as i see it - Pt. IV

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

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ON PATRIOTISM

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Some of the e-mails I read are so abusive that I have no choice but to conclude they were written under the influence of an illegal substance. Cannibals and butchers have no business in a convention of vegetarians; likewise garbage-mouth dupes in a controversy.

*

On the day a man decides he knows all he needs to know (this is always true of dupes) he dies. He may continue to breathe, walk, eat, and copulate, but he is brain-dead. Knowledge is not an end with a STOP sign, but a beginning with no end in sight.

*

A dupe is one who cannot think for himself, no doubt as a result of six centuries of brutal subjection. Habits can shackle a man as surely as chains and ropes.

*

Ask a dupe to define free speech and he will say it consists in the freedom to recycle his favorite brand of propaganda.

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We don’t believe in free speech. We think of it as an invention of the degenerate West, the very same West that looked the other way while we were being butchered.

*

We don’t know how to deal with disagreement even though we have had plenty of practice, because dissent is in our blood as surely as “treason and betrayal” (Raffi).

*

Every dupe speaks in the name of patriotism, or so he wants us to believe. What he doesn’t seem to be aware of is that there are strings attached to his particular and peculiar brand of patriotism. During the Soviet era, I remember, one of our white-haired chic Bolshevik elder statesmen (may he rest in peace) wrote me an abusive letter because I had dared to mention violations of human rights in Armenia. In his view, all Armenians owed a debt of gratitude to our Big Brothers, the Russians; and scribblers like me should keep their traps shut.

*

During World War II we had two brands of patriotism locked in mortal combat: the patriotism of Armenians (under Stalin) brainwashed to believe they were fighting in defense of the Homeland; and the patriotism of diasporan Armenians (under Hitler) who fought to liberate the Homeland.

*

Dupes are easy to identify. They write as if their readers were functional illiterates and Mongoloid retards. Their patriotism is akin to the venom of vipers that paralyzes the brain. Patriotism is not a dogma that legitimizes intolerance. Patriotism means love of country (not hatred of fellow countrymen), and love is first and foremost acceptance, understanding, compassion, and solidarity. Disagree with me if you must, but do not think of me as your enemy.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

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PARALLELS

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Flavius Josephus of Jerusalem (37-100 AD), the Jewish historian of the Judaeo-Roman war, makes the following comment on “the misfortunes of my country.” “She fell,” he writes, “because she was a house divided against itself.” He goes on: “The hands of the Romans were forced by the tyrannical leaders of the Jews, and the fire was called down upon the Holy Temple by their doing.”

*

ON NATIONALISM

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Yeghishe Charents (1897-1937): “‘Homeland,’ ‘pure love,’ ‘oblivion and dreams’: these are the germs of our literary tuberculosis which gives birth to nationalism, romanticism, pessimism, and symbolism.”

*

General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

#

 

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, January 10, 2008

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THE ART OF READING

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There are three rules for being a good pianist: practice, practice, and practice. There is only one very easy rule for being a good reader: stop reading when the book bores you -- stop reading even if the author is the Good Lord Himself, and I dare anyone to read the final pages of EXODUS and the first pages of LEVITICUS without yawning.

*

DEMOCRACY RUN AMOK

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The Internet is a great invention. It allows everyone an equal opportunity to express himself. A garbage-mouth teenage hooligan and a white-haired elder statesmen may post on the same forum, and what is even more astonishing, to reach an agreement. That’s what happens in an environment where closed systems of thought are dominant and free speech anathema. Writes Lance Morrow: “Sometimes it is the faithful of the churches and the mosques who need policing most of all.” Also commissars parading as editors, publishers, and forum moderators.

*

ON POPULARITY

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Ever since it dawned on me that the ambition of every scribbler is to be popular, I have done my utmost to be unpopular – an enterprise easily achieved by calling a spade a spade and by writing what you see as opposed to what you pretend to see what isn’t there.

*

ON BEING POSITIVE

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To expose and analyze the ugly and the incomprehensible in us may well be the most positive form of criticism. What could be more cowardly, and therefore negative, than to cover up or ignore the fact that we, as human beings, have our share of failings and that these failings have contributed mightily to our misfortunes.

*

WRITERS

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Most Armenian writers today write for odars in odar languages. Some say this is a curse of our smallness. I disagree. It is rather the curse of a nation ruled by philistines for whom esthetic values and free speech are unpatriotic concepts. As recently as seventy years ago we had giants like Oshagan and Zarian who wrote in Armenian for Armenians. We don’t even have midgets today.

#

Friday, January 11, 2008

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MEMO TO A TURKISH FRIEND

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Turks are warlike, and proud of the fact. Only warlike people become masters of a great empire and run it for six centuries. But are they magnanimous in victory? That is the unanswered question. To fight in defense of the territorial integrity of the Homeland may be a noble enterprise, and to emerge victorious a glorious achievement, but to do so with gallantry, that is the mark of a truly civilized nation. If the Armeno-Turkish conflict during World War I was a “war” which the Turks won, then it is up to them to have the nobility of character and generosity of spirit to admit that if in the heat of battle innocent civilians perished, they are willing to discuss the matter with their defeated adversaries and to negotiate terms with the benevolence that is becoming in a victor. Then and only then will they prove to the world that, as truly civilized people, they more than deserve to join the European Union and be seen as an integral part of the West.

#

Saturday, January 12, 2008

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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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Nothing bores me as much as talk of Jewishness, Turkishness, Armenishness, or any other kind of --ishness whose sole intent is to make its adherents feel good by emphasizing the positive and covering up the negative thus certifying their perennial status as dupes.

*

No one can be as dangerous as the brain-dead who believes his convictions are his.

*

To think and to think you are thinking are two entirely different activities.

*

To our superpatriots I ask: What do you say to fellow Armenians whose favorite mantra is “Mart bidi ch’ellank”?

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Let Yanks speak of the American Dream. For us it’s the Armenian Nightmare without end and without closure (to use one of their favorite neologisms) compliments of our Turcocentric pundits.

*

To reduce life to the point that one can think only of massacres: I can’t imagine anything more narrow, negative, and ultimately hateful.

*

Organized religions are like loaded guns. Harmless in themselves but lethal in the hands of irresponsible people, and like drunk drivers, irresponsible people are everywhere.

*

It is said that Laurence Oliver used to stand behind the curtain muttering at the audience over and over “You bastards.” Exactly my frame of mind when I take pen in hand. I am not complaining. Our bastards are my bread and butter. If it weren’t for them I would run out of inspiration and fall silent.

