as i see it - Pt. III

[Sasun]

Notice "when". Which means that organized religions wouldn't be bad if they didn't promote that type of behavior. I think Ara's main point is that it's very hard to find organized religions that either don't engage in this type of behavior, or don't engage in brainwashing. I might be wrong. Ara merely said that he thinks that I understand his intent more than you do. Which doesn't mean that I do understand it as much as he would like me to

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Nairi, even when a religious person does wrong things that doesn't mean he/she is insane. Religious or non-religious, people make mistakes and can be very ignorant. Why brand them as having psychological disorders?

 

On the other hand, that when actually determines a lot. When those things happen is not always, and it is not even in most cases. But Ara always blames religions for all faults of humanity. This is a strong and very unfair bias. As if non-religious people are perfect and religious people are absolutely faulty.

[Sasun]

Sasun has boycotted me since my exposition of his Guru and refuses to talk to me.

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I don't feel compelled to talk to such a dishonest and prejudiced person like yourself. Grow up and live in a real life, some people may not like you.

[nairi]

But Ara always blames religions for all faults of humanity.

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I must be blind, because I don't see that at all. Do you have an example of where he says something like this? Sounds very unlike Ara as far as I have read him..

[Sasun]

I must be blind, because I don't see that at all. Do you have an example of where he says something like this? Sounds very unlike Ara as far as I have read him..

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Really? OK, not for all faults literally, I am exaggerating here. He blames religion for many wars and massacres. He does not specify exactly how many wars and massacres so it is hard to argue about it. But his bias is evident. One example from his recent posts: when talking about cathedrals, he is against cathedrals because a certain cathedral in the past has caused a war. What he fails to understand, it is not the cathedral per se, but people involved and their interests, etc. that caused a war. It does not at all mean that cathedrals cause wars. Having a cathedral is part of religion, and if one assumes that a cathedaral necessarily will cause a war then religion is bad of course. Well, thats just not true. On the other hand, we know that many people are church goers, perhaps not as many as in the past, but I see a lot of people on Sundays going to church. So Ara says they don't need to go to church. But we can see that they need, since they are going. So Ara doesn't like that people go to church, only because he himself doesnt find it necessary. Hence I blame him for imposing his personal standards on faith upon others.

Am I wrong?

[DominO123]

I must be blind, because I don't see that at all. Do you have an example of where he says something like this? Sounds very unlike Ara as far as I have read him..

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Don't worry Nairi, Sasun only sees wrong when a discussion is about religion.

[DominO123]

I don't feel compelled to talk to such a dishonest and prejudiced person like yourself. Grow up and live in a real life, some people may not like you.

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Sure, do you mean dishonest and prejudiced like attacking a member and questioning his entire forum participation just because he dared exposing a criminal bigot? Everyone can go at the religion section and read your accusations against my person and your abuses. It's amuzing to see that before Chinmoys exposition I was not the dishonest and prejudiced individual that now you see. Or was I, and you never said it, which will make you dishonest? Afterall you have generalized my behavours and drawed a nice profile of myself as a result.

 

Like it or not, I will expose frauds, abuses everytime I see one.

[nairi]

I think you're fanatics on both sides. The one side defends it with all its might, and the other side rejects it with all its might. Neither of you are better or worse than the other.

 

Let people believe what they want to. I'm sure if Sasun finds out Chimnoy is a hoax he'll leave him, and I'm sure if Ara finds out that the small church in his town is honest, he'll join it, and I'm sure if aliens from all over the universe come to earth we'll all be convinced that there are multiple universes. Point is that some of you have taken this to a personal level, and I don't like it.

Edited October 20, 2004 by nairi

[DominO123]

I think you're fanatics on both sides. The one side defends it with all its might, and the other side rejects it with all its might. Neither of you are better or worse than the other.

 

Let people believe what they want to. I'm sure if Sasun finds out Chimnoy is a hoax he'll leave him, and I'm sure if Ara finds out that the small church in his town is honest, he'll join it, and I'm sure if aliens from all over the universe come to earth we'll all be convinced that there are multiple universes. Point is that some of you have taken this on a personal level, and I don't like it.

