as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, November 08, 2007

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OUR PROBLEMS & THEIR SOLUTIONS

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You tell a self-assessed leader of men that he couldn’t even lead a mutt to the nearest fire hydrant, or a self-assessed genius that he doesn’t even qualify as an inbred moron, and you will not only fail to convince them but you will also acquire an enemy for life. I speak from experience.

We may not know or understand one another but there is one thing we can say with some degree of certainty and that is, we are not who we think we are and no matter how hard we try we will never be.

Identity, image, meaning, truth – these are poorly defined concepts that we assume to be certainties within our grasp. Hence the endless controversies, arguments, misunderstandings, conflicts, and ultimately, wars and massacres. From Diogenes in search of an honest man in broad daylight, to semanticists studying the meaning of words, and philosophers exploring the meaning of meaning: we swim in a sea of uncertainty and we expect to be believed even when we don’t believe.

The hardest part about solving a problem is not finding its solution but acknowledging its existence. A problem that is (a) clearly stated and ( acknowledged is almost solved. These two conditions will never be met in an environment dominated by sermonizers and speechifiers who speak with a forked tongue, and ghazetajis whose central message is, we have no problems because there is nothing wrong with us. The problem, you will be informed, is not with us but with the Turks. Armenians who know better however will tell you the Turks are not our real problem; our real problem is the Turk within. The Turks divided and ruled us for six hundred years. Who divides us today if not the Turk within? If we have failed to solve our problems so far it may be because our speechifiers, sermonizers, and ghazetajis, have consistently refused to acknowledge its existence.

#

 

[Louise]

Thursday, November 08, 2007

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OUR PROBLEMS & THEIR SOLUTIONS

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

You tell a self-assessed leader of men that he couldn’t even lead a mutt to the nearest fire hydrant, or a self-assessed genius that he doesn’t even qualify as an inbred moron, and you will not only fail to convince them but you will also acquire an enemy for life. I speak from experience.

We may not know or understand one another but there is one thing we can say with some degree of certainty and that is, we are not who we think we are and no matter how hard we try we will never be.

Identity, image, meaning, truth – these are poorly defined concepts that we assume to be certainties within our grasp. Hence the endless controversies, arguments, misunderstandings, conflicts, and ultimately, wars and massacres. From Diogenes in search of an honest man in broad daylight, to semanticists studying the meaning of words, and philosophers exploring the meaning of meaning: we swim in a sea of uncertainty and we expect to be believed even when we don’t believe.

The hardest part about solving a problem is not finding its solution but acknowledging its existence. A problem that is (a) clearly stated and ( acknowledged is almost solved. These two conditions will never be met in an environment dominated by sermonizers and speechifiers who speak with a forked tongue, and ghazetajis whose central message is, we have no problems because there is nothing wrong with us. The problem, you will be informed, is not with us but with the Turks. Armenians who know better however will tell you the Turks are not our real problem; our real problem is the Turk within. The Turks divided and ruled us for six hundred years. Who divides us today if not the Turk within? If we have failed to solve our problems so far it may be because our speechifiers, sermonizers, and ghazetajis, have consistently refused to acknowledge its existence.

#

--------------------------------

I am reading the memories of Missak Khralian which have been published in armenian in

Bulgaria in 1938 and have just been translated in French. He was born in Palu, about the

first years of the 20th century. The whole caza was under the rule of Beks Kurds of Turks.

I can assure you that never an Armenian would have been as savage and cruel as those people.

They were ferocious beasts.

 

 

 

 

[ara baliozian]

Friday, November 09, 2007

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PAPER TIGERS AND DRAGON SLAYERS

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Our revolutionaries in their Ottoman phase may plead not guilty on grounds of inexperience, naïveté, the overconfidence of youth, or even insanity. But what is one to make of their present Turcocentric phase and after a century in which to ponder and reflect on their blunders?

*

If I were to define our Turcocentric pundits, I would say they are paper tigers that like to identify themselves as dragon-slayers, or harmless aghbers who think Armenian history begins and ends in 1915, or Wizard-of-Oz types full of sound and fury signifying vochinch…

*

The greatest concern of a man in power is to establish his legitimacy perhaps because he knows it to be a figment of his febrile megalomaniacal imagination.