#

 

"Intellect is invisible to the man who has none."

Arthur Schopenhauer

 

 

 

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, January 13, 2008

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DISCRIMINATION

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One reason we find it difficult to come to terms with reality is that our reality is grim. Hence our tendency to take refuge in propaganda, which is as real as a castle in the air. As an Armenian, the hardest thing for me to stomach was the fact that I came from a long line of people whose masters were Turks.

If we like to brag about our celebrities it may be because, unlike us, they were successful in breaking their Ottoman mold and emerging as individuals who did not allow their past to shape their future. In Biblical terms, they ceased being pillars of salt and were born again as human beings.

Nothing can be more misleading than to judge a nation by relying on the words of their politicians. And yet this is what the average Armenian and Turk do. To the average Turk, Armenians are “infidel bastards,” and Turks “the most civilized people on earth.” To the average Armenian, Turks are bloodthirsty savages who will never change their ways as Asiatic barbarians. It is now time that we abandon our respective brands of nationalist fundamentalism and allow the moderates to be heard. Let us follow the world’s example and learn to discriminate Germans from Hitler’s Nazis, and Turks from Talaat’s butchers.

#

Monday, January 14, 2008

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A SCI-FI SCENARIO

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Let’s suppose for the sake of argument that a future pro-Armenian Democratic administration in Washington convinces a moderate Turkish regime in Ankara to accede to all our financial and territorial demands. Will that be the end of the story or the beginning of another dark chapter?

Here is what I suggest will happen: The moderate regime in Ankara will be toppled by a coalition of angry fundamentalists, ultra-nationalists, and displaced Turks and Kurds, and Armenia will become the target of terrorist attacks or even wars on three fronts: Azeris, Kurds, and Turks. In short, Armenia will become another Israel.

That’s not all. To recover the money depleted on reparations, the not-so moderate and definitely not-so pro-Armenian regime in Ankara will tax the Armenians within Turkey, whose life will become so unbearable that they will emigrate to foreign lands – anywhere but Armenia, the source of all their troubles.

Who will come to our aid this time? Who can? Only the Good Lord; and if we adopt the past as our guide, He has at no time shown an inclination to do so.

*

To speak of actions and to ignore their backlash is the very same mistake our revolutionaries made at the turn of the last century. We are brought up to believe we are smart, but I suggest to follow the dictates of our gut and to ignore the warnings of our brain is just about the dumbest thing we can do.

*

Let me conclude this excursion into science fiction with a quotation from Shahan Shahnour, who was born and raised in Istanbul and knew Turks better than all our present-day Turcocentric pundits combined: “We may think of Turks as backward slobs, but make no mistake about that: when it comes to Armenians, they can be very, very calculating and methodical.”

*

There is an old saying: “When dreams come true they turn into nightmares,” and another about answered prayers, which I can’t remember at the moment…

#

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

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BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE

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It may not happen in our lifetime but sooner or later it will happen. No doubt about that. Africa will follow Europe’s example and realize that coexistence leading to union is better than endless internecine conflict, tribal wars, revolutions, counter-revolutions, coups, massacres, and genocide. Closer to home: what about the Middle East? Does anyone think people in the Middle East are so backward, bloodthirsty, fanatical, and irrational that they will opt for endless conflict? And if they do so, who will be the beneficiary? Does anyone think Turks will go on calling Armenians infidel bastards and Armenians will reciprocate by calling them Asiatic barbarians? How much more blood will have to be shed before political leaders in Africa and the Middle East realize that peace is better than war, coexistence and cooperation are more civilized than mutual hostility, and in the long run economic barriers and protectionism protect no one. Next time you think of Turks try to think of them less as past enemies and more as future friends. Think of them too as part Armenian because that’s what in fact they are. Turks and Armenians, Palestinians and Israelis, Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, and Kurds: they will choose to follow either Europe’s or Africa’s example; and who in his right mind will say the morally superior and more progressive role model is Africa?

*

All wars are blunders. No one wins a war. Consider the recent case of two mighty empires fighting and losing a war against two tribal nonentities – Vietnam in the case of the United States and Afghanistan in the case of the USSR. We like to say the Allies won World War I and World War II, and we would like to forget about the fate of Armenians and Jews. What kind of victory is it when the innocent victims number in the million? This is clearly seen and understood by anyone with the minimum of common sense and decency, except some political leaders and our own ubiquitous Turcocentric pundits.

#

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

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NOTES / COMMENTS

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“The stranglehold of bureaucracy is becoming unbearable, the battle against corruption has yet to start. The authorities are not doing enough to fight organized crime.” That’s Gorbachev speaking of present conditions in Russia. If any one of our panchoonies (“Mi kich pogh oughargetsek”) were to speak like that, his sources of income would dry up.

*

What does the average Armenian know about our millennial history beside the Genocide? My guess is, the names of a handful of kings, most of whom were not even Armenian, and Vartanants, which, according to some historians, never happened.

*

Common sense and decency are not marketable products because everyone thinks he already has more than enough of both.

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Truth and politics are mutually exclusive concepts. The closer to the truth a politician gets, the more dupes he alienates.

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To be consistently positive about Armenians and consistently negative about Turks is the most effective way of undermining our credibility.

#

 

[Takoush]

Hello Ara,

 

I suppose my own dad and Shahan Shahnour thought alike as far as the turks is concerned. My own dad who was well read and an intelligent man would say that turks are extremely cunning and calculating. Something that as a nationality we lack, he said. Same as Mr. Shahnour.

 

As to your article about "Between War And Peace" you come across to me as a follower of the late Muhatma Ghandi. Make no mistake; perhaps you see in me a change of heart but it's not my heart but a keener and a maturer way of seeing things and how matters can become unbearable for us if and when we find ourselves amidst the chaos of turkish muslim fundamentalists who wouldn't stop at anything but make us live in an environment that would be anyhing but living in peace.

[garmag]

 

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To the average Turk, Armenians are “infidel bastards,” and Turks “the most civilized people on earth.” To the average Armenian, Turks are bloodthirsty savages who will never change their ways as Asiatic barbarians. It is now time that we abandon our respective brands of nationalist fundamentalism and allow the moderates to be heard. Let us follow the world’s example and learn to discriminate Germans from Hitler’s Nazis, and Turks from Talaat’s butchers.