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Nairi, this is wrong, I'm not on the opposit, and you know it. After all the fights I had with Thoth that was on the other extrem, how can you saw such a thing. Oh and, what make you believe that Sasun will leave Chinmoy once he learn he's a hoax. How many Turks have I convinced in the past 5 years that what they think is a hoax? Very few. Sasun is under the influence of a sick man, like the typical Turk that is under the influence of the sick Turkish psychi.

[nairi]

Because I believe in Sasun

 

Domino, you're being fanatical again. I'm not going into this. It's up to you and Sasun to sort out your problems. I just wish you wouldn't bring it to public.

[Sasun]

Because I believe in Sasun

 

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Thank you sweetheart, I am feeling something (but not in my brain ).

[DominO123]

Domino, you're being fanatical again. I'm not going into this. It's up to you and Sasun to sort out your problems. I just wish you wouldn't bring it to public.

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Fanaticism

 

(n.) Excessive enthusiasm, unreasoning zeal, or wild and extravagant notions, on any subject, especially religion; religious frenzy.

 

Feel free to show me where in this discussion I am displaying any of the above. On the other hand, one has to read Sasuns answers to Ara and he/she will find exactly all the behavours that could qualify as fanatical.

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 21, 2004

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God is not a fascist but the god of fascists is. He will not tolerate deviationists and dissidents, also known as heretics and blasphemers. Hence the tragic and violent fate of those who at one time or another dared to challenge his authority.

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Teilhard de Chardin: “The way we treat people is the way we treat God.” I wonder how many Christians even came close to suspecting that when they were burning heretics at the stake, it was God they were burning?

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Dostoevsky: “A man is endowed with the faculty to rise above the human condition and to embrace eternity.” Though he was himself a devout Orthodox Christian, Dostoevsky did not say “a Christian,” but “a man.” I like that.

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A Christian needs an imam as much as a Muslim needs a bishop. As for a man: he needs neither one nor the other – unless of course he has the mind and soul of a sheep.

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A conviction is no longer a conviction if it is a result of conditioning or brainwashing. A child or a robot cannot have convictions. Convictions are convictions only when formed by reason and experience.

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[ara baliozian]

Sasun:

it is a doctor's function to cure people; but when a doctor kills, he should be sued.

likewise, when religions promote intolerance or torture, or massacre and war, they should be exposed and condemned. that's all i have been saying. the fact that sometimes or even often they improve man's character, mind and soul, is no excuse. on the contrary: we should demand to know why is it that they are behaving contrary to their own code of conduct?

[ara baliozian]

Friday, October 22, 2004

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Smart prophets and pundits are like astrologers: the more vague and ambiguous their predictions, the better chance they have of not being wrong.

*

Why do we feel the need to voice our disagreements and to insist that we are right and our adversaries wrong? According to Hegel as explained by Kojeve: “Man, to be really, truly man, and to know that he is such, must impose the idea that he has of himself on beings other than himself.”

*

Sartre on Freud: “The dimension of the future does not exist for Freudian psychoanalysis.” Not quite: Freud concentrated on analyzing past wounds because he knew we are creatures of the past with wounds that must be healed and conflicts that must be resolved if we want to find the right path and fulfill our destiny. But Sartre is also right in so far as obsession with the past may turn us into pillars of salt.

*

The Genocide is our collective wound and so far we have failed to heal it because we have made Turkish acceptance of responsibility as a necessary condition. In other words, as victims of murder, we have made ourselves dependent on the goodwill, decency, and sense of justice of murderers.

*

As for world opinion: it remains divided because nations too are creatures of the past with their own open wounds and unresolved conflicts. Americans cannot side with us because they too, like Turks, are guilty of having adopted a genocidal policy towards their native Indians. And Israelis side with Turks because they live in fear of another holocaust and Turks happen to be their only Muslim friends in the Middle East.

