as i see it - Pt. III

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

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

Armenianism is poetry.

Armenians are prose.

*

When you speak of venom

you should not sugarcoat your words.

*

In a massacre you can be killed only once.

In an Armenian forum, many times.

*

My 100 New Year’s Resolutions:

I will be nice to my fellow Armenians,

and not just to nice Armenians

but to the others too who probably outnumber the nice

a thousand to one.

But since I doubt very much

if I will be able to stick to this resolution,

I don't see any point in listing the other 99.

*

As the Soviet diplomat

eager to prove his knowledge of English said

at a champagne party in Washington

in the presence of lades:

"Up your bottoms!"

*

The king of Denmark once said:

"We don't have a Jewish problem here

because we don't consider ourselves inferior to them."

*

The past cannot be repeated;

what can and is repeated is our understanding of it.

*

Our historians tell us all our catastrophes

have been results of outside forces beyond our control.

Our sole contribution has been providing victims.

It follows, there isn't much we can do

to change the line of our destiny except perhaps

to go down on our knees and pray

that these so-called outside forces

will be more favorably disposed towards us in the future.

This of course is not history

but metaphysics and theology.

*

People change, no doubt about that.

We have changed too – though it took the Turks

600 years to change us.

Since I am only a minor scribbler,

it may take me longer to change the mind

of a single Armenian, but then no one said

being an Armenian writer was going to be a piece of cake.

*

If it has the charm of a crocodile,

the memory of an elephant,

the venom of a scorpion,

the aroma of a skunk

and it speaks Armenian,

it’s probably a jackass.

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, January 02, 2003

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

It is said that if you ride a bus after the age of thirty

you are a failure. Since I walk,

even bus riders are in a position to look down at me.

But I don't mind.

Not being a rat, I leave the rat race to the rats.

*

One good thing about being an Armenian failure is that

you don't have to contend with Armenian envy,

which, I am told, in concentrated doses, can be lethal.

*

You won an argument if, after contradicting you today,

they echo your thoughts and sentiments tomorrow.

*

The older I grow the less I know.

I miss the good old days when I knew everything

and understood even more.

*

Recently the mother of a friend of mine

was called a whore on an Armenian discussion forum,

and needless to add, only the exceptional Armenian

saw anything questionable in that.

Since my own mother has been called a whore

on a number of occasions by my gentle readers,

I would like to make the following observation.

People who call someone’s mother a whore

imply that their own mother is a paragon of virtue.

But I suggest, a paragon of virtue

does not educate her children

to call anyone’s mother a whore publicly.

Leave it to a smart Armenian

to miss this transparent contradiction.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, January 03, 2003

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

The aim of an Armenian argument

is to slay the opposition.

*

If only we could transfer our love of Mount Ararat

on our fellow Armenians.

*

More often than not Armenian friendships

are nothing but conspiracies of hostility.

*

Some people get drunk on wine,

others on water which they imagine to be wine.

Something similar happens with power,

hence the common phenomenon among losers

that’s known as too-many-chiefs-and-no-Indians.

*

You can recognize a phony

by the amount of publicity he gives himself.

*

Literature is anti-partisan and anti-establishment.

Any writer who enjoys the imprimatur

of an established group is suspect,

if not the content of his work than the packaging.

*

People who try to do the right thing make mistakes.

Unlike people of the opposite disposition who are never wrong.

*

Losers should not be confused with underdogs.

*

A compulsive liar will lie

even when truth is on his side.

*

A generation of losers will beget generations of underdogs

who will rewrite history and say

their ancestors were not losers

but morally superior metaphysical winners.

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, January 04, 2003

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

A pleasant lie is accepted even when not believed.

An unpleasant truth is rejected even when believed.

*

The problem with instant opinions is that

after voicing ten of them

you end up with eleven contradictions.

*

If we had to eat our words

we would be known not as "starving Armenians"

but as a bunch of loud-mouth overfed and overweight slobs.

*

Trying to imagine life after death

is like trying to imagine life before you were born.

*

Some are taught to kick,

others to be kicked,

and still others to say thank you when kicked.

Which is why I have a soft spot for mules.