 

 

I am afraid we will fall in the who's first, catch 22 syndrom!

If I abandon our respective brand about the Turk will they follow suit? That is the dilemma...

How can we trust the Turkish authorities that continue to state at all levels!!! that there was no Genocide!

 

#

 

A SCI-FI SCENARIO

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Let’s suppose ....... moderate Turkish regime in Ankara to accede to all our financial and territorial demands. Will that be the end of the story or the beginning of another dark chapter?

 

 

It will never be the end. But why DARK?

However, we would be justified to receive all that was rightfully ours and was taken forcefully under the guise of 1st WW situation, requiring the so called protection of the young Turks regime borders, according to present day denialist doctrin of Turkey !

 

#

 

 

Let me conclude .......Shahan Shahnour, who was born and raised in Istanbul and knew Turks better than all our present-day Turcocentric pundits combined: “We may think of Turks as backward slobs, but make no mistake about that: when it comes to Armenians, they can be very, very calculating and methodical.”

 

 

Not only to Armenians... how about ; Kurds in Turkey and elswhere, Cypriots , USA as recently as when the Armenian Genocide recognition by the house of Reps. was ominously lurking to be passed!

 

 

 

 

#

 

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BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE

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.......How much more blood will have to be shed before political leaders in Africa and the Middle East realize that peace is better than war.... Next time you think of Turks try to think of them less as past enemies and more as future friends.

 

 

One cannot force friendship on anyone... Wars seem to be part of the human nature!

It is wiser to learn to live with it!

During the cold war, mutual terror of anihilation, there was less strife around the globe then today...

Even though it's CLEAR TO ALL, that all wars are blunders to begin with!

 

 

#

 

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NOTES / COMMENTS

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To be consistently positive about Armenians and consistently negative about Turks is the most effective way of undermining our credibility.

 

 

What credibility?Vis a vis whom?

Fanatical consistancy of DOCTRINS are the curse of humanity! But then WE ARE HUMANS.....

 

Thanks for your thoughts Mr. Baliozian, they DO REVIVE THIS OLD GEEZER!

 

[ara baliozian]

as a rule, a regime of fanatics is followed by another of moderates.

the world does not stay the same.

let us hope we don't have to wait too long for moderates on both sides to come forward and improve our situation. / ara

 

[garmag]

as a rule, a regime of fanatics is followed by another of moderates.

the world does not stay the same.

let us hope we don't have to wait too long for moderates on both sides to come forward and improve our situation. / ara

 

 

You hit the nail on the head! HOPE....

How wonderfull is the evolution...If only humans realize this FACT and cease being fanatical about doctrins.

These are subjects that change like fashion, maybe not as fast... but still, CHANGE! AS HISTORY HAS PROVEN.

 

Since the world is never the same from moment to moment, why enforce dogma indoctrination from birth?

I am not professing anarchy. JUST COEXISTANCE.

 

I venture to guess, HOPE was the reason for Armenians survival against all odds over the centuries!

And will sustain us in the future I HOPE...

babigarmag

 

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, January 17, 2008

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SMOKE & MIRRORS

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Nigoghos Sarafian (1905-1973): “Our history is a litany of lamentation, anxiety, horror, and massacre. Also deception and abysmal naiveté mixed with the smoke of incense and the sound of sacred chants.”

*

In the Preface to his ANECDOTA or SECRET HISTORY, the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesaria (500-565 AD) writes that, by exposing past blunders, historians warn future leaders not to repeat them in the hope their incompetence will never be exposed and their reputation will remain unblemished. If it weren’t for historians, he goes on, we would never have known about “the dissolute career of Semiramis and the frenzy of Sardanapalus and Nero…”

*

Nothing comes more naturally to a blundering leader than to cover up his incompetence and to misrepresent his liabilities as assets, and his military defeats as moral victories. To this type of frauds parading as statesmen, and to their hirelings and dupes, honest observers will be branded as hostile witnesses and even enemy agents to be silenced, ostracized, and persecuted.

*

If you listen carefully to our sermonizers, speechifiers, and dime-a-dozen pundits, you will notice that their central message is always the same, namely, we are in good hands -- our leaders have done nothing wrong – it’s all someone else’s fault – the West betrayed us and the Turks are bloodthirsty savages, thieves, rapists, and liars. Hitler blamed the Jews. We blame the world, after which we expect its sympathy and support.

*

After experiencing centuries of oppression and degradation under ruthless alien despots, we cling to the absurd notion that God is on our side, there is justice in this world, and sooner or later victory will be ours. All we have to do is trust the judgment of our bosses and bishops, and support them by sending “mi kich pogh.”

*

Where there is leadership without accountability there will also be taxation without representation.

#

Friday, January 18, 2008

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AMOT!

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“I love mankind,” Baronian once said, “but I hate men.” Born and raised in the Ottoman Empire, Baronian was in an excellent position to know that men are either executioners or victims, masters or slaves (Hegel), exploiters or workers (Marx); and the secret ambition of all underdogs is to be top dogs, exploiters, masters, or executioners. He also knew that when victims cannot victimize their executioners, they victimize one another. Baronian did not live long enough to be victimized by Turks, but he was betrayed to the Turkish police and victimized by his fellow Armenians.

*

We love literature but we hate writers. No, not quite. If truth be told, it’s much worse. We don’t give a damn about writers and what we really hate is free speech. And we hate free speech because it threatens to expose us as potential executioners not of our enemies but fellow Armenians who dare to disagree with us. I speak from experience.

*

Like all nations we have our share of skinheads, philistines, and hooligans, with one difference: they are now our masters. Or, in the words of a wiser man than myself: “Once upon a time we were slaves. We are now slaves of former slaves.”

*

To silence someone whose sole intent is to share his understanding of reality is to choose to be on the side of executioners, assassins, and some of the worst serial killers in the history of mankind – Hitler and Stalin being two recent cases in point.

*

To our hooligans I say: For once, reality is against you because we live on a continent where free speech happens to be a fundamental human right. You have two options: get out or stop reading, or if you can’t give up reading, read only chauvinist crapola, partisan editorials, and our dime-a-dozen Turcocentric pundits. But if you insist on reading me, it may be because deep down somewhere – assuming such depths exist – you find truth irresistible. Either that or you are fed up with your own lies which are not even yours but that of our crème de la scum parading as our crème de la crème.

*

Only people who can’t tell the difference between literature and propaganda assert truth is on their side. Only fanatics who can’t tell the difference between god and the devil dare to assert god is on their side.