*

And speaking of megalomania: to quote the Bible is not the same as quoting God. Neither Moses nor the prophets were gods. They only spoke in His name. So did Mohammad. If God ever writes a book, there will be one and only one version of it. Because God neither rewrites nor edits, neither does he abridge or expand.

*

Once in a while, to cut me down to size, our philistines like to remind me that I am not the only Armenian writer who has been rejected or ignored by his fellow Armenians. To which I can only say, “That is why I speak with the strength of many.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

--------------------------------

I am reading the memories of Missak Khralian which have been published in armenian in

Bulgaria in 1938 and have just been translated in French. He was born in Palu, about the

first years of the 20th century. The whole caza was under the rule of Beks Kurds of Turks.

I can assure you that never an Armenian would have been as savage and cruel as those people.

They were ferocious beasts.

 

i suggest you also read the memoirs of Tolstoy's daughter who witnessed the massacres in Van -- she was a nurse. at one point she writes: after a while i couldn't tell the difference between armenians and turks... you will never get the whole picture if your read only one side of the story.

[Louise]

i suggest you also read the memoirs of Tolstoy's daughter who witnessed the massacres in Van -- she was a nurse. at one point she writes: after a while i couldn't tell the difference between armenians and turks... you will never get the whole picture if your read only one side of the story.

----------------------------

 

I'll try to find that book.

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, November 10, 2007

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THE NATURE OF NARRATIVE

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What we call reality is an infinite number of facts and factors some of which go back to the origin of the universe. A narrative, by contrast, is an artificial construct that consists of a carefully (even if unconsciously) selected number of facts and factors with a specific aim in mind, such as a plot, a thesis, or the truth, or rather a version of it. Even a so-called objective and impartial narrative is based on a very limited number of facts that are emphasized at the expense of others that are ignored or covered up or shunted aside as marginal or irrelevant. This may explain why there are as many versions of the past as there are historians. This may also explain why man cannot create a single worm but he has created ten thousand gods.

*

For every belief system there will be another that contradicts it.

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For every truth there will be ten thousand doubters and twice as many liars.

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In politics, fiction is referred to as propaganda.

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If you have a receptive audience, it’s amazing the amount of b.s. you can dish out and get away with it.

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In a book titled ON BULLSHIT, a contemporary American philosopher asks: “Is the love of truth itself merely another example of bullshit?”

*

MEMO TO OUR EDITORS

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In the Op-Ed page of our paper this morning a headline reads: “Press freedom is still just a dream in some countries.”

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 11, 2007

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WORSE THAN A CRIME

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“It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder.” The French diplomat who delivered that line was not talking about our genocide but he might as well have been. It was a major crime on the part of the perpetrators, no doubt about that, but it was also and above all a colossal blunder on ours – a blunder in so far as we let it happen by making ourselves vulnerable to them, by freely choosing, as it were, the worst case scenario, and this notwithstanding the many warnings, previews, trial-runs, and rehearsals of 1894, 1895, 1896, and 1909. And what is even more incomprehensible to me is that to this day we ignore or cover up that aspect of the Crime perhaps because we care more about our image than about understanding reality, as if political leadership meant leading the people to hell and pretending it’s for their own good, or like shepherds, leading the sheep to the slaughterhouse after protecting them from wolves. Don’t think for a single moment that I am making unreasonable demands on our leadership. Neither am I asking for greatness or vision or prophetic insight. We don’t need learned scholars or eminent historians or charismatic leaders to point out where we went wrong. What we need are honest men with common sense willing to place the interests and welfare of the people above their contemptible little egos. This is not something that requires two or three generations, as our pro-establishment dupes like to say. This is a decision that can be taken in an instant. And speaking of two or three generations: once in a while I watch the Armenian hour on TV emanating from Toronto, mercifully only once a week. Most of it consists of videos of half-clad and heavily made-up girls dancing and gyrating provocatively in the manner of their best American counterparts. And I cannot help reflecting that if these zilli cheltiks can learn to mimic the worst that the West has to offer, why can’t our leaders learn to emulate the best or even the average?