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It is an illusion to think that on the day Turks plead guilty we will be born again as human beings and resolve our internecine conflicts.

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“The past is not a proof that can be corrected,” writes Herzen, “but a guillotine knife; after it has once fallen there is much that does not grow together again, and not everything can be set right.”

*

What if our dependence on Turkish goodwill is another symptom of our slave mentality?

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[ara baliozian]

Saturday, October 23, 2004

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It is not at all unusual for an Armenian to behave like a Turk in defense of his self-defined and self-assessed Armenianism and to see no inconsistency or contradiction in it.

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It is beyond me why in the eyes of some Armenians, Armenianism and civilized conduct appear to be incompatible concepts.

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As subjects of the Ottoman Empire, history appeared to us as immobile. But at the turn of the last century it began to move and to move so fast that so far we have failed to catch up with it, which also means we cannot grasp its meaning and perceive its direction.

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Hegel: "Each consciousness seeks the death of the other."

When Hegel wrote that line he was not thinking of Armenians but he might as well have been.

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Great many incomprehensible things become comprehensible if you take into consideration the fact that we live in an imperfect world as imperfect beings with imperfect judgments. If you add to that mixture the fact that we are also torn by a set of conflicting and alien traditions, ideologies, religions, loyalties and vested interests, you may have to conclude that the most incomprehensible thing of all is the fact that we are alive - though battered, wounded, and sometimes even eviscerated, but still breathing….

*

So many hooligans pretending to know better because they are better have insulted me, that I am beginning to develop the skin of a crocodile.

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Three funerals in less than two weeks: the shape of things to come or the shapeless thing getting closer?

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When a reader tells me to write more like Saroyan or Mark Twain or Michael Moore, I am tempted to ask: "And how do you like your pizza? - with or without anchovies?" Next question: "Do you think I am a pizza?"

*

In his book, WITH BORGES, Alberto Manguel writes, Borges was so sentimental that he wept at the end of ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, one of my favorite Jimmy Cagney movies which I have seen and enjoyed several times without shedding the shadow of a single tear…and I thought I was sentimental.

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[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 24, 2004

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SPEECHIFIERS AND SERMONIZERS

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Whenever I am invited to deliver a speech, I try to explain that what I have to say is not exactly speechifiable. Last time I heard one of our popular speechifiers, he voiced the same old familiar slogan: “We must support our beloved homeland because without it we are no better than lost sheep wandering aimlessly in a desert of alienation.” My message would be the exact opposite: the Homeland should support the people or us because without the people the Homeland is nothing but a piece of real estate.

*

As things stand, to support the Homeland also means to reinforce and legitimize a corrupt power structure and a priviligentsia whose number one concern is number one.

*

Lenin opposed all forms of charity, because, he explained, “charity does nothing but postpone the revolution.”

*

“The Homeland needs us!” yes, certainly, it goes without saying. But what the Homeland needs even more is elected officials who will live up to their responsibilities by being honest public servants accountable to the people. This may not be part of our culture or authoritarian traditions, granted. But what is the alternative besides despotism, Sultanism, or Stalinism?

*

I am not suggesting a regime change by assassination or revolution, but by gradual reform. Let us help the Homeland by all means, but let us also do whatever we can to clean up the mess there. Easier said than done? Yes, especially if you take into account the fact that before we undertake to clean up the mess there, we should clean up our own mess here.

*

We in the Diaspora may be financially better off, but morally we too are in desperate need of reform. Which is why I shiver when I see diasporan charlatans and gravediggers going to Armenia and parading as benefactors and saviors of the nation.

*

Corruption and incompetence are at the root of the exodus from the Homeland and a high rate of assimilation in the Diaspora: two “white massacres” that are more or less ignored by our ghazettajis and phony pundits, who prefer to stress such meaningless controversies as the use of the word “kef” or the adoption of the vernacular badarak.

