in the name of God, when in fact it’s in the name of the Other one.

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Whenever pundits speak of Muslim aberration they feel obliged to cite the Crusades, religious wars, and the Inquisition, completely ignoring the fact that Christian aberrations belong to the irrevocable past, and that Muslim terrorism is rooted less in the Koran and more in money from oil -- they have so much of it that they think they can take over the world.

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As the last but one Pope said when he visited a mosque, both Christians and Muslims believe in the same God who is love, mercy, and compassion. What the good Pope failed to say is that what we believe may well be propaganda.

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[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 12, 2006

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People who say, “It can’t be done,” are either opportunistic cowards or apologists for the status quo. Avoid them. What cancer is to the body, they are to creativity and daring. It is better to fail on your own terms than to succeed on theirs.

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On the day you find your right path, success and failure, greatness and mediocrity, misery and joy will become irrelevant concepts.

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The license of a preacher who does not practice what he preaches should be revoked. To say, “Do as I say, not as I do” is to legitimize abuse.

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To speak of abuse in our environment means to succeed only in uniting the abusers against you.

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Orhan Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize for two reasons: (one) in addition to being a good writer, he enjoyed Turkish popular support, and (two) he exposed the lies of Turkish propaganda. You may now guess why so far no Armenian writer has been awarded the Prize.

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If we don’t betray them to the authorities, we beat them up or silence them. For Armenians divide themselves only against their enemies…. If you read the biographies of our greatest writers… What am I saying? There are no biographies of Oshagan or Zarian.

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[ara baliozian]

Friday, October 13, 2006

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TWO SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

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The first says our leaders are our saviors, and the second, they are our dividers and destroyers. If you subscribe to the first school, you are a dupe of our propaganda; if you subscribe to the second, it means you trust the judgment of our writers (from Khorenatsi and Yeghishe in the 5th Century to Massikian and Zarian in the 20th) more than the charlatanism of our wheeler-dealers – sorry, I meant to say, our political leaders, bosses for short.

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LITERATURE AND PROPAGANDA

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Propaganda is more popular than literature because disoriented people prefer lies that validate their prejudices and fallacies. Those who say Blacks are savages and Jews are rats will never think of themselves as swine. What Blacks and Jews are to racists and anti-Semites, Turks are to us. Turks are what binds Armenian to Armenian. They are our glue. Delete Turks from our consciousness and our communities will collapse like a house of cards. Literature is less popular because it exposes contradictions and charlatans who speak with a forked tongue.

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CRITICIZING CRITICS

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If you are in the business of exposing contradictions, your critics will detect contradictions in everything you say; and if you say you are against A, B, and C, they will accuse you of all three aberrations plus X, Y, and Z.

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ASSUMPTIONS AND AMBITIONS

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Because we come from a long line of victims, we cannot be victimizers, or so we would like to believe. It is more accurate to say, however, that as perennial victims we think of progress only in terms of how soon we can behave like the opposition, even if it means victimizing our own brothers.

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[ara baliozian]

Saturday, October 14, 2006

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APOLOGISTS OF THE STATUS QUO

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Very much like our self-appointed Turcocentric pundits, they are a dime a dozen and they come in all sizes, shapes, and colors of the rainbow, and they operate on the assumption that they know things you don’t know because they have sources of information available to no one but themselves. Even more to the point, unlike you, they love and understand their country and fellow countrymen. Theirs is therefore a superior brand of patriotism. And their reasoning goes something like this: our problems are not ours alone; we did not invent them; rather they are an integral part of the human condition; they will be found even in the most prosperous, progressive, and developed democracies in the world, including the United States of America. Internecine divisions and conflicts, corruption in high places, catastrophic policy blunders, fraud, mafias, drug trafficking, homelessness, unemployment, destitution, prostitution…these things have been with us since time immemorial and they will probably be with us as long as there is life on earth.

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What these apologists neglect to tell you is that the overwhelming majority of nations around the world did not experience six hundred years of Ottoman oppression followed by its equally nefarious Soviet variant, neither were they serial victims of massacres and a genocide which, according to the perpetrators and their allies, may well be a figment of our imagination.

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True, the majority of uncivilized as well as civilized nations have had their share of traitors and collaborators with the enemy, but, with the possible exception of Ireland, treason and betrayal are not an integral part of their collective experience and identity.

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All people tend to blame their problems on others, but they do not adopt the blame-game as their favorite national sport. Furthermore, no other nation is experiencing the same high rate of alienation, assimilation, and emigration.

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Somewhere Avedik Issahakian (not a dissident or critic, but a poet) has said: “We have been thrice cursed with earthquakes, bloodthirsty neighbors, and brainless leaders.” He should have added “and brainwashed apologists and opportunistic academics and monomaniacal pundits, all of whom enjoy the support of Big Money and are united only in stifling criticism and dissent.”

