as i see it - Pt. I

[ara baliozian]

PARALLELS

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

When a nation loses a war it thinks it has suffered an injustice and reacts by creating a myth: It was not a defeat but a moral victory (remember that one?) or it was treason by a despised minority (Jews). Hitler was successful in convincing the rest of Germany that Germany had not really lost World War I and it was not only sure to win the next round of hostilities but also conquer the world. Hitler was a demagogue who saw evil in others but not in himself. On the contrary, he saw himself as a man of destiny, another Alexander the Great and Napoleon. He saw himself as an instrument of the gods straight out of Wagner’s operas.

The Arabs too are convinced they are the victims of an injustice perpetrated by the Jews and Americans. They cannot accept defeat even after losing five wars in as many decades. That’s because they have leaders who think of themselves as instruments of Allah and, armed with that conviction, they are willing to kill and die until they or their enemies are destroyed.

In the same way that Germany’s greatest enemy was neither Churchill nor Stalin or, for that matter, FDR, but Hitler, the greatest enemies of the Arab world today are neither the Jews nor the Americans, but its tribal demagogues.

[ara baliozian]

BRAVE NEW WORLD 2001

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

The world is a dangerous place not because of its lunatics but because reasonable men cannot agree on their definition of lunacy.

 

We may have lasting peace on the day mullahs, rabbis and theologians come together and agree that their particular belief system is not the word of God but the words of little men, of sincere men, sometimes even good men, but who compared to God couldn’t even qualify as idiots, liars, and charlatans.

 

If all nations that lost a war became terrorist camps populated by suicidal zealots life would be worse than death in the jungle.

 

Imagine a world in which everyone forgave evil-doers: lawyers would go out of business, the police would become obsolete, armies disbanded, jails emptied, courts of law deserted….

[ara baliozian]

They call the Americans and the Jews fascists because they have not experienced real fascism. It’s almost as if they were using the word fascism to exorcise their own brand of fascism. Imagine, if you can, stone-throwing teens and gun-toting monks in Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Franco’s Spain, or Mao’s China.

 

They speak of oppression even as they terrorize and kill -- as if terrorizing and massacring innocent women and children were morally superior to oppression.

 

We live in a bad, bad, bad world but I shiver to think what would happen to it if it fell into the hands of these suicidal fanatics.

 

Nietzsche once observed that a man with a loud voice is incapable of entertaining subtle thoughts. Likewise, a bloodthirsty fanatic cannot have a clear conception of justice, human rights and freedom.

[ara baliozian]

QUESTIONS

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

How to explain Armenian anti-Americanism?

Bin Laden and his kind: what have they done for Armenians? -- except perhaps to inspire some of our misguided youth to engage in acts of terrorism and make headlines around the world thus besmirching our reputation as law-abiding citizens.

What has America done for us? It has welcomed a million of us and allowed us to reach the top in all fields of human endeavor in a single generation: Saroyan in literature, Deukmejian in politics, Bagdikian in dissent, Kirkoring in finance…and I could go on and on. It is no exaggeration to say that Americans have been kinder to us than we have been to ourselves.

I repeat: How to explain Armenian anti-Americanism?

Two thousand years ago the Romans classified us under "ambigua gens" – meaning, a people with unpredictable or unreliable loyalties. Our own Raffi put it more bluntly when he said "treason and betrayal are in our blood."

How would the Americans, Canadians, and the West in general classify us today?

[ara baliozian]

OVERHEARD

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

The West should negotiate with the Arabs.

Yes, but which ones?

The moderates? (the extremists will be alienated).

The extremists? (they will demand another holocaust).

 

Science fiction scenario:

The Arabs bring the West to its knees.

They become masters of the universe.

Then it will be the turn of the West to terrorize the Middle East.

 

The Arabs can afford to sacrifice a million or two terrorists a year.

Their birth-rate is such that they can afford to sustain such losses.

Has anyone ever calculated the damage a million terrorists can inflict?

 

Islam is a religion of peace.

The real criminals are not the terrorists but the mullahs who promise them seventy virgins in a fictional Muslim paradise. Organized religions are the source of all evil. As long as these mullahs are allowed to preach we shall have no peace.