I wish I could say the same about my fellow men.

*

Dante, Shakespeare, Narekatsi:

the first two spoke of treason, betrayal,

murder and assassination in high places.

The third, a monk, a saint who couldn't hurt a fly,

made an endless list of his sins and transgressions.

Dante and Shakespeare pioneered investigative reporting.

What did Narekatsi do?

He did not cover up the criminal conduct of our rulers and betters,

only exposed his own.

Who can assert with any degree of certainty

that a writer cannot change the destiny of a nation?

*

I was more popular when I wrote nonsense.

*

They say there is no money in writing.

That’s a big lie.

If you write what you are told to,

you can make a comfortable living even in our own environment

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, January 05, 2003

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

FROM YERVANT ODIAN

"Truth is always raped – why?"

"Because she is beautiful and she is naked."

*

FROM GOURGEN MAHARI

The young Mahari takes his girlfriend to the theater

and, as she had predicted, is infatuated with the actress.

During intermission he buys a bouquet of flowers

but when he fails to give them to the actress,

he hands them over to his sweetheart.

Whereupon she grabs the bouquet,

decapitates the flowers one by one with nervous fingers,

hurls them in the gutter,

stomps on them,

walks off in a huff, and after taking a few steps,

half-turns in his direction and says:

"You and I -- we no longer know each other."

*

NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS

Where facts are few, experts are many.

Where honest men are silenced, charlatans proliferate.

Nothing is what it seems.

Sometimes I feel like a spectator watching actors

who are unemployed hams

in a sitcom that is promoted as a Greek tragedy,

in a theater that on closer inspection turns out to be a bordello.

Child-molesting sodomizers parading as spiritual leaders,

anonymous hooligans masquerading as philosopher-kings,

castrated commissars of culture

assuming the role of literary critics,

fascist paranoiacs supporting another holocaust and

sermonizing against racism….

Why don't I walk out?

Walk out and go where?

From one bordello to another?

[ara baliozian]

Monday, January 06, 2003

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

It this forum is not representative of the nation,

it may be because it takes one loud-mouth barbarian

to alienate and silence a hundred good men.

*

You may be a damn fool

but if you choose my side in a fight

I will be more than willing to call you

the wisest man since Socrates.

*

Conformism, cowardice, conservatism:

the three pillars on which all corrupt regimes stand.

*

Under the Nazis if you didn't hate Jews

you were an enemy of the state.

Until very recently in the U.S.

if you were for civil rights you were called

a nigger-lover by rednecks.

In some circles today if you are not an anti-Semite

or an anti-Zionist (make it, a neo-anti-Semite)

you are labeled a racist.

The more things change….

*

Many good and wise men,

among them Shakespeare, Dickens and Dostoevsky,

didn't much care for Jews.

Our own Mekhitarist monks in Vienna,

Yervant Odian tells us, were rabid anti-Semites.

Karl Marx, himself a Jew, was anti-Jewish.

We are told you cannot legislate love or hatred.

Everyone is free to love or hate anyone he likes.

There is a difference however between hating someone

and threatening to kill him,

or between being anti-Jewish and supporting

their systematic extermination.

*

For 600 years the Turks didn't much care for us either.

But it was only when their empire was disintegrating

and when the Great Powers used Armenians

as an excuse to interfere in their internal affairs that

their dislike turned into genocidal hatred,

or a sentiment became a crime against humanity.

*

Consider the situation of the Arabs today:

they hate Jews,

they hate Americans,

they hate the West,

and they label anyone who dislikes them anti-Arab,

or anti-Muslim, or anti-freedom.

*

"The Lord loves those who hate evil,"

we read in the Bible (Psalm 97),

and what could be more evil

than proponents and supporters of another holocaust?

*

Fascism, racism, anti-Semitism, despotism, chauvinism:

these are psychological aberrations that

when not exposed and checked become political abuses of power

and ultimately crimes against humanity.

*

"The Jews have no right to be in Israel,"

is the first half of a sentence, the second half being:

"or anywhere else, for that matter."

*

A narcissist is sure to confuse objectivity

with hostility, even hatred.