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Speaking of Big Money, in this morning’s paper I read the following quotation by Jack Welch (retired chairman of General Electric): “You are the last person to know who the jerks are, because they are all putting on a face for you.”

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 15, 2006

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NOTES / COMMENTS

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Where the power of the few is dependent on the ignorance of the many, ignorance will be subsidized and knowledge censored.

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To brag is to expose one’s limitations.

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From ideas I disagree with I have a better chance to learn.

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The most important thing that a master can say to his disciple is: “If you think of me as your master, I have taught you nothing.”

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You can’t learn to ride a bike on a mattress.

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There is more wisdom in silence than in speech. Sermons and speeches are delivered by charlatans to an audience of fools.

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You cannot step into the same river twice not because the river has changed but because your perceptions run swifter than the fastest current.

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Overheard on the radio: “A pessimist is a better informed optimist.”

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[ara baliozian]

Monday, October 16, 2006

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THIS HAS BEEN SAID BEFORE

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It is said of Confucius that because he was honest he failed in politics. You may now draw your own conclusions.

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Is there anything I can say that hasn’t been said before at least a thousand times by far better men than myself? And I don’t just mean Greek philosophers, Indian mystics, Jewish rabbis, and German metaphysicians, but our own writers.

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“I don’t give a damn about the people,” one of our academics once said to me. “I care only about my children!” What if they grow up to be selfish monsters? I didn’t say that. I too can be diplomatic once in a long while, when I set mind to it.

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In whatever I write I do not say I am right and you are wrong. What I say and what I have been saying all along is that, since I was wrong most of my life, it is conceivable that in the near or distant future you too may reach the same conclusion. Again, I am not saying or implying this is what will happen. What I am saying is that there is a very remote possibility.

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When you hear someone speaking of tolerance, be careful not to react with violent hostility.

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Diogenes (404-323), Greek philosopher: “The smart slave rules his master.”

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Muhammad (570-632): “Trust in God, but tie your camel.”

They now trust their camel and tie God. But that’s the way it is with men whenever they try to put theory into practice.

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In YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US: THE TRUTH ABOUT BULLSHIT by Laura Penny (Toronto, 2005), I read: “Bullshit is all about getting away with something, or getting someone to buy something in the broadest possible sense, which means covering arses or kissing them.” Crude, my style.

Further down: “Nobody leaves office because they f***ed up; no, they want to spend more time with their families. No mogul says, I do it all for the money, suckers. They blah-dee-blah on about the company, or some magnificent abstract idea the company embodies.”

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There are poor people because there are wealthy people, in the same way that there are slaves because there are masters. If the wealthy are not ashamed of their wealth it’s because they support publishers, teachers, and preachers all of whom combine to misrepresent greed as one of the seven cardinal virtues.

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[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

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MORE ON B.S.

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In her book, YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US: THE TRUTH ABOUT BULLSHIT (Toronto, 2005), Laura Penny speaks about b.s. as if it were a recent development. She ignores the fact that b.s. existed even in the Golden Age of Greece (5th Century B.C.). Socrates lived (and died) exposing it.

*

One of Laura Penny’s endnotes reads:

“Ben Bagdikian has been studying media consolidation since the early 1980s, and his latest book is THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY (Beacon Pres, 2004). He has a Web site at http: /www.benbagdikian.com/”

*

To the perpetrators, a million deaths is not even a statistic, it is victory. If the Nazis had won, the Holocaust would be remembered today as the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

*

When propaganda is confused with knowledge, it becomes worse than ignorance.

*

“Is it possible to be a writer in this day and age?” a young poet wants to know. My answer: “If you place survival over literature, choose survival.”

*

“Speak truth to power!” Armenian translation: Tell them what they want to hear and if necessary swear on a stack of Bibles.

*

With the connivance of the State, organized religions preach truth but practice lies. To put it more bluntly: when two sets of wheeler-dealers conspire, the result will be war and massacre.

*

When during an argument I quoted Nikol Aghbalian to a fellow Armenian, he said: “I knew Nikol Aghbalian and I don’t think he was a great man.” Why look for greatness in honesty? Is not honesty in an Armenian greater than greatness?

#

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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

Whenever I read self-help or how-to books I note that I have been breaking all their rules, which can mean only one thing: I must be doing something right.

*

A true disciple surpasses his master because he begins where the master ends.

*

The aim of philosophy is to expose b.s., including the b.s. of philosophers.

*

Know thyself also means to know that the self is invisible, unpredictable, unprintable, and unknowable.

*

A blunder can be either a springboard (if we learn from it) or a cage (if we refuse to acknowledge it).

*

A favorite Armenian technique of counter-argument is to be so shamelessly arrogant and brazenly absurd as to reduce the adversary to a pulp of helpless disgust, hopeless despair, and silence.