#

 

"Our political parties have been of no political use to us.

Their greatest enemy is free speech" Gostan Zarian

 

 

 

 

[ara baliozian]

Monday, November 12, 2007

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THE LIGHT OF REASON

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It has been observed that on recovering their sight, blind men take refuge in dark rooms. You may now draw your own conclusions.

*

An Armenian poet and academic from Yerevan, during a visit to the U.S., made fun of our Turkish surnames. Later, he was exposed as a prominent member of a mafia dynasty. What does that prove, you may ask. Simply this: a man will cling to any flimsy idea to assert his superiority over his fellow men.

*

To believe someone in authority means to allow him to recreate you in his own image.

*

When a friendly forum moderator once asked me if he should delete an offensive comment dealing with my person, I said, “No. Free speech allows everyone the same right to make an ass of himself in public.”

*

All political leaders have adversaries and the chances are what these adversaries say about them is more objective and therefore closer to the truth than what they and their partisans say about themselves.

*

Insults have a longer lifespan that compliments perhaps because they are more solidly rooted in reality.

#

 

 

 

 

"Our political parties have been of no political use to us.

Their greatest enemy is free speech"

Gostan Zarian

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

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THE ORIGIN OF ALL SINS

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5:45 AM

What if we never quite outgrow the infantile misconception that we are the center of the world? What if most of our problems and aberrations stem from our inability to realize that so is everyone else? What if belief systems, ideologies and their perversions, such as racism, nationalism, and fascism, enjoy ready and wide acceptance because they are extensions of this misconception? My God, my Country, my Leader, Mein Fuehrer, Heil Hitler!

*

We sometimes forget that misconceptions are luxuries obtained at a very high price. Consider racism or the myth of the Chosen People or the Superior Race. By dehumanizing “inferior” races we dehumanize ourselves. Hence the spectacle of a superior race behaving like inferior swine. What if nationalism is nothing but collective narcissism? What if fascism and intolerance of criticism and dissent are based on the phoniest of all assumptions, namely that we are beyond criticism, that is to say, infallible, which is an attribute of God and of those who speak in His name even as they go about doing the devil’s work?

*

6:30 AM

I read the following quotation of the day by W.R. Inge in our local paper: “The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born.” In other words, you cannot have a normal or a healthy child in a sick environment and an educational system with a perverted value system.

*

10:20 AM

Writes Orhan Pamuk: “Living as I do in a country that honors its *****s, saints, and policemen at every opportunity but refuses to honor its writers…” (See OTHER COLORS: ESSAYS & A STORY [New York, 2007] page 237.) Armenian translation: Living as I do in an environment that honors its bosses, bishops, and benefactors at every opportunity but refuses to acknowledge even the existence of its writers unless they are murdered by the likes of Talaat and Stalin, or they are dead, buried, and permanently silenced…preferably in a previous century…

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

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HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE

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To kill the enemy without guilt, he must first be dehumanized and whenever possible demonized. This is what the Turks did to us during World War I; this is what the Germans did to the Jews during World War II; this is what African-Americans do whenever they voice the slogan “White man is the devil”; this is what Sartre did when, speaking of the human condition, he delivered the dictum “Hell is other people”; and this is what we do today when we speak of Turks or, for that matter, fellow Armenians who disagree with us.

There is only one way to demonize another and that’s by projecting the evil that is within us.

To avoid facing reality by admitting the evil that is within him, man has invented the blame-game. If we can blame our misfortunes on others, we absolve ourselves of all responsibility and we are born again as exemplary human beings without blemish. That is why the Turks cannot acknowledge the genocide, and that is why our self-righteous dividers cannot compromise and reach a consensus even as they speechify on patriotism or nationalism and practice tribalism.

The blame-game allows us to ignore the evil that is within us by concentrating on the evil that is within the enemy, even when the enemy happens to be our brother. Hence Zarian’s dictum “Armenians survive by cannibalizing one another.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, November 15, 2007

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BOOK REVIEW

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IDEAS: BRILLIANT THINKERS SPEAK THEIR MINDS. Edited by Bernie Lucht. Fredericton, N.B. 2005. 376 pages.