*

Narcissists are the least qualified people on earth

to assess themselves.

*

I began by saying that it takes one barbarian

to alienate a hundred good men;

likewise, it takes one man (Hitler, Talaat) to legitimize genocide.

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

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

Armenians come in all sizes and shapes:

natives, diasporans, permanent exiles, double-exiles,

alienated, assimilated, quasi-odars, more odars than odars,

and so on.

Most of the natives continue to live in the Homeland

because they are in no position to emigrate.

Permanent exiles have reconciled themselves

to living in the diaspora.

Alienated Armenians may continue to identify themselves

as Armenians but they stay away

from Armenian affairs and activities.

The assimilated prefer the company of odars,

or even no company at all

rather than the company of their fellow Armenians.

I was myself brought up as a dedicated nationalist

whose destiny was to live on the sacred soil

of my beloved homeland

and in the shadow of Mount Ararat.

But eventually I gave up that dream,

(or was it daydream, or illusion?)

became a permanent exile,

assimilated, rediscovered my Armenian identity,

and now I am on the verge of giving it up.

Which is why I understand all these different types of Armenians.

What I can't understand,

what I refuse to understand,

and what does not deserve to be understood,

are our fascists, fanatics, genocidal racists,

charlatans, bloodsuckers, phonies, and loud-mouth nonentities

who demand our trust, respect, sometimes even admiration

on the grounds that as Armenians

(or is it Turkish gypsies?) we don't deserve any better.

My message to them is very simple:

You may fool some dopes, including yourselves,

but sooner or later you shall have to confront reality

because reality is bigger than all of us

and there is no escape from it.

And if you tell me I am no better than those I criticize,

perhaps even worse, I will plead guilty as charged.

And more: if I ever parade as a paragon of virtue,

role model, or a philosopher-king,

or a pundit who has all the answers,

then I shall deserve universal contempt.

[sen_Vahan]

"Many good and wise men,

among them Shakespeare, Dickens and Dostoevsky,

didn't much care for Jews.

Our own Mekhitarist monks in Vienna,

Yervant Odian tells us, were rabid anti-Semites.

Karl Marx, himself a Jew, was anti-Jewish.

We are told you cannot legislate love or hatred.

Everyone is free to love or hate anyone he likes.

There is a difference however between hating someone

and threatening to kill him,

or between being anti-Jewish and supporting

their systematic extermination."

 

Dear Ara,

 

Why don't you read Dostoevski's memories and "pis'ma"? Some jewish scholars in Russia used to send him letters about the anti-semitism in Russia and did surprise him greatly. His response was like: (I don't give the exact phrase) Look at yourself (to jews) when you blame russians. From what you are writing I see your great hatred towards russians.

And then : I never saw such a hatred to russians as that coming from jews(to the same scholars).

I posted this some other time here but you made me to get back to this again.

Why do you speculate around this topic without the knowledge of that? Yes, Dostoevski had many other things to worry about but his own letters and memories may give the idea of what he thought.

And why does this need to be written in this forum so much? Armenians do not support any kind of extermination of jews. if there are some kind of anti-semits among us that's probably because of jews and their attitude to non-jews including armenians. And we are not the only nation having this phenomenon of the so-called anti-semitism. Should not jews worry more about this than others, than an armenian writer who tries to educate his fellows in this forum and outside? The more you and other intellectuals focus on this topic the more the problem will increase its strength.

And after all, are you worried more about armenians' problems or jews'? Once in a while I tried to read all your posts here and found too much about jews... This is an armenian forum, don't lose your readers if you care about them at all.

 

Vahan

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, January 09, 2003

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

Overheard on Canadian radio this morning:

"Life is like a harem: you know you will be screwed

but you don't know when."

*

And I reflect that writing for Armenians

is like a harem of one

servicing a mob of sultans -- half of them in heat,

the other half on sorryyyyy.

*

I understand hate.

As an Armenian I know how to hate.

I could make a long list of the kind of people that I hate,

beginning with child molesters,

serial killers, and bloodsuckers.

I hate smart people who are fluent

in a half-a-dozen languages including double-talk.

