Guest Posted September 30, 2000 Report Share Posted September 30, 2000 I have discovered two very intersting Diasporan Armenian Critics at narke.com Here are direct hyperlinks: http://www.narek.com/eddiearnavoudian.htm and http://www.narek.com/arabaliozian.htm I think these autors are worth reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 30, 2000 Report Share Posted September 30, 2000 Today I discovered a new Armenian thinkning person- Ara Baliozian. Some of his thoughts can be found at www.narek.com - at the Critical Corner- in the Books Section. I am pasting few thoughts by Ara. I think some in our forum are in desperate need of reading them. In general, I would advise to reade the rest of his Notes, remarks, criticism, posed there._____________________________________________ 1. Whenever I review our past I confess I can't make any sense of it. So much suffering, so many defeats, tragedies, disasters, and victims. Also so many lessons unlearned, so many lies, so many blunders! 2. Who defines a blunder? Surely not those who committed them. If it were up to them, they have done nothing wrong, all our defeats are moral victories, and anyone who says otherwise cannot be a patriotic Armenian. 3. To how many of my young patriotic friends I could say: I am familiar with your line of reasoning because when I was your age I too was fed recycled crap. 4. The very same people who prostitute an ideology or religion are also its most vocal defenders. That's because power and money are thicker than politics and theology. 5. The Armenian identity is such a vaguely defined and poorly understood concept that even Armenians who are no better than "Christian Turks" or "Turkish gypsies" feel qualified to brag about their superior brand of Armenianism. 6. The spirit of contradiction in some Armenians is so highly developed that if you were to agree with them they would disagree with you. 7. Whenever I hear an Armenian bragging about his genius for survival, I cannot help thinking: Millions of our ancestors sacrificed their lives so that this piece of dung may brag about it? 8. May I confess that I don't always read my critics. It is painful to the extreme reading thoughts that I entertained as a child but rejected when I became an adult. 9. An Armenian who speaks in the name of the people ("We Armenians") and expects to be taken at this own evaluation of himself as a representative spokesman of the nation, is an Armenian who knows nothing and understand even less about his fellow countrymen. 10. Sophocles: "An enemy should be hated only so far as one may be hated who may one day be a friend." I call this a quintessentially un-Armenian thought. 11. I have been exposed to so much Armenian venom that I have every reason to suspect among ten Armenians nine are sure to be Turkish cobras. 12. One should never go into the arts to achieve success. Success may even prove fatal to talent. And to aim at success and success alone might as well be moral suicide. 13. There are many ways to prove that you are the master of your own house; burning it down is not one of them. 14. You can't teach love to someone who is full of hate, in the same way that you can't teach hunger to someone with a full belly. 15. If I can't sway them, I can at least make them sweat. 16. To the perpetrators, massacre is never massacre but the will of Allah or some other abstract principle (territorial integrity, historic necessity, moral imperative, patriotic duty, manifest destiny, and so on). It is the same with our bigots: with them too bigotry is not bigotry but superpatriotism; intolerance is not intolerance but opposition to treason and betrayal (if not actual than potential). 17. In his STUDY OF HISTORY Toynbee tells us that nations and empires are not killed: they commit suicide. Corruption, degradation, and disintegration are not imposed by enemies, barbarians, or historic forces or environmental conditions but by inner failings. 18. If I or anyone else were to come up with a perfect verbal solution to all our problems (assuming of course such a formula exists and so far it has eluded our greatest intellects) it would convince no one and change nothing. Show me an Armenian who says "What is your solution?" and I will show you a sriga (a thug or bully) itching to crucify a messiah if he ever dares to make an appearance among us. 19. Writers are a harmless a bunch; all they do is scribble, scribble, scribble. They are a threat to no one, except perhaps to the prestige of riffraff parading as noble specimens of humanity. 20. The challenge the present regime confronts in Yerevan today is discriminating free enterprise from free larceny. 21. When the gut speaks louder than the brain, reason becomes a hostile intruder; and the more reasonable an argument, the more visceral the gut reaction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 30, 2000 Report Share Posted September 30, 2000 Here is another one by Ara Balozian: FREE SPEECH & ITS LIMITATIONS If I continue to be read it's not because I am original, brilliant, or deep, but because I say things publicly most of my readers say only privately for the simple reason that they have no desire to expose themselves to the verbal vandalism of our bigots. I say this because with extremely minor exceptions, those who agree with me prefer to do so in private. If, among us, freedom of speech is easily confused with insults and threats, it's because decent Armenians are afraid to confront our bigots and say: "You, my friend, are not what you claim to be but an impostor and there is no flag big enough to cover your nakedness." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 30, 2000 Report Share Posted September 30, 2000 Yet, another one: ON PATRIOTISM AND RELATED ATROCITIES Patriotism: love of one's country and respect for everyone else's right to love his own. Perverted patriotism places a plus sign on ourselves and a minus sign on the rest of mankind. Patriotism, nationalism, chauvinism, racism, fascism: among us these have become concepts with liquid barriers.Nothing comes easier to a chauvinist than to assume moral superiority. Every day I am reminded by a fraction of my readers (make it, commissars) that I don't deserve to live. Intolerance is the seed, massacre the tree. TESTIMONY None of us is qualified to say: "I make the rules. I set the standards. I am in the law." We are neither judge nor jury, only witnesses. We can speak only of our own experiences, ideas, and feelings. The people are our jury and time (or history) our judge. When I was young, I too disagreed with many things. Even Rene Descartes, surely one of the greatest philosophers of all time, once conceded: "I am struck by the large number of falsehoods I had accepted as true in my childhood." To the young I say: Take it easy. Don't rush! There is no need to jump to conclusions. To the old I say: Understanding is not a dead end. Even the wisest among us lives with the hope that tomorrow he may know something that he does not know today. Thank you for reading me and God bless Armenia._____________________________________________Hope all these are intriguing enough to visit the site - www.narek.com . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Dear MJ , Let's first set favourable conditions for that choice. In case of Armenia I meen. P.S. Thank you and Garo for "Hayoc Visht@". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 MJ, Ara Baliozian's "On being positive" is really smth. Arayzhm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Dear Berj, Please be more specific. I don't follow what you mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Ara Baliozian?!He is the worst Armenian I ever seen (in all over my live). Soon I will post some of our discussion (during last 7 months), and you will see by your own. And this picture of him is perfect illusion of his mentality: http://www.narek.com/imgs/accets/ara.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Dear MJ!This is the guy, that for me, is equal to Bahcheli (Perhaps worse!).I will repost some of our conversation, and you will see the real ara baliozian (this is how he signs under his postings). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Berj you're welcome. All the scans were provided by MJ. Thanks MJ for your help. Ararat and MJdo you mind if I move this posts about Ara Baliozian to another place? I guess hot discussions are coming soon. Just name a topic title and I'll move these posts about him there. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Garo, I don't mined. How about to the Critical Corner? [This message has been edited by MJ (edited October 01, 2000).] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Garo, I don't mined. How about to the Critical Corner? [This message has been edited by MJ (edited October 01, 2000).] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Dear MJ and GaroI am sorry for above emotional post of mine. This is very rear posting of mine, were I got out of patient/resistance. This was explosion of 7 months anger toward Ara/Baliozian. So in his absence somehow I insulted my good friend - MJ, which I have deeply regretted. I promise in near future explain about all of these (why I got angry against Ara). And interestingly I advised to other young countrymen to post very careful and balanced messages, so do not ask apology for what they did. And of course I agree to move last treats about a/b to another branch (I agree with MJ about "Critical Corner"), especially this topic (Armenian poetry) is one of the saint issue of our culture, our daily live, and it should be kept absolutely clean. Garo once again thank you for your good management (You can guess what I mean)... Hamazgain sirovArarat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Dear MJ and GaroI am sorry for above emotional post of mine. This is very rear posting of mine, were I got out of patient/resistance. This was explosion of 7 months anger toward Ara/Baliozian. So in his absence somehow I insulted my good friend - MJ, which I have deeply regretted. I promise in near future explain about all of these (why I got angry against Ara). And interestingly I advised to other young countrymen to post very careful and balanced messages, so do not ask apology for what they did. And of course I agree to move last treats about a/b to another branch (I agree with MJ about "Critical Corner"), especially this topic (Armenian poetry) is one of the saint issue of our culture, our daily live, and it should be kept absolutely clean. Garo once again thank you for your good management (You can guess what I mean)... Hamazgain sirovArarat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Dear Ararat, I have not been insulted, at all and don't see a reason to be insulted Look forward to your materials regarding his statements Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 1, 2000 Report Share Posted October 1, 2000 Dear Ararat, I have not been insulted, at all and don't see a reason to be insulted Look forward to your materials regarding his statements Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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