*

If the present rate of assimilation and exodus continues, who do you think is going to support and defend the Homeland? Our speechifiers and sermonizers in the Diaspora or our wheeler-dealers with their Swiss bank accounts and villas in the Homeland?

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[Sip]

Three funerals in less than two weeks: the shape of things to come or the shapeless thing getting closer?

 

Well, the shapeless thing's always getting closer and is not too dependent on other funerals. Hopefully it was just a shape of things that came and nothing more.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, October 25, 2004

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MATTHEW 9:7

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“One reason I refuse to write for Armenians is the warning in Matthew 9:7” a reader writes.

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A couple of days later, the same reader: “It seems to me you take Armenian affairs and your fellow Armenians too seriously, and you consistently ignore the advice in Matthew 9:7.”

*

I check Matthew 9:7 and I read: “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, less they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”

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I dread to think what would happen to me if I were to adopt St. Matthew’s sentiments and vocabulary. As for political correctness: I agree with those who dismiss it as “semantic fascism.”

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Ever since I read Gandhi’s definition of religion – any belief system that you think is true, including atheism – I can no longer identify myself as a non-believer. Like Chekhov, I believe that we cannot answer the most important questions with any degree of certainty, and what make most belief systems intolerant are the certainties they pretend to possess.

*

People believe for two main reasons: they were conditioned to believe at a time when they couldn’t think for themselves; and they believe because they feel a deep need to believe…and they will believe in anything and anyone, including Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Castro.

*

As a child I was educated to be a devout Catholic. In my twenties I discovered Zen Buddhism. I now think there is a core of universal truth in all religions, provided we define religion as an endless quest. I also think if Socrates, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and Gandhi ever met, they would agree with one another and they would consider their followers as so many dogs and swine.

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There is a type of Armenian criticism that I call “nuisance criticism,” whose intent is not to make sense or to expose contradictions (which is the true definition of criticism) but to make a nuisance of itself and to silence dissent. It is no exaggeration to say that some of our ablest writers – from Voskanian and Massikian to Shahnour and Zarian – fell silent as a result of this type of criticism.

*

When an American criticizes America, he is motivated by love of America. But when a Muslim jihadist criticizes America, his ultimate aim is the total destruction of the continent.

*

To my critics I say: Next time you think of attacking me, ask yourself, “Am I motivated by Ottoman venom?” and if the answer is yes, keep silent. Because, remember, the most devastating criticism is silence born of apathy.

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[Sasun]

A couple of days later, the same reader: “It seems to me you take Armenian affairs and your fellow Armenians too seriously, and you consistently ignore the advice in Matthew 9:7.”

*

I check Matthew 9:7 and I read: “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, less they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”

It is true, something to think about.

I dread to think what would happen to me if I were to adopt St. Matthew’s sentiments and vocabulary. As for political correctness: I agree with those who dismiss it as “semantic fascism.”

I think it really depends on the place and context. Sometimes such vocabulary sound really bad.

 

As a child I was educated to be a devout Catholic. In my twenties I discovered Zen Buddhism. I now think there is a core of universal truth in all religions, provided we define religion as an endless quest. I also think if Socrates, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and Gandhi ever met, they would agree with one another and they would consider their followers as so many dogs and swine.

 

I agree with this and am surprised to hear that. Isn't it funny I have been arguing with you to get this point across along others, now I am hearing it from you!

[Sasun]

Sasun:

it is a doctor's function to cure people; but when a doctor kills, he should be sued.

likewise, when religions promote intolerance or torture, or massacre and war,  they should be exposed and condemned. that's all i have been saying. the fact that sometimes or even often they improve man's character, mind and soul, is no excuse. on the contrary: we should demand to know why is it that they are behaving contrary to their own code of conduct?

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My impression is that you have been blaming the whole profession of doctors, as well as dentists.

 

Religion is books, books by themselves can do neither good nor bad. It is man that makes errors, big and small, therefore man alone should be blamed.

 

In this post you are being objective in acknowledging that following religion can do good things to man - something to be commended if it means anything to you. But in other places I don't remember you saying any good words about religions.