[ara baliozian]

NOTES / COMMENTS

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

The longer you ignore reality the harder it will collapse on you.

 

I was brought up to believe the function of a writer was to entertain and amuse his audience. But I now think it makes more sense for a writer to entertain and amuse himself by insulting his audience.

 

An Arab on Canadian radio: "I came to Canada from Lebanon to live in peace and now I am being harassed for being an Arab." Please note that he did not say "My life is being threatened by Arab terrorists." After all, any one of us can end up as collateral damage to an Arab terrorist.

 

History may be said to be a beast that advances on feet made of blunders.

[ara baliozian]

BIG LIES

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

Honesty is a demanding enterprise and truth can be lethal.

"Of the gods we know nothing," said Socrates and because he was being honest he was condemned to death. If Socrates were alive today he would be called an atheist by some, an infidel dog by others, and a bad influence on the young by all.

You want to prosper? Recycle crap!

The truth is one, big lies many.

Clash of cultures means the clash of big lies.

To millions of believers the Pope is infallible;

to millions of other believers he is an infidel.

Gandhi said "I like Christ but I don’t like Christians."

What did he say about Mohammed and Muslims?

I can only guess.

Gandhi was an honest man too and he was assassinated by a Hindu.

Mankind condemns those who killed Socrates and Gandhi

but prefers to live in a world of big lies that legitimize their murder.

[ara baliozian]

ON TERRORISM

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

One reason I loathe terrorists is that, though I have done nothing to them,

I may end up as one of their victims.

 

We are told terrorists do what they do because they have been oppressed and victimized. So have I, but I have at no time terrorized anyone, perhaps because none of the preachers I was exposed to as a child promised me a phony paradise of a thousand and one delights if I became a killer.

 

People who sermonize about forgiveness, tolerance and understanding have, as a rule, very little to say on how to go about protecting innocent lives. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if, after a few more successful terrorist attack, these very same promoters of compassion turn into murderous maniacs.

 

A killer is a killer regardless of ideology.

I would go further and say that the nobler the ideology the more unforgivable the crime.

Because it means not only killing a fellow human being and a brother

but also debasing and corrupting a noble idea.

 

Terrorists are dupes of political leaders whose sole aim in life

is to assume power. The rest is propaganda – including

singling out America and Israel as the two sources of all evil.

War, conquest, slavery, oppression, massacre and genocide: they antedate the discovery of America and the existence of Israel.

There are no better or superior races.

All men are alike.

Give them have a chance and they will turn from slaves to the cruelest of slave-masters.

[ara baliozian]

DOUBLE-TALK / (PART I)

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

"Bin Laden is an American creation. So is Saddam Hussein."

We all make mistakes except popes, bishops, ayatollahs, mullahs, demagogues and in general anyone who represents God or Allah on earth.

 

"I don’t hate all Jews, only Zionists and Israelis."

You must also hate the Jews who support Israel. That’s quite a few Jews….

 

"Even some Jews hate Jews."

Even Hitler didn’t hate all Jews. He actually preferred to deal with Germans with a touch of Jewish blood in them because he knew they will try harder to prove their loyalty. Would you call Hitler a semi-anti-Semite?

 

"I don’t hate Americans, only the American government."

The American government has three branches and countless agencies, such as the FBI, the CIA and the IRS (it’s all right to hate the IRS, by the way: all Americans do); the Pentagon, the army, the police, the judges who uphold the law, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the Congress, governors, mayors, advisers, lobbyists who represent powerful corporations, the stockholders without whom most corporations wouldn’t exist, registered Republicans and Democrats who vote for them…shall I go on?

 

"The American government is not accountable to the people."

As an Armenian I would be embarrassed to use that word in the presence of an American. I am sure there is an Armenian word for accountable but is it ever used in our press? What about the word in Arabic? When was the last time anyone dared to use that word in reference to Saddam ?

 

"You are a typical Americanized Armenian."

Only after being exposed to the nonsense dished out by Arabized Armenians.

[ara baliozian]

THE HUMAN CONDITION

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

A reader contradicts me.