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In the 19th century, nationalism was thought to stand for freedom and independence, writes Bernard Lewis in one of the essays collected here. This in theory. In practice, “they [freedom and independence] have often proved to be mutually exclusive.” He goes on: “The ending of imperial domination and the establishment of independent national regimes all too often meant the replacement of foreign overlords by domestic tyrants, more adept and more intimate and less constrained in their tyranny.”

This may explain why under the sultans we enjoyed a Silver Age of literature, and under our own petty tyrants, its decline and death. I speak of literature not only because it happens to be close to my heart but also because free speech (without which literature is unthinkable) has always been a reliable index of a free and civilized society.

Further down Bernard Lewis writes: “In the old Ottoman Empire, when a new sultan succeeded to the throne, he was greeted by the crowds, which cheered him and shouted, “Sultan, don’t be proud, God is greater than you.” Compare that greeting with our own unspoken slogan: “Capital is greater than god.”

In another essay, titled “The Secular Messiahs” by George Steiner, we read: “In any struggle one begins to become like one’s opponent.” Hence the Ottomanism of our Turcocentric pundits. Or our own secular mini-, or rather, pseudo-messiahs who expect us to believe, on the day they convince the Turks to come clean, they will save the national honor and usher in a new Golden Age.

*

For more details on 20th-century domestic tyrants, see TALK OF THE DEVIL: ENCOUNTERS WITH SEVEN DICTATORS, by Riccardo Orizio, translated from the Italian by Avril Bardoni (Prince Frederick, MD 2003, 280 pages). A good subtitle of this fascinating little book could have been “Studies in Sadism and Megalomania.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Friday, November 16, 2007

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REFLECTIONS ON PROPAGANDA

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About Orizio’s book on dictators (mentioned above): without exception, all of them, including the most psychopathic, homicidal megalomaniacs, like Idi Amin Dada, portray themselves as selfless superpatriots dedicated to the welfare of the nation. Such are the dangers of self-assessment.

*

“Realism implies seeing ourselves as we really are and the world as it actually is,” I read in the Op-Ed page of our paper this morning. One could say that the aim of self-assessment and propaganda consists in making us see ourselves as we are not and the world as it is not.

*

The beauty of propaganda is that it is invariably positive, hence its popularity. The offensiveness of criticism is that sometimes it is right.

*

One of the big lies in all propaganda is its refusal to identify itself as propaganda.

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Propaganda makes two false claims as if they were self-evident truths: (one) you are morally superior, and (two) those who disagree with you are wrong. Both claims are false because the morally superior do not as a rule assert any kind of superiority; and disagreement or dissent, or contradiction, is an essential ingredient in all dialogue.

*

To silence dissent in the hope that it will fade away is an empty illusion. All dictators silence dissenters until they are themselves silenced by events over which they have no control. Churchill put it best when he said a dictator is like a man riding a tiger, and the tiger is getting hungry.

*

The best and most effective way to silence a writer is to stop reading him. All other ways belong to fascists and fanatics who are afraid to be exposed as bullies and cowards.

*

TURCOCENTRISM & OTTOMANISM

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Our Turcocentric pundits are incapable of writing a single line about us without mentioning Turks or without making us sound as if we were a passive extension of their will, thus depriving us of all power to shape our own destiny as free agents. It is almost as if after six centuries of subjection, we continue to think of them as our lords and masters.

#

 

 

 

"Our political parties have been of no political use to us.

Their greatest enemy is free speech"

Gostan Zarian

 

[Armat]

i suggest you also read the memoirs of Tolstoy's daughter who witnessed the massacres in Van -- she was a nurse. at one point she writes: after a while i couldn't tell the difference between armenians and turks... you will never get the whole picture if your read only one side of the story.

Here is what I found and its not clear if she is referring hundred Muslims killed or thousands which Turks claim.

Hanum,Hanum!

 

Elders were quite. Sulky, embittered, they didn't even looked at us.They were busy.

They removed their shirts, exposing extremely dehydrated dark bodies, trying to find and kill lice. My attention diverted to a women who was sitting in the corner. Her

hands hanged livelessly in the air, she was quitely moaning.