*

“Try to be more like Mark Twain,” I have been advised on more than one occasion. “A touch of humor may make your ideas more palatable to the average reader.” And I can imagine friends advising Mark Twain to be more like Emerson if he wanted to be taken seriously.

#

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 19, 2006

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THE CAPITALIST AND THE PAUPER

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

When warned by his prosperous host not to spit on the floor, Diogenes is said to have spat on the man’s face explaining he could not find a meaner receptacle. I challenge anyone not to love such a man.

*

ON STYLE

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

If you have a choice between a long paragraph and a brief sentence, choose the sentence. Between a sentence and a single word, choose the word. Between a word of two or more syllables and a monosyllable, choose the latter. Between a monosyllable and silence, why say anything?

*

FROM BUNS TO BUGGERS

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

When in his famous Berlin speech Kennedy identified himself as a “Berliner,” he did not know and no one warned him that a “berliner” is a bun, in the same way that a frankfurter is a sausage, a hamburger is a hamburger, and bugger is short for Bulgarian. Now, to say “I am a berliner” may not be as bad as saying “I am a bugger,” but it is in that neighborhood.

*

SEMANTICS 101

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

There is a difference between smart and smart aleck, and between wise and wisenheimer. We are not smart, we are alecks; neither are we wise, we are heimers.

*

ON PROGRESS

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

We owe progress more to the evolution of the thumb and the invention of zero and less to the so-called greatness and nobility of the human spirit.

*

ON BEING OBJECTIVE

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

If I have a low opinion of my fellow Armenians, it may be because I have an even lower opinion of my fellow men, myself included.

*

MEMO

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

I write to remind myself, and in reminding myself I hope to remind others that it takes honesty and courage to be objective, and no matter how objective we are we can never be objective enough.

*

CONFESSION I

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

Charlatans are not born but made.

*

CONFESSION II

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

In my younger days I produced a great deal of chauvinist crapola because as a slum-dweller I was dependent on the charity of swine.

#

[ara baliozian]

Friday, October 20, 2006

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

ARMENIANS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

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

ON HORESEBACK THROUGH ASIA MINOR by Frederick Burnaby (originally published in 1898, reissued in 2002) contains many references, not all of them flattering, to Armenians – their monasteries, churches, priests, bishops, officials, bazaars, money-lenders, newspapers, schools, women and so on.

“Armenian women were closely veiled whenever they left the house,” we read here, and: “In many instances, an Armenian was not permitted to see his wife before marriage, and had to take her, as the Yankees say, ‘on spec.’”

Elsewhere: “An Armenian lady is in no way educated. She is the slave of her husband, and has to do all sorts of menial work for him – wash his feet, rub them dry, and wait at table. From her earliest childhood a girl is brought up to consider herself as a slave in her father’s house. Until Armenians abandon these barbarous customs, their so-called Christianity will not do them much good.”

*

In an appendix titled “The Corruption of Armenian Officials,” we are told Armenians are divided into Gregorians, Protestants, and Catholics, and their officials, in addition to being “disgustingly servile,” are as corrupt as their Turkish counterparts.

To readers who may begin to suspect that the author may have been a Turcophile, I suggest they read Yervant Odian’s realistic novels. But we don’t have to travel back in time to verify Burnaby’s observations. Let us ask instead if anything has changed now that we live in a free and democratic country like the United States.

*

On the subject of the Armenian press, Burnaby has this to say: “Armenian newspapers frequently publish news which cannot be agreeable to the Government, and they are not interfered by the authorities.”

What would happen today if one of our editors were to publish an unflattering article about one of our bosses or benefactors? No need to use our imagination here because when one of our editors did exactly that, he was dragged to court, almost driven out of business on a legal technicality, suffered a stroke, and almost died. A grim reminder of the old French adage, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

*

Another one of Burnaby’s observation that is worth quoting: “The Armenians who profess the Armenian faith detest any member of their community who has accepted the Roman Catholic or Protestant doctrines, the Christians being much more intolerant than the Turks.”

*

About the author we read: “Frederick Gustavus Burnaby was an extraordinary person. Reputed to be the strongest man in the British Army, he was also fluent in seven languages…. He spent five months riding across some of the cruelest winter landscape in the world before hastening home to write this best-seller.”

*

Please note that the Index is misleading. The references to Armenians in the text are many more than the number of pages cited in the Index.

#

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, October 21, 2006

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

DISAPPOINTMENT

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

A surprise call from a gentle reader asking about my health. “I heard you were sick,” he said. When I told him there was nothing wrong with me, he was inconsolable.

*

ON SO-CALLED FACTS

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

When a man deals only in facts and certainties, you can be sure of one thing: the facts on which his certainties are based have been carefully and cunningly selected, tailored, and doctored.