I explain my point from a different perspective.

He disagrees with me.

I disagree with him.

We disagree with each other.

This goes on for a while.

No sign of compromise.

This goes on for a while longer.

But I gradually begin to notice

that his arguments are becoming increasingly more untenable.

Then it happens.

He falls silent.

At which point I feel justified in assuming

I gave him something to think about

and that perhaps

he is now busy reassessing his initial position.

A few months go by.

The same issue is raised

and the same routine is resumed.

The same arguments and contradictions

are repeated as if for the first time.

That’s when I realize

I have been dealing

not with a reasonable being but a wall.

And that’s when I begin to question my sanity,

or rather, the insanity of Armenianism…

or is it the human condition?

null

[ara baliozian]

REFLECTIONS

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

Where there are more than one versions or interpretations of the past, there will also be freedom of thought. Where there is only one, there will be subservience, oppression and fear.

 

Our choice is seldom between good and evil but between the lesser of two evils.

 

The greater the lie, the more transparent the liar.

 

Whenever I think I have written an honest line, a reader takes it upon himself to call me a liar and an ignoramus. Whenever I am thoughtless enough to assume that exposing charlatans is a useful enterprise, I am torn to shreds by phony pundits parading as honest patriots.

 

The problem with liars is that they end up believing in their own lies and doubting the existence of honest men.

 

An oversized ego means an undersized brain.

[ara baliozian]

MORE REFLECTIONS

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

As a human being,

I don’t mind admitting that I am often inconsistent and wrong,

also uninformed and prejudiced.

You have nothing to fear from me.

Fear instead those who are never wrong:

mullahs and their blind followers;

propagandists and their dupes;

demagogues and their brown-nosing subjects.

 

In everything I write

I try to promote tolerance, understanding,

justice, respect for fundamental human rights,

and dedication to principles.

I may live in the dark

but my words extol the light.

I try to do good without expecting anything in return,

including immortality and heavenly bliss.

You may not know it,

but you and I are soldiers in the same army.

 

Someone recently compared me

to a surgeon who cuts deeper

and scoops out too much gray matter.

But the historic reality is,

all of our intellectuals put together

haven’t had the effect of a single mosquito bite.

 

An American poetess:

"As soon as you think you have been screwed in every possible way,

you come across a publisher who has read the KAMA SUTRA."

 

When decent men keep silent

the loud-mouth charlatans are bound to be

the dominant voices.

The battle between charlatanism and honesty is everyone’s battle;

it is a never-ending battle;

and it is as old as mankind.

 

>

[ara baliozian]

THE OLD BLIND HORSE

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

If I say: What I think is right and what a Turk thinks is wrong, and vice versa, if a Turk says, What I think is right and what an Armenian thinks is wrong, then we (both Turks and Armenians) think not as human beings but as nationalists.

If we ask: What motivated the Armenians and the Turks to behave as they did, and if we answer: The Armenians were motivated by love of freedom and respect for fundamental human rights and the Turks by savagery; and if the Turks answer: The Armenians were motivated by disloyalty and treason and the Turks by self-defense, then again we (both Turks and Armenians) think not as human beings but as members of a nation, namely as nationalists, and nationalism, as we know by now, is the source of all conflicts between nations.

Next question: If Armenian political leaders at the turn of the century were motivated by love of freedom and respect for fundamental human rights, why is it that they have no tolerance for free speech and dissent and they have silenced our ablest post-genocide writers?

All political leaders say they are motivated by altruism and justice and everything else that is noble in man, but does anyone believe them? Why should we think that our own politicians are the exception to that rule? Even Martin Luther, who was not a politician but a religious reformer said: "God uses lust to impel men to marriage, ambition to office, avarice to earning, and fear to faith. God led me like an old blind horse."

When an Armenian thinks as an Armenian and a Turk thinks as a Turk they think not as human beings but as dupes of old blind horses.

 

P.S. Am I denying the reality of the Genocide? No! Only questioning the honesty of all politicians and attempting to explain why is it that two opposing parties (be they Turks and Armenians or for that matter representatives of any other nation, tribe, ideology, and political party and their counterparts) find it extremely difficult, not to say impossible, to develop a consensus.