 

-- Her hands are twisted and broken-explained Mr.Yarrow when I looked at him.

-- Who did it? Why?-I've asked.

-- During the fight with Armenians...-Mr.Yarrow said.

-- Armenians? But why they tortured and defaced this women?-I've asked with wonder.

-- I've read in the newspapers that Turks were killing Armenians-I said

-- All kinds of things happened.There were massacres by both sides- replied Mr.Yarrow

 

Of course, during this war both things have taken place. The anymosities between Turks and Armenians continued for centuries. Cryelty was on theboth sides, but here, in the city of Van, we saw inhumane cruelty of Armenians. People said that Armenians cut women's breasts,twisted andbroke legs and arms. I saw personally the victims of this inhumane cruel-ty. I didn't feel comfortable to stay any longer in the American's house,so we moved into the armenian house. One room was occupied by the stu-dents,the other one was left for me. My assistant and soldier got room on the first floor.

 

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, November 17, 2007

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IDIOSYNCRASIES

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Americans love to write about Americans – American history, politics, wars, presidents, American music, art, theater, movies, American cities, American wildlife, and so on. The favorite subject of the French is of course the French – what else? The Germans write mostly about Germans, Italians about Italians, and Greeks about Greeks. But Armenians prefer to write about Turks. On the day we develop a school of group psychology, I suspect our Turcocentrism will be their first topic of study and analysis.

*

To reject one of my arguments a reader once wrote: “In this context history, reality, and facts are irrelevant,” thus exposing another one of our idiosyncrasies – namely, our preference to operate within a realm of fantasy and wishful thinking. Since reality is beyond our reach, we prefer manipulating abstractions.

*

We produce more artists, writers, pundits, historians, political leaders, bishops, chiefs, vodanavorjis and mdavoragans than we have any use for. And yet, we wallow in a sea of mediocrity. How to explain this idiosyncrasy? I suspect there are as many explanations as there are Armenians – so what else is new? My own take is an American cliché: Too many chiefs, no Indians. Too many commissars of culture, no culture.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 18, 2007

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SCHOOLS OF CRITICISM

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We have three popular schools of criticism: (i) the verbal-abuse or hoodlum school; (ii) the censorship or shut-up-he-explained school; and (iii) the commissar school. All three schools are based on the assumption of self-assessed superiority in wisdom, morality, and patriotism.

*

If I were to paint myself all white and my adversaries all black, who would believe me? My guess is, not even my friends. If I were to say I am always right and those who disagree with me always wrong, who would agree with me? Not even myself, for I know better than anyone else my limitations, prejudices, and blind spots. Why is it that some of us find it so difficult coming to terms with the fact that we are more or less like everyone else, including our enemies?

*

For six centuries they shaped our destiny, which also means our worldview and character. During six long centuries they re-created us in their own image -- not as masters but as subjects. And our subservience was so total that they declared us to be their most loyal subjects. I once asked one of our pundits, who like all self-appointed pundits is convinced just because he is Armenian he knows all there is to know about them and us, why would they massacre their most loyal subjects at a time when their very existence was in peril? He gave no answer and shortly thereafter accused me of refusing to answer my critics.

*

My critics: do I have them? What is a commissar if not a master whose word is law? And his word is law because a master is never wrong.

*

At least two readers have taken me to task recently for quoting too many dead writers, the implication being that it would be better if I were to rely on the wisdom, patriotism, morality, and authority of living charlatans.

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[ara baliozian]

Monday, November 19, 2007

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SCENARIO

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The recognition of the Armenian genocide by Congress may well be against the interests of Armenia, writes Norman Stone in the SPECTATOR (Oct. 20, 2007, page 22). “Armenia is a poor and landlocked place,” he explains, “dependent for energy on all places Iran, and without disaspora money she would be in an even worse state. She regularly loses people to emigration – 60,000 of them incidentally to Istanbul – and she badly needs good relations with Turkey. Perhaps such countries, once they are independent, should make a second declaration of independence from their diaspora.”

