notes / comments

[Pilafhead]

Welcome, Ara!

 

Here's something for the rest of the Forum to read regarding your work. It's from a website that Berj just posted.

http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/lit...u/baliozia.html

[ara baliozian]

NOTES / COMMENTS

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Some day if we create a world of our own or an Armenian empire,

we may be in a position to make the rules.

But until then, the least we can do is understand existing rules,

if, that is, we want to determine which ones we have a chance to break

and which we have no choice but to accept. To rely on our own definitions of right and wrong,

or faith, truth, God, & so on (as we have done in the past) amounts to butting our heads against a brick wall thus certifying our status as perennial losers.

 

Anti-Americanism is a stage everyone goes through at one time or another,

including Americans. Americans know this, they understand it,

and they can afford to go on living as if it were a routine virus infection like an attack of flu.

 

In the free world, the role of the press is not to justify the policies of a regime but to expose its lies.

 

A loud delivery cannot add originality to a received platitude or honesty to double-talk,

in the same way that insults and curses cannot enhance or detract from the validity of an argument.

 

The higher you climb the more anatomy you expose, the more vulnerable you become,

and the more enemies you acquire.

What could be easier than rising to the top?

What could be harder than staying there?

 

To those who recycle Vahan Tekeyan’s familiar line,

"We need self-esteem as we need air and water,"

I say: Self-esteem can be an asset only when it is an extension of real ability;

when it is based on illusions, lies, and propaganda, it can be a dangerous liability.