[Juggernaut]

Man, you got alot of free time on your hands

[ara baliozian]

SIX OF ONE

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

 

1.

Sultan Abdulhamid II and Talaat, bin Laden and the Taliban: I see more than echoes and parallels here: I see the same mentality in action; the same ruthless despotism; the same murderous fanaticism; and the same visceral contempt of infidel dogs. And in the same way that to this day the Turks have their apologists, the Muslim fanatics have theirs: the first driven by a misguided love of the Orient, the second by ignorance and hatred of the West.

 

2.

The difference between Western dissidents and critics of the West and Muslim fanatics and terrorists is that the first are driven by love and want to see the West improved, the second are driven by blind hatred and want to see the West destroyed.

 

 

HALF A DOZEN OF THE OTHER

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

If you can put the blame on others, why assume any responsibility for your own blunders?

 

Where do terrorists and their victims or targets get their version of history? From their political leaders, of course; and as everyone knows by now, the aim of politics is neither truth nor objective judgment but power. Result? Two increasingly divergent views of the past that are driven by prejudice, fear and hatred – two versions that are more akin to lies than to truth.

 

There is a type of Armenian who in the proximity of his fellow Armenians turns into a Turk.

 

Anonymous: "After all, none of us is human." Probably a variation of the old saying: "Homo homini lupus" = Man is wolf to other men. (Armenian translation: An Armenian is a Turk to another Armenian). This will come as a surprise only to those who don sheep’s clothing hoping thus not to be recognized for what they really are.

[ara baliozian]

TARC/#2

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

The ability to entertain opposing views may be said to be one of the surest symptoms of intellectual maturity. By contrast, unthinking, instinctive, automatic denial may be said to be unfailing expressions of insecurity and narrow-mindedness and fanaticism.

The assumption that the opposition is always wrong and not even worth considering goes hand in hand with a dogmatic and intolerant world view.

What if our adversary is murderer and a liar?

We expose his lies. We even show a willingness to compromise knowing that he will not, and we thus make his position untenable in the eyes of the world. Above all, we don’t accept his inflexibility as worthy of emulation.

 

TARC / #3

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

In a recent commentary my good friend Dr. Astarjian writes that academics have no business getting involved in politics: politics should be left to the politicians -- who, I assume, can always be relied on to make a mess of things, as they have done in the past, and in that respect their record may be said to be without blemish!

 

 

TARC / #4

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

One must admit that the Turkish line of defense looks better and better every day. All they have to do to convince the U.S. that Armenians claims are without merit is to say, "Armenians are a people with a notorious lunatic fringe that engaged in acts of terrorism at the turn of the century in the Ottoman Empire and intermittently since then in Europe, Canada and the United States, and it will do so again unless we accede to all their demands which would amount to Washington ceding New York and several other States to the Indians."

 

The other day a Canadian intelligence officer stated on TV: "There are seventy terrorist organizations operating within Canada today." I have every reason to suspect the ARF is thought of as one of them. Which is why ARF leaders have been refused entry visas here ever since a handful of ARF boys staged an act of terrorism in Ottawa and the ARF hired a noted Canadian lawyer to defend them; and to this day these boys (now in prison) are declared to be heroes in the ARF press.

[Anahid Takouhi]

Upon your observation not only ARF must be part of that 70 organizations. There is ASALA and more than that Armenia, were in daytime people are getting killed not only in Parliament, but on street, in villages or restaurants.

[ara baliozian]

STUFF AND NONSENSE

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

"Some folks rail against other folks because other folks have what some folks be glad of." Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

 

We all want what we don’t have. What do Arafat, Bin Laden and their kind want? They are wealthy men. They can buy anything they want. The only thing they don’t have is power and that’s exactly what they are after. All that talk about poor Palestinians, Iraqi children, and Japanese victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is stuff and nonsense.

They can’t even deal with tiny little states like Israel and Saudi Arabia but they want to destroy the West and re-create the world in their own image.