Now, suppose there is another crisis in Armenia – say, an Azeri counterattack, another earthquake, a pre-emptive strike on Iran by the U.S. – and the exodus continues unabated. Result, our enemies don’t even have to fight us; all they have to do is just walk in and claim Armenia as their own. There is an old Greek saying: “He who wants much more loses even the little that he has.” As for our mafias in Yerevan: what do they care? They can survive on their Swiss bank accounts for the rest of their lives on Rio or in Monaco. Some may even get busy working on their memoirs, except that, by the time the books are published they may have run out of readers.

*

Speaking of Iran: on the Op-Ed page of our paper, I read two commentaries titled “Venezuela with Iran could trigger world oil crisis,” and “Iranian people still among the most oppressed in the world.” I quote two random passages: “Ahmadinejad can use world chaos to gain hegemonic strength in the Middle East,” and “The Iranian regime is invoking the threat of a U.S. military attack – which is very real – and using that as an excuse for a major crackdown on dissidents.” The Iranians are ahead of us: they have dissidents. We have been so successful in silencing ours that they are not even mentioned in the commentaries and editorials by our ghazetajis.

*

Murphy’s Law says, “If something can go wrong, it will go wrong at the worst possible time.”

*

After 9/11 Americans realized there had been many warning signals that had been ignored or swept under the carpet by several agencies. If there is one thing in which we excel is ignoring warning signals.

*

Let others sing “Mer hairenik, azad angakh,” I will continue to think “tshvar ander.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

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DISSENTERS

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As a teenager I loved to contradict my elders, to cut them down to size as it were. I am not surprised therefore when I am now given the same treatment by my teenage readers. It’s a phase we all go through. It can’t last. Unless of course we have on our hands a case of arrested development.

*

Speaking of arrested development: If, like David Barsamian, you are one of those who think Noam Chomsky is a brilliant thinker and one of the most popular American dissenters, two recent books expose him as an even more brilliant charlatan and hypocrite: THE ANTI-CHOMSKY READER, edited by Peter Collier and David Horowitz (San Francisco, 2004, 260 pages), and DO AS I SAY: PROFILES IN LIBERAL HYPOCRISY, by Peter Schweizer (New York, 2005, 257 pages). We learn here that Chomsky calls the Pentagon “one of the most evil institutions in world history.” And yet, he has himself made millions working for the American military.

At one time or another I too have been accused by some of my teenage readers of working for the CIA, the KGB, the Mossad, and the Gray Wolves.

*

There is a type of “critic” who believes if he “thinks” he is right, he must be right. To such a one I say, not so fast, friend. To think you are right is only half of the story. You must also appear to be right. That’s when reasonable argument or evidence comes in. Verbal abuse is less a reasonable or convincing argument and more an expression of prejudice, venom, and bad manners, or Ottomanism parading as Armenianism.

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You may have noticed that charlatans are better at delivering patriotic speeches than honest men. Hitler comes to mind, the prototype of all superpatriotic charlatans.

*

There is something fundamentally wrong in an argument that convinced only one (namely yourself) and no one else.

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If you don’t know how to read, it is advisable that you refrain from reading between the lines.

*

Iris Murdoch: “Everything I write is probably Hamlet in disguise.” I too could say that in everything I write, I say, “There is something rotten in the State of Denmark.”

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

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HATRED IS AN ENEMY OF UNDERSTANDING

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There are those who would like to see me silenced because they don’t agree with what I say. Nothing unusual in that. Since time immemorial Armenians have disagreed with one another. It is said where there are two Armenians there will be three churches and the churches will be used not as places of worship but as reminders of their irreconcilable differences.

*

Take any random group of one hundred people regardless of race, color, and creed and in those one hundred people you will invariably find a minimum of one fool, one fanatic, one dupe, and one phony. What they think or say matters only if the silent majority (96% of the group) allows them to assume leadership positions – which, by the way, happens to be a routine occurrence in world history.

*

In everything I write I attempt to replace hatred with understanding. In the eyes of the above-mentioned 4%, this is seen as an unmistakable symptom of anti-Armenianism.

*

Nothing comes easier to some Armenians than to preach Armenianism and practice Ottomanism.