#

Saturday, January 19, 2008

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WRITERS & POLITICIANS

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Hagop Baronian (1842-1891): “Truth is a language that if not spoken is forgotten.”

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Derenik Demirjian (1877-1956): “Every Armenian has another Armenian whom he considers his mortal enemy.”

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Shahan Shahnour (1904-1974): “For my generation of Armenians, the enemy is not the Turk but us.”

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The pen is mightier than the sword? Our writers and poets were Talaat's and Stalin’s first victims.

“Writers are the architects of the soul,” one of our bosses once said to me and I believed him, until I read a similar statement by Stalin.

*

We are all born dupes but inevitably we run across another dupe who stands in direct contradiction to us. At which point we wonder: How can anyone be so wrong and so sure of himself? What if he is right and I am wrong? What if we are both wrong? Why would anyone lie to us?

*

We either believe our politicians or our writers. I am not saying all writers speak the truth and all politicians are compulsive and habitual liars. What I am suggesting is that, when it comes to lying, politicians are better at it because they have had more practice.

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I don’t write against Armenians. I write against charlatans and dupes. Only readers who can’t tell the difference between one and the other accuse me of being anti-Armenian.

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Shirvanzadeh (Alexander Movsessian: 1858-1935): “The narrow partisan propaganda line that is espoused by our press is the enemy of all literature.”

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Siamanto (Adom Yerjanian: 1878-1915): “Our perennial enemy – the enemy that will eventually destroy us – is not the Turks but our own complacent superficiality.”

*

Hagop Garabents (Jack Karapetian: 1925-1996): “Once upon a time we fought and shed our blood for freedom. We are now afraid of free speech.”

#

 

[Iskouhie]

Thursday, January 17, 2008

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all writers are liars

 

 

 

[ara baliozian]

 

Thursday, January 17, 2008

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all writers are liars

 

 

some may well be.

how many writers have you known? / ara

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, January 20, 2008

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CROCODILES

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Readers who disagree with me and engage in verbal abuse are not my enemies. They are enemies of free speech, and enemies of free speech are fascist bullies who have no place in civilized discourse for the simple reason that they are against discourse.

I did not create free speech. Free speech has been around for a long time. So have been its opponents and victims, of course. Greeks, who 2500 years again disagreed with Socrates, also rejected the concept of free speech and dialogue by silencing him permanently. We have come a long way since then. Heidegger, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, was also a Nazi, and as a Nazi he deserved the hangman’s noose. But he was left alone, probably because Americans, like Armenians, don’t think highly of philosophers because they favor philomorons, like Senator McCarthy, Kennedy’s “best and brightest” of Vietnam fame, Bush and his gang of neo-cons, and televangelists and their “moral majority.” As for Russians, our “Big Brothers”: they are worse. My guess is, Russians have silenced, exiled, and exterminated more intellectuals (including our own) than all other nations combined. Chekhov was right when he predicted that 20th-century Russia would be at the mercy of “crocodiles,” that, unlike their jungle counterparts, would engage in cannibalism.

#

Monday, January 21, 2008

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THE LAMENT OF A WRITER

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“I am ashamed to call myself an Armenian,” Vahé Oshagan is reported to have said when one of his books was given a negative reception in our weeklies. Once upon a time I too identified myself with my fellow Armenians to such an unreasonable degree that I was embarrassed when any one of them behaved badly. I know now that Armenians, all Armenians without exception, are first and foremost individuals before being members of a tribe or nation; and as individuals, they should be judged as individuals. If an Armenian chooses to make an ass of himself in public, so be it, that is his choice, not mine or anyone else’s. If, as an individual he is free, so am I, and I freely choose not to be responsible for his actions.

*

Only dumb people assess themselves as smart, believe in their own assessment, and brag about it. And it doesn’t take much to be a victim. It takes even less to wallow in victimhood. Now then, go ahead and say, I am proud to be an Armenian because I am smart and because I come from a long line of perennial victims who have harmed no one but themselves and one another.

*

Whenever odars are given the opportunity or care enough to judge us, they will do so not by what we say about ourselves but our history; and no matter how you slice it, our history is a sad one, or, to put it more bluntly, it is nothing to brag about. If we have anything to brag about, it is our literature. But who reads Armenian writers these days? Not even Armenians. If Vahé Oshagan were alive today, I would tell him he has nothing to be ashamed of. After all, his book was read and reviewed by a handful of Armenians, which means, he was better off than most of our classics.

#

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

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MEMO TO OUR PUNDITS

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Being popular by writing what the people want to read means pandering to the lowest common denominator, and as such it is to be avoided because it is the surest symptom of unprincipled mediocrity.

*

To speak of massacres is to relive them, and to speak of Turks means to reassert them as our masters even if the assertion is made in a remote corner of our subconscious. Our aim ought to be recovering our humanity and with it our creative impetus, which will allow us to make contributions to the welfare of our fellow men regardless of race, color, and creed. Then and only then we may deserve universal support.

*

Our writers are not our enemies, and yet this is how we have treated them. Being the offspring of victims does not justify us victimizing one another, especially those among us who dare to speak honestly and objectively about our failings. We all sympathize with victims, but if they insist on it day in day out, compassion fatigue may set it and sympathy may turn to annoyance and irritation.

*

To our Turcocentric pundits I say, it is now time that you downsize your Turcocentrism and emphasize Armenianism by writing more about our present problems and contradictions, of which we have more than our share.

#

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

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HISTORY AS THE PROPHETESS OF TRUTH

& WELLSPRING OF PHILOSOPHY

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Diodorus of Sicily (first century B.C.), Greek historian: “Even the entirely fictitious legend of Hell is a mighty instrument for turning the hearts of men to righteousness and the fear of God. How much greater, therefore, must we conceive to be the potential ennobling influence upon character of History, the prophetess of truth and the wellspring of philosophy?”

*

Nothing stays the same. Suppose in a future post-global warming and post-World War III America the Constitution is amended and the laws of taxation re-written, so that instead of collecting taxes from ethnic minorities, bureaucrats from the IRS visit homes and collect our children – boys for the army, and girls for “comfort,” that is, legalized prostitution. How long before we emigrate? It took us 600 years to get out of the Ottoman Empire and even then we had to be driven out at the point of a yataghan. Our pundits are unanimous in saying Turks are butchers, rapists, thieves, and liars. I wonder, why is it that it took us 600 years to figure that out? If my better-informed readers know the answer to that question, why is it that so far they have kept it to themselves? At least let us have the honesty to admit that we may not be as smart as we think we are, and our greatest deceivers have not been the Great Powers of the West but our own speechifiers and sermonizers parading as statesmen and pundits.