Destroy the degenerate capitalist West: that’s what the Soviets wanted too. "We will bury you!" Khruschev said -- his son is now a citizen of the United States and the USSR history.

 

A MUSLIM PRAYER

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

"O God, if I worship Thee in fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; or if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise; but if I worship Thee for Thine Own Sake, withhold not Thine Everlasting Beauty." (My italics)

It follows, if I worship Thee in hope of 72 virgins, burn me in Hell!

Now, if I am familiar with this prayer, so must the mullahs, Arafat, bin Laden and their kind. And yet sexually starved young men continue to brainwashed, misled and pushed into murder and suicide: I call this the quintessence not only of deception but also of satanic evil.

 

MUSES

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

Once in a while I am taken to task for ignoring my critics. Nonsense! Everything I write -- including commas and semi-colons – is a reply to one of them. Where would I be without my critics? Luckily, writing for Armenians means never to run out of them because every Jack S. Avanakian is a pundit with a highly developed spirit of contradiction.

 

DEMOS

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

I am against war and against terrorism. I would like to protest against U.S. military action in front of a U.S. Consulate provided others with like-minded convictions are allowed to protest against terrorism in front of bin Laden’s cave.

Even a coward is free to demonstrate in a democracy; but a suicidal hero will think twice before demonstrating against the ruthless might of a bloodthirsty despot.

 

EGOS

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

What I find most offensive about us (and all tribal people in general) is the disparity between our rhetoric and our actions. We pretend to be smart but we behave like political morons, constantly dividing and subdividing ourselves as if the ego of our petty little sultans were more important than the survival of the nation.

 

KISS ME, I AM ARMENIAN

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

We are a nation of pundits on all conceivable subjects: from Abdulhamidism to Zoroastrianism – but pundits who dismiss one another as total ignoramuses and misguided fools.

 

We are a collection of tribes with petty little loyalties, so that whenever we hear the words "Forward, march!" we scatter in all directions like a pile of autumn leaves hit by a sudden gust of wind.

 

Paradox: Why is it that whenever an Armenian feels the need to assert his Armenianism he succeeds only in exposing his Ottomanism?

 

In a private conversation with President Bush Sr., Ozal is quoted as having said: "The Armenians are our Indians." Wrong. We are no Indians; we are chiefs!"

 

When an Armenian says to another Armenian "Kiss me, I am Armenian!" he doesn’t mention where exactly he wants to be kissed but it is easy to guess….

[raffiaharonian]

Ara you're adorable, even though a pain in the ass most of the times!

 

I guess that all you're doing is shouting louder the forum signature of Movses

" Zartnir Lao, mernim kezi"........

 

Once and again you were asked to provide solutions, however you decline that under the valid conclusion that you are here to ring the bell! Well isn't it high time to assume a differnet role in our tribal society? since noone seems to be interested to place his genuine efforts.

 

I even guess your reply : "....as if I care about your opinion....... charlatan and XXX... "

Well, life sucks so do people sometimes.!

[khodja]

Ara,

 

This is all biblical. The results of genetic studies have been concealed for critical political reasons. The Hebrew "curse" is in our genes. If we knew all the sums of our parts we would understand.

[ara baliozian]

NOTES / COMMENTS

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

What matters is not what you and I think but what our representatives do

in our name. And what are they doing? When was the last time they asked

what you think?

***

To say that we are smart amounts to brainwashing ourselves into believing

that we are doing what must be done even when the exact opposite is the

case.

***

I speak the truth because no one is paying me to lie. Would I lie if

someone paid me? That remains to be seen. Is everyone who disagrees with

me a liar? Some are; others are honest but brainwashed liars, as I myself

was for most of my life.

***

Can a wise man be brainwashed by a fool? Yes, provided the wise is naïve

or idealistic and the fool is cynical and cunning. Is it possible for the

wise to be naïve? No, but it happens all the time. And if you say "I

don't understand that," I will say, "Neither do I."

[ara baliozian]

PARALLELS

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

1.

Jewish history from Moses (slave labor, endless wandering in the desert)

to Ariel Sharon (surrounded by mortal enemies, living in constant fear of

suicidal terrorists) is a disaster area. To say that Jews are smart and

to ignore the evidence of history amounts to watching a man slitting his

throat in public and thinking he must be the happiest man on earth.