*

SOUND BITES

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

In a totalitarian environment to think for oneself can be a capital offense.

*

In my youth I never asked myself “Am I right?” because I was always right.

*

Turks called us their “most loyal millet.” By loyal they meant subservient or, in the words of an English traveler, “disgustingly servile” – a noteworthy distinction.

*

A jackass does not ask himself, “Am I a jackass?” It is the same with charlatans and dupes.

*

I try to be objective; therefore I am an enemy of the people.

*

Cowards are better equipped at playing it safe than heroes.

*

Stanislaw Lec (1909-1966), Polish writer and dissident: “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

*

“The mob shouts with one big mouth and eats with a thousand little ones.”

#

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 22, 2006

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

HONESTY: A DEFINITION

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

Public relations, political rhetoric, advertisements, and propaganda combine to legitimize bullshit and to redefine honesty as “disguised dishonesty.”

*

In America you have to advertise even when what you are promoting is a book exposing the damage advertisements inflict on our perception of reality.

*

ON TURKS

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

The most important issue that unites us today is the Genocide, which also means (in the words of both Chekhov and Sartre, an unlikely pair) that the most lasting bond among people is hatred of the enemy.

*

Our hatred of Turks may unite us, but what if this same hatred may make us more like them? Or rather, what we think of them.

*

Whenever I speak of Armenian hatred of Turks I am reminded that Armenians don’t hate Turks or anyone else, they only love justice.

I am willing to concede that whenever I speak of Armenians I have a natural tendency to project; and ever since I was a child I saw Turks the way they are depicted in Armenian cartoons today: fat, mustachioed slobs in shalvars and fez wielding a yataghan dripping with blood – not exactly lovable characters, you might say.

*

A VICIOUS CIRCLE

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

Bullshit is widespread because it works; it works because most men are dupes; and they are dupes because their educational system was designed by bullshitters.

#

[phantom22]

Ara,

 

Is it human nature that the perceptions of some is absolutely distorted?

 

I totally understand the situation that you reflected upon! As far as the "gentle reader" is concerned, God has punished you for your sins of taking on the so-called "bulwarks" of our community. You burst his bubble!

 

There are many Armenians and odars alike, who are very disappointed that I am healthy, disease and disability free and look 20 years younger than my chronological age. As far as they are concerned, I died 24 years ago. No scientific proof otherwise, no advanced scientific test could convince them that I am in perfect health and harbor no disease whatsoever. It would go against their belief system to believe this to be so.

 

 

Saturday, October 21, 2006

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

DISAPPOINTMENT

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

A surprise call from a gentle reader asking about my health. “I heard you were sick,” he said. When I told him there was nothing wrong with me, he was inconsolable.

*

ON SO-CALLED FACTS

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

When a man deals only in facts and certainties, you can be sure of one thing: the facts on which his certainties are based have been carefully and cunningly selected, tailored, and doctored.

*

SOUND BITES

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

In a totalitarian environment to think for oneself can be a capital offense.

*

In my youth I never asked myself “Am I right?” because I was always right.

*

Turks called us their “most loyal millet.” By loyal they meant subservient or, in the words of an English traveler, “disgustingly servile” – a noteworthy distinction.

*

A jackass does not ask himself, “Am I a jackass?” It is the same with charlatans and dupes.

*

I try to be objective; therefore I am an enemy of the people.

*

Cowards are better equipped at playing it safe than heroes.

*

Stanislaw Lec (1909-1966), Polish writer and dissident: “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

*

“The mob shouts with one big mouth and eats with a thousand little ones.”

#

[ara baliozian]

Monday, October 23, 2006

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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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

Once, when I asked a fellow Armenian if we are from the same planet,” he replied: “We are not even from the same galaxy.”

*

Sometimes understanding a Turkish enemy can be as difficult as understanding an Armenian friend.

*

God did not create Armenians in His own image, Turks did.

*

Fortune Cookie: “The only rose without a thorn is friendship.”

*

We emphasize the positive in us and cover up the negative without realizing that doing so amounts to engaging in deception, which is probably much worse that all our negatives combined.

*

If we assume that in every conflict there is right and wrong, or good guys and bad guys, we shall have to conclude that we will have peace in this world only when the good guys doubt their goodness seven times every day.

*

I would define a bad guy as a good guy who never questions or doubts his goodness. Certainty is the source of all evil.

*

God has visited mankind with countless disasters and catastrophes like floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, storms, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, epidemics, starvation, and son on, but men continue to worship and thank him.

*

When reminded of Stalinism or jihadism, defenders of Marxism and Islam will tell you that all systems, including Christianity, have had their share of abusers. But that to me is the best reason why we should question the validity or usefulness of all ideologies and organized religions.

#