*

Once upon a time we were free. Then we ceased to be free. We forgot what freedom meant. We had to be taught what freedom meant by the West, and we are still learning. Some day we may even begin to appreciate the value and importance of free speech.

*

Samuel Butler (1835-1902), English author: “Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.”

#

 

[Iskouhie]

Thursday, January 17, 2008

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all writers are liars

 

 

some may well be.

how many writers have you known? / ara

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

 

None. But I've read thousands of books.

All the liars say they don't lie

Only the novelists admit they lie :-)

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, January 24, 2008

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FROGS

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Speaking of our revolutionaries, one of our elder statesmen once compared them to “frogs trying to rape an elephant.”

*

Save the nation? Part the Red Sea? Change water to wine? Raise the brain-dead? I leave these things to better men than myself. I write. That’s the only thing I do because that’s what all writers, including our own, have always done. I write to express my thoughts and sentiments as honestly and objectively as I can. Let others do what they will with them.

*

Where honesty and objectivity are equated with self-hatred and betrayal, free speech will be violated in the name of God and Country.

*

To say my country, right or wrong, is less nationalism and more narcissism, and as such, less ideology and more pathology.

*

Our pundits are more interested in settling old scores than in the welfare of the nation. Perhaps because, in Einstein’s words: “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.” Or, frogs cannot solve problems created by elephants.

*

Instead of trying to solve problems created by others, let us begin with problems created by us, such as: respecting one another’s fundamental human right of free speech, engaging in dialogue, and developing a consensus. I wonder why is it that these problems are ignored by our “betters.” Is it because they don’t require any capital investment and no letters that end with their favorite mantra, “mi kich pogh…”

#

Friday, January 25, 2008

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

DEFINING FASCISM

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

One reason why I write about our problems is that I don’t know much about Eskimo and Patagonian problems. As for Canadian problems: once, when I dared to say something on the subject, I was told to go back where I came from. That put an abrupt end to my career as a Canadian critic.

*

We are all born fascists. But whenever we confront another fascist unwilling to relinquish his infallibility, we are given a chance to reconsider our political convictions.

*

I once asked a Turcocentric pundit if he had read a single Armenian writers and he said he had not, after which he advised me to write more about Turkish atrocities. I didn’t ask him to define patriotism, but if I had, my guess is he would have said “hatred of Turks,” which may suggest there is more Ottomanism and less Armenianism in his worldview.

*

Bad things happen to good people because when bad people do bad things to bad people, they don’t give a damn about collateral damage. That’s how Turks see the Genocide – as collateral damage, which is something that happens in every war, beginning with Homer’s ILIAD.

*

We have a better chance to reach a consensus with the Turks if we tell them, we understand why they did what they did and we would like them to understand us when we say what they did was not right.

*

Our bosses, bishops, and benefactors are convinced they are saying what must be said and doing what must be done, and they resent usurpers like me who try to muscle in their territory.

*

It would be a mistake to underestimate the power of our hoodlums. They may seem to be a harmless and non-representative minority, but all they need to become a murderous majority is someone like Hitler and Stalin.

*

“Hoodlumism in the name of patriotism,” is as good a definition of fascism as any.

#

Saturday, January 26, 2008

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

ALIEN TRASH

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

You cannot tell people what to think and how to feel. You can only speak of your own thoughts and feelings and all the mud that is flung in your direction by dupes simply because you refuse to subscribe to their lies, which are not even theirs; or, as Zarian puts it: “even their trash is picked up from alien streets.”

*

I cannot adapt. I cannot change colors like a chameleon. Call it an evolutionary failure. My kind may well be headed for extinction. That doesn’t mean I will exit in silence.

*

To how many of my critics (if you will forgive the overstatement) I could say: When I was your age – and it makes no difference if you are nine or ninety – I too pretended to know and understand things that I didn’t, and succeeded only in making an ass of myself.

*

No man can be said to be an authority on his fellow men, let alone himself, because most of our real self is buried in our subconscious. We can only speak of unverified and unverifiable theories and guesses.

*

No need to contradict someone who lives in a world of illusions because reality will be his most effective and persistent contradictor.

#

 

[ara baliozian]

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

 

None. But I've read thousands of books.

All the liars say they don't lie

Only the novelists admit they lie :-)

 

to say or imply that writers like Naregatsi and Raffi were liars is a scandal of major dimensions. / ara

[Takoush]

to say or imply that writers like Naregatsi and Raffi were liars is a scandal of major dimensions. / ara

I certainly would agree on the above statement. And since both Naregatsi and Raffi are great role models of mine; I would add something more to your statement Ara and would say it would be downright appaling.

[Takoush]

Thursday, January 17, 2008

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

all writers are liars

Iskouhi,

 

Writers are intellectuals and usually intelligent at that. Writers mostly and usually choose previous appealing to them great writers or worldly doers and they become inspired by one or more such people that lived during their lifespan or ones who lived before them. I know I am generalizing; nonetheless in great many cases, writers aready have become great readers themselves before they start writing. And like doctors and other profesionals they do continuously read on and on. To keep their brain sharp as well as their intellect. Thus I view writers as being very sophisticated human beings; because they are.

 

Apart from all of the above, writers write based on their own feelings, perceptions and how things and events inspire them. On the other hand, readers sometimes do see it the way that initially inspired the writer and how he/she wrote it, or choose to see it in a different light and way.

 

Therefore to say that all writers are liars you are setting yourself up for a huge misconception and a blunder. I would re-choose my words more thoughtfully and carefully.

 

 

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, January 27, 2008

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

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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

It would be useful for all Armenians to be reminded once in a while that we live in a world where wars and massacres are dime-a-dozen routine occurrences.

*

Leaders, all leaders, even the most enlightened and progressive, share in common the conviction that the less the people know the better.

*

Sooner or later every Armenian writer must resign himself to the fact that there isn’t much he can say to readers who know better and have all the answers.

*

We like to say that Jews go out of their way to support their own and that we go out of our way too but only in the opposite direction. But I am suspicious of all ethnic or racial generalizations. In my view, it is a fact of human nature that envious mediocrities will do their utmost to obstruct the path of anyone that threatens to expose their mediocrity.

