charlatans

[ara baliozian]

DEFINING CHARLATANISM

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Several readers have complained that I use the words

"charlatan" and "charlatanism" too often.

"If what you say is right," one of them writes,

"every other Armenian is a charlatan."

I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if that were indeed true.

Let me explain:

When a partisan asserts only members of his own party

qualify as authentic or good Armenians,

I call that a typical instance of political charlatanism.

When an Anteliassagan or an Etchmiadznagan Armenian says

his church is the only true Armenian church,

he engages in religious charlatanism.

When an Armenian says or implies in any way that

he knows best what’s good for the nation

and anyone who disagrees with him is a fool,

he wallows in fascist charlatanism.

That’s because there is no such thing as a "true" church,

an infallible political party,

or an agenda that is beyond criticism.

There is only consensus reached by means of dialogue and compromise.

Anyone who says otherwise is a charlatan!

[MJ]

ara baliozian

Member

Member # 271

posted August 02, 2001 11:11 AM

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BROTHERS

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Whenever I speak of our commissars, charlatans, brown-nosers, panchoonies or anyone else whom I consider my enemy, I never forget Thomas Mann’s words on Hitler in his essay titled "A Brother."

"A brother – a rather unpleasant and mortifying brother. He makes me nervous, the relationship is painful to a degree. But I will not disclaim it. For I repeat: better, more productive, more honest, more constructive than hatred is recognition, acceptance, the readiness to make oneself one with what is deserving of our hate."

Further down: "Thanks to his baseness, he has indeed succeeded in exposing much of our own."

And elsewhere: "The intellectual man is almost as much interested in painful truths as the fool in those which flatter him."

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ara baliozian