Edited October 25, 2004 by Sasun

[Sasun]

Ara, since you mentioned Socrates, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and Gandhi all in the same sentence, I feel inspired to post something from a book called "The Joy of Sects: a Spirited Guide to the World's Religous Traditions" by Peter Occhiogrosso. This is about Sri Ramakrishna, a very extraordinary Indian man who was believed to be illiterate and known for very strange behavior.

 

Sri Ramakrishna (1836-86), known as the "Madman of God", was the leading 19th-century Hindu sage. His radical openness to religious traditions other than Hinduism often scandalized brahmans and other visitors to Dakshineswar Temple in Bengal, where he served as a temple priest. A mystic and devotee of the Divine Mother Kali, Ramakrishna preached that "all religions have a valid claim to the truth." He experienced all three forms of Vedanta and was declared an Incarantion of God. Holy people from Calcutta and Bengal often sought him out for help on their path to enlightenment. The stories told about his powers of intuition and identification with others sometimes sound preternatural. In 1866, he was initiated into Islam, had a vision of the Prophet Muhammad, and began practicing Islam alongside his Hindu beliefs. In 1874, he heard the Bible and became interested in Christianity, after which he experienced a vision of Jesus and merged with him. Ramakrishna believed that Christ was a Divine Incarnation and that Christianity was a valid path to awareness of God. He later accepted the Buddha on much the same level. He is often called by the honorific Paramahansa, which means literally the "greatest swan," one who has attained the most advanced level of the sannyasin state.

 

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

 

And another quote, in the same book, from Lex Hixon, Coming Home

 

Ramakrishna, a Man Beyond Reason

 

Ramakrishna considered himself a child of Goddess Kali, the Divine Mother of the Universe. As a child who knew nothing and decided nothing, he would speak and act spontaneously as She spoke and acted through him. He did not even regard himself as a guru or teacher. When holy scholars proclaimed him to be an Avatar, or special emanation of the Divine, Ramakrishna sat among them unself-consiously, intoxicated by the bliss of Divine Presence, half-naked, chewing spices, and repeating "If you say I am, you must be right, but I know nothing about it." However, although knowing nothing, this child of the Divine Mother was intensely sensitive. He responded to subtle changes of psychic and spiritual energy as plants respond to their environment. Once, Ramakrishna was observing from the temple garden two boatmen exchanging blows far out on the river Ganges. Marks from these blows appeared immediately on his own body.

 

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Ara, when I defend Hinduism this is the Hinduism I am talking about, the universal and all accepting religion of gentle and wise sages, not the Hinduism of narrow minded brahmans.

 

Sorry to post off-topic - el chem ani

Edited October 26, 2004 by Sasun

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

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CRITICS AND COMMISSARS

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Times may change, continents may change, but the number of our commissars, it seems, is destined to remain constant, with one difference: they no longer have a license to kill.

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Whenever our editors reject one of my commentaries, they never explain why, and when they do, their lies are so transparent that I experience a shiver of shame on their behalf.

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Some of our commissars may no longer have a license to kill or to silence but they make up for it with concentrated Ottoman venom.

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I write only about what I see, experience and think. Obviously, I am in no position to write about what someone else sees, experiences and thinks.

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To those who say I am an enemy of the people, I say: “That’s what you think and I cannot be held responsible for what you think.”

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To those who would like to see me silenced, I say: “You, my friend, are an anachronism. Because, in case you didn’t know, the era of commissars of culture has been consigned to the dustbin of history, where it belonged in the first place. Of course, you are free to disagree with me. But again, I cannot be held responsible for what’s in your head, only for what’s in mine. Besides, why should I write about what you think if (a) you are in a far better position to do that, and ( I don’t even know who you are?”