*

Reason alone is not enough, but reason is all we have in a world where faith, dogma, and subservience -- that is unreason -- are synonymous.

*

Breakdowns occur because we cannot go on deceiving ourselves, others, and least of all, reality.

*

When a man says God is on his side, he is sure to be closer to the Devil.

#

Monday, January 28, 2008

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

ON TURKISH LOVE & ARMENIAN HATRED

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

If Turks love me and Armenians hate me (this according to one of my gentle anonymous readers on the Internet) it may be because Turks are not always wrong and Armenians not always right -- especially when it comes to judging their fellow Armenians.

To avoid recognizing the devil in us we demonize others –i.e. we project. In the same way that Jews demonize anti-Semites, and some blacks demonize white men (“White man is the devil”), we demonize not only Turks and the Great Powers of the West, but also anyone who dares not to be on our side. On more than one occasion I have myself been demonized by fellow Armenians simply because I refuse to parrot their favorite brand of propaganda. Hence my skepticism of all blame-games.

Playing the blame-game might as well be synonymous with being infallible, and being infallible means an inability to learn from one’s mistakes, because in order to learn from them one must first admit them.

An addict of the blame-game is a morally bankrupt man because he’d rather lose his reason than give up his addiction.

As for Turks loving me: as far as I know, Turks don’t read me, and if they read me, they don’t comment on what I write. The only Turk who has written me agrees with me that Armeno-Turkish relations will have a better chance to improve on the day extremists on both sides are marginalized thus allowing the moderates the upper hand.

As for Armenians who hate me: I also have a good number of Armenian readers who agree with me, and others who are critical only because I don’t go far enough in my criticism. My comment on Armenians who hate me: their verbal abuse is such that it does not require any comment on my part.

#

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

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

THE BARBARIANS AMONG US

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

After reading Plato’s dialogues, Shaw’s plays, and countless letters to the editor in foreign newspapers and magazines, I have discovered that every assertion can be contradicted and every generalization questioned without resorting to verbal abuse. Verbal abuse not only detracts from the merit of the argument but also exposes the writer’s character, IQ, and level of upbringing.

*

It is not true that I criticize Armenians, or only Armenians, or all Armenians; I criticize only charlatans and their dupes regardless of nationality – dupes who have dug themselves into a hole so deep that they can no longer see the light of reason.

*

It has been said that suffering is one of the very best ways to learn to know oneself. But I guess, when given the opportunity to learn, some people will choose the bliss of ignorance.

*

The trick in good writing is to convince the reader that you write to express not your own sentiments and thoughts but his.

*

We are not a nation but a mosaic of tribes and products of different environments and cultures. Unless we stress what we share, learn to explain ourselves in a civilized manner, and understand one another – none of which can be achieved by means of insults and verbal abuse – we are doomed.

#

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

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

REASON AND AUTHORITY

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

Theophylactus Simocatta the Egyptian (500-630 A.D.): “By reason, men converge toward one another and advance from the outer surface to the inner mind. Reason has showered innumerable blessings upon men and is an admirable collaborator with nature.”

*

If one is brought up to respect authority, those in authority are brought up to deceive and intimidate. Authority and subservience produce dogmatism, intolerance, and ultimately war and massacre. Is anarchy the answer? No. Skepticism? Yes. Don’t believe everything you are told. Authority is a double-edged sword that speaks with a forked tongue. Its main concern is to legitimize its own power at all cost even if it means the conscious avoidance of truth and the destruction of the world.

*

The best way to achieve immortality is to speak the truth to liars, for liars have the memory of elephants.

#

 

[Iskouhie]

Iskouhi,

 

Writers are intellectuals and usually intelligent at that. Writers mostly and usually choose previous appealing to them great writers or worldly doers and they become inspired by one or more such people that lived during their lifespan or ones who lived before them. I know I am generalizing; nonetheless in great many cases, writers aready have become great readers themselves before they start writing. And like doctors and other profesionals they do continuously read on and on. To keep their brain sharp as well as their intellect. Thus I view writers as being very sophisticated human beings; because they are.

 

Apart from all of the above, writers write based on their own feelings, perceptions and how things and events inspire them. On the other hand, readers sometimes do see it the way that initially inspired the writer and how he/she wrote it, or choose to see it in a different light and way.

 

Therefore to say that all writers are liars you are setting yourself up for a huge misconception and a blunder. I would re-choose my words more thoughtfully and carefully.

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

I made a mistake. I never thought that Naregatsi or Raffi were liars.

I corrected myself when I said that novelists are liars, because what they tell is a fiction, even

if they say that it is a true story. Even those who write their diary, they do not tell everything.

(Ils mentent par omissiion)

Iskouhie

 

[Takoush]

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

I made a mistake. I never thought that Naregatsi or Raffi were liars.

I corrected myself when I said that novelists are liars, because what they tell is a fiction, even

if they say that it is a true story. Even those who write their diary, they do not tell everything.

(Ils mentent par omissiion)

Iskouhie

Writers most of the time don't tell everything because they want to make you think and make your own mind and or assumptions. They like to create that empty space of what it's called your "imagination". Did you ever read detective stories? It's mostly about guess work and figuring things out by yourself. I don't recall the name of the book right at this moment; but if I recall it correctly, it was about the pellican bird that the writer made a connection with women or "femme fatale" type of a female. A good many times the writer finishes his writing without outright telling the reader the outcome or what the characters will do (the closing). He leaves it to the reader's imagination for you to find it out by yourself or to figure it out by yourself. I love detective stories because it's all about guessing and it makes you think, i.e.; Sherlock Holmes, the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle; the Noir movies and Edgar Allen Poe's "The Purloined Letter". It's all about leaving it to your imagination and guesswork. I love it.

 

Most of the fiction writings are just that, "FICTION"; which means it is mostly or all made up stories. The writer is not lying; but he is making up a story based on how he saw people and events reacting in real life. He makes up stories; but he makes you believe that they are true.

Edited January 31, 2008 by Takoush

[ara baliozian]

Shakespeare is known as the greatest of writers but none of his plays is real or even autobiographical.

Reading him we acquire an insight into human nature.

Thomas Mann's THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN is fiction but its central function is to understand different types of individuals -- fascist, humanist, liberal, conservative, and so on.