*

To understand the past is not the same as understanding the present. The world is no longer what it was a hundred years ago. Conditions have changed and continue to change even as I write. We have no choice but to run if we want to stand still. But pillars of salt are incapable of advancing even a fraction of an inch.

*

To equate anti-Turkism with pro-Armenianism amounts to saying hatred of Turks is the same as love of fellow Armenians.

*

Hatred closes the mind and prevents us from understanding not only others but also ourselves. That is why even religions that practice hatred preach love. Who after all has ever dared to declare to be against understanding?

*

It is said that when the Buddha ignored an insult by a passerby, one of his disciples wanted to retaliate. The Master stopped him with the words: “When someone offers me a bowl of rice and I am not hungry, I don’t eat it.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, November 22, 2007

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A LONG HISTORY IN BRIEF

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Of all fears, fear of free speech is the most cowardly.

*

Where there is deception there will also be fear of free speech.

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A deceiver’s greatest fear is being exposed as a deceiver.

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You may manipulate reality up to a point, after which reality will manipulate you. It happened to Napoleon. It happened to Hitler. It happened to our revolutionaries. And it’s happening today to Bush, the leader of the mightiest empire in the world.

*

Sooner or later we have no choice but to come to terms with reality as with death and taxes. How do we do that is up to each one of us. What I have been recounting in brief notes and essays so far is an outline of my own way, which may not be yours. In which case you must devise your own. To place your hopes on others is to forfeit your freedom and ultimately to be disappointed.

*

When Europe entered its Dark Age, Armenia experienced a Golden Age. But when Europe experienced a Renaissance, we entered a Dark Age, which was to last 600 years that culminated in a series of massacres and dispersion; and in the Homeland, a civil war, and another Dark Age under a series of ruthless tyrants. As for freedom from the Soviet yoke, independence, and victory over the Azeris: I am told there are Armenians today who miss the good old days under Stalin.

*

Our Dark Age is not yet over because we are at the mercy of leaders who masquerade as shepherds and are fearful of free speech because they run the risk of being exposed as swindlers on their way to the slaughterhouse.

#

 

 

 

 

"Our political parties have been of no political use to us.

Their greatest enemy is free speech"

Gostan Zarian

 

[ara baliozian]

Friday, November 23, 2007

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EUPHEMISMS

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When, during World War I, the Japanese forced Korean women into prostitution, they called them “comfort women” – their comfort and the Koreans’ degradation.

Some words share this in common with the moon -- they have a dark side, which we ignore at our peril. Case in point: patriotism and nationalism don’t just mean love of one’s nation but also hatred not only of enemy nations but also fellow countrymen who do not agree with us.

I just finished reading a collection of interviews with some of the most bloodthirsty and ruthless dictators of the 20th century (among them Idi Amin Dada, Bokassa, Duvalier, Mengistu, and Milosevic). As you may have guessed by now, one of their favorite words is patriotism.

*

When we describe ourselves we also confess because we use words whose dark side we ignore. It is not at all unusual for an Armenian to speak or even to brag about his Armenian identity even as he exposes his Ottomanism. Which is why we need impartial and objective analysts much more than the Vatican needs devil’s advocates. If the Pope blunders and makes a saint out of a rascal, he harms no one. But when a political leader blunders, the result may well be defeat, massacre, and genocide.

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[ara baliozian]

Saturday, November 24, 2007

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AS I SEE IT

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Armenians have been so systematically divided that no matter which side of an issue you take you will have 50% support – or rather 5%, because Armenians have also been so thoroughly alienated or marginalized that they stay away from all controversies and community affairs. Their stance may be described as somewhere between “a plague on both your houses” and "mart bidi ch’ellank.”

*

Speaking of Turkish pundits, Orhan Pamuk writes: “They presume to be experts on everything, because they seem to have an answer to any question…[they are] “Professors of Everything.” That’s another thing we share in common with Turks: dime-a-dozen pundits with more answers than questions.

*

“Is there life after death?” a reader wants to know. I don’t know. That’s a question for bishops. I am only a minor scribbler. I don’t even know if there is life after birth.

*

A master of the blame-game is never wrong.