2.

If that’s being Chosen, they would have been better off being Cursed.

3.

When we examine their and our past, what strikes us is not the presence

but the absence of God.

4.

To compare the average Jew to Kissinger or some other

wheeling-and-dealing plutocrat or banker is like comparing an unemployed

Armenian in Yerevan to Kirk Krikorian, who is said to have started his

career as a bagman for the Mafia.

5.

To view Jewish history objectively may help us understand our own.

[ara baliozian]

ELEGY

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

It is extremely difficult – make it, impossible –to argue with an

Armenian who was told once upon a time by someone (probably his

schoolmaster) that he is smart. Such an Armenian is not equipped to

listen, only to contradict and to engage in one-upmanship. Which is why I

take pleasure in reminding my readers as often as I can and at the risk

of sounding monotonous that I am only an overworked and underpaid

scribbler with many limitations, prejudices and blind spots. I may even

be an idiot for daring to express my honest opinion to an audience of

self-anointed experts on any given subject who are convinced they already

know everything they need to know and they have no use for anyone who

takes it upon himself to question their judgment. And I cannot help

reflecting that it is exactly this kind of mindset that propelled our

revolutionaries at the turn of the century to challenge the ruthless

might of the Ottoman Empire: the conviction, nay the belief (which has

rightly been called a fountain of lies) that the Christian West, the

invisible forces of history, their superior morality, and God Himself

were on their side and with such allies they must be invincible! And what

is even more incomprehensible: they go on thinking they were right and

the rest of the world (including the Good Lord Himself) wrong. So what if

a million and half were massacred; so what if they divided and continue

to divide the nation; so what if they are witnessing two more genocides

today (exodus from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora); so

what if their thinking – nationalist, fanatical, dogmatic,

anti-intellectual, anti-Semitic, fascist –has not advanced a single

fraction of an inch? They were absolutely right then and they are

absolutely right today and anyone who dares to question their judgment is

a traitor who must be silenced

– permanently, whenever possible!

[ara baliozian]

UNDERDOGS AND DESPOTS

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

Napoleon was idolized by the masses but he didn't much care if he lost a

hundred thousand men in a single battle: "They can be replaced by a

single night in Paris," he would say.

Arafat and his gang promise a large sum of money to the families of

Palestinian teenage boys who commit suicide while killing Jews. So what

if sometimes the checks bounce – as they have been lately.

Underdogs have no friends: only exploiters and deceivers.

Saddam, bin Laden, Arafat & Co. represent underdogs only in the sense in

which Stalin represented workers. The irony here is that, the same kind

of left-wing Western intellectuals who were taken in by Stalin (among

them such sophisticated French writers as Gide and Sartre: both

Nobel-prize winners) are now taken in by Stalin’s counterparts in the

Arab world.

History suggests that when it comes to choosing their representatives,

underdogs tend to choose not the best candidate but the worst. But then,

if the judgment of progressive Western intellectuals cannot be trusted,

what is one to expect of functional illiterates who have been brainwashed

by dogmatic, hidebound, megalomaniacal, ruthless and bloodthirsty Eastern

despots?

[ara baliozian]

DISSENT

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

1.

The word "dissent" has two different meanings: in a totalitarian states

it might as well be synonymous with sedition and treason, and as such it

is considered a serious criminal offense; in a democracy it is the duty

of the loyal opposition.

2.

Chekhov: "Am I not fooling the reader, since I cannot answer the most

important questions?"

No, of course not. In a world where every mullah and bishop and

Sunday-school teacher has a dozen answers to the most important

questions, our job is not to come up with more answers but to expose

phony answers.

3.

Chekhov: "Remember that it is better to be the victim than the

executioner."

That amounts to saying, it is better to be an underdog than a top dog; to

which I can only say: After centuries of being an underdog, I wouldn't

mind being a top dog for a change – even if that may not be fair to

future underdogs, and may the Good Lord (if He exists) have mercy on my

soul (if I have one).