The aim of literature is not just to entertain but also to understand reality. / ara

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, January 31, 2008

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

FRAGMENTS

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

Theophylactus Simocatta the Egyptian (500-630 A.D.) in the preface to his UNIVERSAL HISTORY: “History [is] the universal teacher of mankind, who lays before us what we should attempt and what we should leave alone as being unlikely to succeed. I am resolved to throw myself into her embraces, even though the enterprise be greater than my powers in view of the vulgarity of my style, the imbecility of my ideas, the awkwardness of my phraseology, and the unskilfulness of my composition. If any reader should find here and there a touch of felicity in my narrative, he must attribute it to chance, for most certainly it will not be due to the competence of the writer.”

*

The only morally superior Armenian I can name with any degree of certainty is Naregatsi and he represents himself as the most corrupt and evil of men. As for the others: the higher they rise, the lower they sink. To our ghazetajis and all dealers in chauvinist crapola, I say: Read Naregatsi’s LAMENTATION from beginning to end and if that does not have any effect on you, declare yourself a dangerous offender and place yourself under constant surveillance.

*

Self-righteous fools and fanatics are more prone to spew venom than moderates and middle-roaders.

*

I am afraid to say this but it must be said: It is not unreasonable to speculate that the constant harping on Turks in our press and internet forums, and the proliferation of massacre books and videos runs the risk of being classified as hate paraphernalia.

#

Friday, February 01, 2008

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

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

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

On the day a belief system is established, it begins to degenerate. A religion or an ideology may not lobotomize or moronize its converts but it takes them a step away from their individuality by depersonalizing them. That may explain why the inevitable movement in all institutions, organizations, and mass movements is towards the lowest common denominator. Christianity resulted in religious wars, the persecution of heretics, and serial child molesters; Islam in suicidal fanatics slaughtering innocent civilians; Marxism in commissars and the cold-blooded murder of millions; and nationalism in genocides.

Jesus and Mohammad were not historians, but Marx was. Hence his declaration: “I am not a Marxist.” Had Jesus known about the future abuses of Christianity, my guess is he would have given up preaching for carpentry.

To say my brand of ideology or orthodoxy is better than yours or someone else’s, raises the question: Has anyone ever said the opposite? Namely, My orthodoxy is polluted, my religion is second rate, my ideology is not the best, or my belief system is of an inferior brand? To believe also means to believe that one’s belief system is la crème de la crème even when it is la crème de la scum. Hence the phenomenon of skinheads, fascist thugs, and nationalist hooligans.

And now a question: if our nationalists engage in hooliganism against their own kind, what are they capable of doing to an unfriendly, alien, and defenseless minority in their midst when the law is on their side? Answer that question honestly and you may have a better insight into the Turkish mindset during World War I when the whole world was against them and when their own existence was in peril. I said “Turkish mindset.” I should have said “human nature,” and even better, “yourself.”

#

Saturday, February 02, 2008

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

HOW TO WRITE HISTORY

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

Lucian of Samosata (125-200 A.D.): “My own ideal historian is fearless, incorruptible, high-minded and a frank exponent of the truth. The impartiality of his judgment will not be affected by sympathy or antipathy, good feeling or sentiment, shame or shyness. He will do his best for all his characters so far as he can do it without favoring one at the expense of another. He will be a law unto himself acknowledging no allegiances. He will not stop to consider what A or B will think, but will state the facts.”

*

Something is bound to go wrong in everyone’s life. A great many things have gone wrong in mine. The temptation to blame it one others has been overwhelming. But I am now old enough and objective enough to see that my contribution to my misfortunes has been infinitely greater than the combined hostility of all my adversaries of whom I have had my share, perhaps even more than my share.

*

Mother Teresa, “the saint of the gutter,” is a proof of the fact that you don’t have to be a believer to be a saint. Likewise, you don’t have to be wise to see the truth. All you need is a touch of humility, honesty, and objectivity.

*

A victim may be as deficient in grasping reality as his victimizer.

*

After defining themselves as good Armenians, some of my readers call me a bad Armenian, and worse, anti-Armenian. I am nothing of the kind. I am not even anti-Turkish. I want to be friends with everybody, and some day I may even acquire Turkish friends. As for acquiring Armenian friends: that may prove to be a more demanding enterprise.

#

 

[Takoush]

Thursday, January 31, 2008

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

FRAGMENTS

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

*

Self-righteous fools and fanatics are more prone to spew venom than moderates and middle-roaders.

 

Hi Ara,

 

Yes, but wouldn't the Turkish fundamentalists fit in this category?

 

*

I am afraid to say this but it must be said: It is not unreasonable to speculate that the constant harping on Turks in our press and internet forums, and the proliferation of massacre books and videos runs the risk of being classified as hate paraphernalia.

 

But it is also difficult for us to let go of our past pains and the loss of our lands with it when we're repeatedly facing a denialist government and some of their people that are being fed lies by their government.

*

*

After defining themselves as good Armenians, some of my readers call me a bad Armenian, and worse, anti-Armenian. I am nothing of the kind. I am not even anti-Turkish. I want to be friends with everybody, and some day I may even acquire Turkish friends. As for acquiring Armenian friends: that may prove to be a more demanding enterprise.

#

Some of the members in here are already friends with a couple of Turkish women. Some of them can actually be very reasonable and intelligent.

 

As for making friends with Armenians; I also found it to be of a more demanding enterprise.

[ara baliozian]

Hi Ara,

 

Yes, but wouldn't the Turkish fundamentalists fit in this category? / YES, OF COURSE!

 

*

 

But it is also difficult for us to let go of our past pains and the loss of our lands with it when we're repeatedly facing a denialist government and some of their people that are being fed lies by their government. / I AM FOR JUSTICE TOO, BUT I REFUSE TO BE OBSESSED WITH TURKISH ACTIONS.

*

 

Some of the members in here are already friends with a couple of Turkish women. Some of them can actually be very reasonable and intelligent. / THE TURKISH WOMEN MAY EVEN BE HALF-ARMENIAN...

 

As for making friends with Armenians; I also found it to be of a more demanding enterprise.

 

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, February 03, 2008

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

REFLECTIONS

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

When told non-violence is for cowards, Gandhi replied: “I prefer violence to cowardice. A coward has no right to call himself a member of the human race.”

*

A nation whose rulers are ignorant philistines, both ignorance and philistinism will be the norm and anyone who refuses to conform will be an enemy of the people – not an enemy of ignorance and philistinism, but a traitor to the cause.

*

There are honest men and there are liars, and i prefer an honest Turk to a lying Armenian.