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Censorship exists where there are dark secrets and lies, which, if exposed, would tarnish the image of those in power. It is the function of a critic to expose these lies and secrets. A critic who fails to do that is like a doctor who ignores the symptoms of serious illness in his patient. Such a doctor is not a doctor but a quack whose license should be revoked. And such a critic is not a critic but a propagandist and a parrot that can repeat only what others see, think and feel.

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sorry about yesterday's Matthew chapter and verse -- it should be 7:6

[ara baliozian]

Sasun:

you think of religions in theory and in the abstract;

i think of them in practice.

my purpose is to separate propaganda from fact, and fiction from reality.

a doctor that cures, does his job. the same could be said of all professions...be they policemen or bus drivers.

but a doctor who kills is a different story.

like a policemen who turns into a criminal at night...

i am not proposing the abolition of the police or religions...

on the contrary, like Toynbee and Huxley and Gandhi i would like to see them all under the same roof.

if all religions practiced what they preached, the world wouldn't be in the mess it is in today. / ara

[Sasun]

Sasun:

you think of religions in theory and in the abstract;

It cannot be otherwise, because books are ideals, they are much theoretical.

 

i think of them in practice.

When it comes to practice, man finds it hard to practice the ideals in an ideal way. But the ideals themselves are not to blame. Some men do practice quite well though, like Ramakrishna. Others practice at varying degrees of success.

 

Please note that some doctors may kill because of lack of knowledge and expertise, but in most cases where the patient dies the reason is that medicine is simply not that advanced. Cancer has no cure known to medicine, what can doctors do about it? Ignorant fanatics have no cure known to religion, what can religion do about it?

We must recognize that religion is quite imperfect as of yet in terms of teaching men how to practice the ideals. It is the same like medicine is not as advanced as we wish. The reason of both is the imperfection of man.

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

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Because I am in the habit of trashing charlatans, a reader writes: "It is wrong to trash the Homeland," thus identifying the Homeland with charlatans.

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"Why is it that you consistently stress the negative and ignore the positive?" I am asked repeatedly. Allow me to answer that question by asking another, which, as far as I know, is never asked in our environment: "Why is it that we can afford to support priests, bishops, editors, and schoolteachers by the dozen, sometimes even by the hundred, but we cannot afford a single full-time investigative reporter?"

*

The publisher of a chezok diasporan weekly once said to me: "On the day I published an investigative report on the ARF, the ARF issued an order to its members to cancel their subscriptions. As a result, in a single week, I lost a thousand subscribers."

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An editor from Yerevan: "Once, recently, when I published an investigative report critical of the regime, my office was vandalized and my reporters beaten up."

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If we had an investigative reporter, would anyone tell him to investigate the positive and to ignore the negative?

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As I see it, we are experiencing two "white massacres" - exodus from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora: number of victims, a million and a half each. Please note that both semantics ("white massacre") and statistics (a total of three million victims) are not mine. Are they accurate? You be the judge.

*

Should I apologize for not being the bearer of bad tidings?

*

You want positive? Easy! Read ARF weeklies on ARF activities, ADL (Ramgavar) weeklies on Ramgavar undertakings, AGBU- and Armenian Assembly-sponsored publications on their respective success stories throughout the world. And if you need more, expose yourself to the verbal diarrhea of our dime-a-dozen sermonizers, speechifiers, and pundits.

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And I can imagine a member of the Party reviewing Solzhenitsyn's GULAG ARCHIPELAGO in a Soviet literary periodical and saying: "On the whole, this book emphasizes the negative and completely ignores the many positive aspects of Soviet life."

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We may not have real Gulags, granted; but we do have a good number of moral Gulags.

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Even if I were to write about real Gulags, would I be believed? To this day, Solzhenitsyn is attacked by crypto-Stalinists (you will be surprised how many of them are still with us) on the grounds that he allowed himself to be an instrument of American imperialism.

*

You want more positive? Every other day I receive a newsletter or a brochure in which the many wonderful deeds of our charitable organizations (there must be hundreds of them) are described in some detail, with the inevitable Panchoonie punch line: "Mi kich pogh oughargetsek" (Send us a little money).

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