I hate loud-mouth charlatans who don't know

where patriotism ends and fascism begins.

I hate ideologies that have no respect

for fundamental human rights, including free speech,

on the grounds that there is someone somewhere

who knows better and no one is in a position

to question, criticize, or contradict him.

I hate phonies who are against capital punishment

but for terrorism.

What I don't understand is the kind of

visceral, all-consuming hatred that justifies

the extermination of Jews.

Neither do I understand Armenians

whose anti-Semitic paranoia has become

so obsessive and irrational that they ascribe

our genocide to Jews, thus implying that

the Turks were themselves innocent victims

of nefarious Jewish manipulators.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, January 10, 2003

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

In a poem by a woman I remember

to have read once – I am now paraphrasing:

To be a woman is to suffer

to love is to suffer

to give birth to a child is to suffer

not to love is to suffer

and to be barren is to suffer….

*

Something very similar could be said

about being Armenian:

To be right is to be vilified

to be wrong is to be insulted

to keep silent is also to suffer…

To be oppressed by an alien despot is to suffer

to be oppressed by fellow Armenians is to suffer

to be massacred by the Turks is to suffer

to be verbally massacred by fellow Armenians

is also to suffer…

*

I suppose being Armenian,

like being a woman, is a lose/lose proposition.

You may call this a negative assessment.

It is true, I have been critical of my fellow Armenians.

What I fail to understand is:

why is it that my fellow Armenians

have done their utmost

to prove me right?

*

There is verbal wisdom,

and then there is the real thing – life wisdom;

and if you can't tell the difference,

you can be sure of one things:

yours is of the verbal variant.

*

The Bible tells us some day

the lion will lie down with the lamb.

The Bible does not tell us

Armenians will lie down with Armenians,

and I for one will not question the wisdom of the Lord.

*

Where everyone knows better,

no one knows a damn thing;

that’s because many, many years ago – so many

that it seems like BC – I too thought I knew better….

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, January 11, 2003

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

A heckler to a Republican presidential candidate:

"I am a Democrat because my grandfather was a Democrat

and my father was a Democrat."

The candidate to the heckler:

"Suppose your grandfather was a jackass

and your father was a jackass, what would you be?"

"A Republican!"

*

Levon *****lian in a letter to Arshak Chobanian:

"I will be thirty in a couple of months

and I still can't make enough for food and shelter."

Sometimes I quote similar lines on the grounds that

misery likes company.

*

"So you think you are the only writer

who has been unfairly treated?"

one of our flunkies once demanded to know.

It’s good to know that I am keeping the tradition alive.

*

Shahan Shahnour: "There is a tradition among us

to emphasize the positive and to cover up the negative."

*

Intolerance is its own punishment:

it atrophies understanding,

narrows the mind,

paralyzes logic,

and it may even cause cancer

(but this may indeed be wishful thinking on my part).

*

Joseph Frank concludes his 4-volume biography of Dostoevsky

by saying: "Dostoevsky’s dream of uniting the Russian people

was realized at his funeral when Russians from all walks of life

came to pay their respects."

*

Khrimian Hairik on Darwin:

"It may indeed be true that the Book of Genesis is a myth

and that man’s real ancestors are beasts,

because there is something of the beast in all man."

*

The ambition of every charlatan

is to close his credibility gap

even when all he has at his disposal

is a plastic toy shovel and the gap is a canyon.

*

Victims victimize,

underdogs oppress,

and even lunatic fringes have a lunatic fringe.

*

Malcolm X: "I am not an American.

I am a victim of Americanism."

*

Armenianism has created victims

as surely as Ottomanism.

*

I read today that Shakespeare’s plays were not written by Shakespeare

but by someone whose name was also Shakespeare.

And speaking of Shakespeares:

Two men in an English pub.

One of them says to the other:

"Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Shakespeare."

"A familiar name," says the other.

"It should be. I have been delivering milk in these parts

for thirty years."

*

A nosegay of oxymorons.

Stalinist humanism,

Palestinian pacifism,

Arab solidarity,

vegetarian cannibalism,

Muslim democracy,

constructive vandalism,

civilized hooliganism,

unbiased anti-Semitism,

Armenian dialogue.