*

In his efforts to assert his Armenianism, one of our nationalist leaders claimed to have traced his ancestry all the way back to the Mamikonians (Chinese) -- or was it the Bagratunis (Jews)?

*

“There is no such thing as a Turk,” a Turkish friend once informed me. “We have all been bastardized and mongrelized. We are all the offspring of mixed marriages that go back hundreds of years. There is a Greek, an Armenian, a Jew, a Kurd, and an Albanian in all of us.”

*

In the Armenian ghetto where I was born and raised there was a blond barber called Alaman (German in Turkish) and a greengrocer named Kurdoghlanian (Son of a Kurd). They were accepted as Armenians and no one questioned their pedigree, perhaps because everybody was too busy trying to survive in an alien environment to care about such impure concepts as “pure blood.”

*

No matter how hard they try, they will never convince me that honesty and objectivity are anti-Armenian, or that the statement “All men are brothers” is pro-Turkish.

*

To brainwashed dupes who question my Armenianism on the grounds that I am critical of fellow Armenians, I ask: If I speak the truth and in doing so I expose liars, am I good or bad? After long centuries of living in fear, aren’t you tired of lies? Why should truth be a source of dread? What if in treating an honest Armenian as if he were a Turk, you succeed only in exposing your Ottomanism?

*

A historian is not judged by the degree of his patriotism, nationalism, loyalty or subersvience to a power structure, but by his honesty and impartiality. For more on this subject see Michael Grant’s GREEK AND ROMAN HISTORIANS: INFORMATION AND MISINFORMATION (London, 1995).

#

Monday, February 04, 2008

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

RANDOM THOUGHTS

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

If you speak the truth to liars, they will call you a liar. What else can they do? If you are an honest man among crooks, they will call you a crook. That’s their only line of defense and they will take it for all it’s worth.

*

To deprogram someone against his will can be a formidable undertaking and it doesn’t always work. The alternative – to hope that he will deprogram himself – may take years and sometimes decades, depending on a number of variables which are not worth going into. The fact remains that because we are all products of a cultural milieu with its own specific and clearly defined educational system and dominant ideas, we cannot claim to be who we are in the same way that a wooden table of chair can no longer claim to be a tree in a virgin forest.

*

Crooks and liars are relatively easy to deal with because they are aware of who they are and they feel vulnerable to exposure. Dupes who have been brainwashed to believe they are honest men are infinitely harder to deal with because the lies they recycle are not theirs but someone else’s. This fact makes them invulnerable to reason because there exists between them and reality an impenetrable wall of illusions, and nothing comes more naturally to us than to confuse illusions with reality. Consider what happened to us at the turn of the last century when our revolutionaries thought the Great Powers cared for us. And consider what happens to us today whenever a political candidate, for obvious reasons of his/her own, promises to recognize the Genocide.

*

It is said, investigative reporters are the eyes and ears of a nation. Where are our investigative reporters? Do we have them? Did we ever have them? Why is it that we have dozens of papers but not a single investigative reporter? Are we afraid of what they will uncover?

*

Turks worry me less than the Turk within us.

#

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

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

TURCOPHOBIA

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

Dionysius of Halicarnassus (first century B.C.), in THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF ROME: “The majority of the Hellenic public have been misled by the false view that founders of Rome were uncivilized vagrants and outlaws who were not even freeborn; and that the secret of Rome’s gradual advance in world dominion has not been her righteousness or her fear of God or any moral quality, but some blind, mechanical and immoral operation of Fortune, who has bestowed her greatest gifts upon her most unprofitable servants, and the lowest of savages…It is my hope that the discovery of the truth may induce a proper appreciation of Rome, unless they are her fanatical and irreconcilable enemies.”

*

Istanbul is not Rome, granted; but neither is Armenia the Garden of Eden.

*

A reader born and raised in Turkey tells me, “Turks can be very nasty if you ever dare to say anything remotely critical about them in their presence.”

Are we different?

“Maybe not, but they massacred us, we didn’t massacre them.”

According to impartial witnesses whenever we had the upper hand, we did to them what they did to us.

“They massacred two million; how many did we massacre, two thousand or two hundred?”

That doesn’t make us more civilized or morally superior. To say otherwise is to confuse military inferiority with moral superiority. You cannot live under a ruthless master for six hundred years without assimilating part of his ruthlessness. Neither can you say to a man, “I want to be friends with you but only on condition that you admit to being a cold-blooded murderer, a thief, a liar, and a bloodthirsty barbarian who should have stayed in Mongolia and never ventured westward where you will never be accepted as a member of a civilized community.” But if you do, don’t be surprised if he doesn’t respond with expressions of gratitude and joy.

*

Do you want to know why sooner or later Hitler’s name props up in Armenian arguments? The following easy-to-remember formula may be as good an explanation as any:

nationalism + antiSemitism + anti-intellectualism = fascism.

#

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

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

OUR BETTERS OR OUR WORST?

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

Since time immemorial man has known that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” And yet, the only enterprise in which our leaders have been consistently successful throughout our millennial existence has been in dividing us and in keeping us divided.

Our writers have called them “useless” (Zarian) and “brainless” (Issahakian), and if you think they overstated their case, you should hear what they (our leaders) call one another.

Once, many years ago, when I published an interview with a Tashnak leader, which dealt not with politics or history but with childhood reminiscences and the personalities that had shaped his character and worldview, a Ramgavar leader published an attack so nasty that I was left speechless. This may explain the gutter mentality of some of my brainwashed partisan critics.

*

When things didn’t work out for them, the Bagratunis moved to Georgia, and from Georgia to Russia. When our revolution in the Ottoman Empire failed, our revolutionaries abandoned the people at the mercy of butchers and kept themselves busy by writing long-winded memoirs. They had a Plan B for themselves but only a Plan A for the people.

*

They flatter us by bragging about our survival in an environment where many others perished. They are right: “they” survived all right while countless others did not. They survived to what end and for what purpose? To divide us, of course, and to make sure we stay divided. That’s because that is the only undertaking in which they excel – after all, they had millennia of practice in which to refine and master the technique.

*

Are they our betters or our worst? I will let you answer that question in the hope you will come up with the right answer not because you are smart (I will let them use the maneuver of treating you like fools after flattering you to believe you are just about the smartest people on earth) but because I trust you are capable of using your common sense, which, it has been said, is the least common of all faculties.

#

 

 

 

 

"Intellect is invisible to the man who has none."

Arthur Schopenhauer