*

There is no hatred as vicious as the hatred of a charlatan suddenly and publicly unmasked.

*

It is not enough to be against Turks; one must also be for something. Neither is it enough to be for Armenians: one must choose between the bloodsuckers and their victims.

*

Silencing dissenters only postpones the inevitable catastrophe.

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"Our political parties have been of no political use to us.

Their greatest enemy is free speech"

Gostan Zarian

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 25, 2007

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THE MEANING OF MEANING

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The aim of all ideologies, religions, and philosophical systems is to introduce meaning into a meaningless world. Any meaning is better than no meaning. Hence the eagerness with which a belief system (from the highest religion to the lowest cult) is embraced by the unthinking. Breakdowns occur when a belief system loses its creative impetus and fails to evolve and adapt to the new reality.

After a succession of defeats in the hands of barbarians, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, the favorite goddess of the Athenians, lost her eminence and legitimacy. One could also say that the Athenians betrayed and abandoned Athena or wisdom itself when they condemned to death Socrates, the wisest among them.

Something similar happened to Communism when it degenerated to Stalinism, which denied the validity of dialectical progression, which is based on dissent.

After evolving from a jealous tribal chieftain to one that is committed to the brotherhood of all men, the Christian god lost his legitimacy when it degenerated to racism, nationalism, and capitalism, which divided mankind into antagonistic groups – superior and inferior races, friends and enemies, workers and exploiters – all of which stand in direct contradiction to the brotherhood of all men.

For meaning can be as cruel as the god of the Old Testament: deviate an inch, or fail to evolve, or lose your creative impetus and face catastrophe.

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[Louise]

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And how do you explain that Armenians suffered the Ottoman oppression during 4 centuries ? In many places they were the majority – and above all they were more educated than the Ottomans.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, November 26, 2007

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THERE IS NO BUSINESS LIKE

ARMENIAN LITERATURE

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When I went into this business I made a solemn promise to myself to be rude to no one, and for a number of years I kept my promise.

I kept my promise until I realized that in our environment a writer, especially one that is not yet dead -- preferably butchered by a foreign tyrant -- is seen as a harmless drudge who will say anything and flatter any ego for less than minimum wage.

There was another serious flaw in my promise that I became aware of only much letter. A morally superior stance towards individuals who consider their own moral superiority as an undeniable fact may easily be misinterpreted as cowardice or subservience. To put it more bluntly, moral superiority does not work with politically ambitious bullies who pretend to know better what’s good for the nation.

*

Behind every one of our defeats, catastrophes, and tragedies you will find megalomaniacal bullies who have been successful only in fooling themselves and a handful of followers into believing they are not meddlers and frauds but men of vision whose sole aim in life is to serve the nation.

*

I suggest next time we build a monument to victims, we should include all victims regardless of race, color, and creed. To do otherwise is to go against the central tenet of all major religions, including our own, namely, that all men are brothers.

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[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

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ON REASON, FAITH, AND WISDOM

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We should cherish our blunders for they are our greatest source of wisdom, provided of course they are acknowledged as such.

*

What have we learned from our genocide besides blaming it on others? If genocide cannot teach us anything, what can? If you say faith in God is the highest wisdom, then the question we must ask is: Where was God when we needed Him most? I am not questioning His existence, only affirming His refusal to micromanage human affairs.

*

God has given us a brain with which to think for ourselves. I am not saying reason is a substitute for God. What I am saying is, reason is one of His attributes, in the same way that arrogance is one of the Devil’s. And is not speaking in the name of God the height of arrogance?

*

If subservience to authority is the enemy of reason, what could be more irrational than subservience to bosses (who speak in the name of ideology), bishops (who speak in the name of God), and benefactors (who speak in the name of capital)?

*

How many of our thoughts are our own? Can a man who is infatuated with his ignorance think? Allowing oneself to be brainwashed – is that not an offense against reason and God? And if we are unteachable, do we not condemn ourselves to being genocidable? Hence our unawareness of the fact that during the last hundred years we have been implementing the Ottoman policy of extermination by other means, that is, with our own version of “white massacre,” – namely, exodus from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora.

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