*

Nothing can be as depressing

as trying to amuse a humorless audience of commissars.

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, January 12, 2003

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

Armenian literature is a cemetery of silenced voices:

in the Ottoman Empire tuberculosis and Turks,

in the Homeland commissars,

and in the Diaspora today

in addition to bosses, bishops, benefactors

and their flunky editors,

freelance loud-mouth charlatans who preach Armenianism

and practice Ottomanism.

The more things change….

*

I don't look down.

I look back.

Every fallacy or shortcoming I criticize

has been mine at one time or another,

including Bolshevism and bullshitism.

Also every prejudice, except perhaps anti-Semitism.

That’s because I grew up in a ghetto near Athens.

We were the Jews of Greece – though we were identified

as Turkish gypsies.

I was twenty when I met my first Jew.

He was better than I – and I don't just mean better off.

I mean better in every respect:

more knowledgeable, better informed,

more tolerant, more civilized….

*

If I react violently to all forms of anti-Semitism

it’s because I do so in defense of a people

that has been systematically persecuted

for two millennia even by such an august institution

as the Catholic Church.

*

I see no reason why I should cover up my shortcomings.

I have no political ambitions.

None whatever!

And to quote the old cliché:

If nominated I will not run,

and if elected I shall not serve.

I try to be honest with myself and my readers.

I am in no position

to promise anything except to try

to be even more honest in the future.

*

Knowledge and understanding are possessions to be shared,

not clubs with which to beat dissent into submission;

which I consider quintessentially Ottoman.

And if you think this is how I abuse my knowledge,

then I deserve to be ignored.

*

It is not true that I ignore my critics.

I don't! I may not read all of them all the time,

but I do read them when I am in need of stimulation.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, January 13, 2003

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

Once in a while I am reminded by concerned readers that

if I want to catch flies honey is better than vinegar.

I consider that a negative suggestion

if only because it equate homo sapiens

with common houseflies.

*

If memory serves, Pollyanna counted

643 glad verses in the Bible (give and take a few dozen).

I suspect she didn't bother counting the non-glad passages

for obvious reasons.

*

Is "casting pearls before swine" a honey or vinegar statement?

What about "giving unto Caesar"?

*

An honest man should be called honest

and a charlatan a charlatan.

Not to do so is to blur the line that divides them –

and guess who profits by this blur.

*

If you have a fat bank account

even when you are dead wrong it feels right.

*

To a kibitzer: "You and I have been reading each other

for three years now and we have learned nothing

we didn't already know.

Obviously one of us prefers his own ignorance

to someone else’s knowledge."

*

"The Lord loves those who hate evil."

*

As for monuments on public squares:

I agree with pigeons.

*

Consider Moses (of Go Down fame).

He began his political career as a member

of a proto-fascist regime, but after seeing the light

he became an anti-establishment agitator.

Following a succession of disasters

that claimed countless innocent victims,

he climbed a mountain and returned with a series

of Thou-Shalt-Nots, thus reminding us that

we all harbor deep in our hearts

a liar, a fornicator, a thief, and a murderer.

Honey or vinegar?

*

Consider the line:

"Lead us not into temptation," in which

we identify God with the Devil,

because it is the Devil’s job to lead us into thou-shalt-nots.

*

You want gladness, honey, and positive?

Watch shitcoms and commercials on TV

and live happily ever after.

[ara baliozian]

You are referring to Dostoevsky's own magazine articles which were later collected in A WRITER'S DIARY. His biographers agree that he was an anti-Semite. I am reading Joseph Frank's 4-volume biography which is the most detailed in the English language. He dedicates a whole chapter to this subject(his anti-Semitism). Armenian anti-Semitism interests me because it exposes some of us as racists and racism does nothing but harm our integrity as a nation.

[sen_Vahan]

Ara,

 

I will use latin letter for russian here. From "Dnevnik Pisatelya" (Writer's Diary):

 

"Esli ug zashla rech' o predrassudkax, to kak vi dumaete: evrey menee pitaet predrassudkov k russkomu,chem russkiy k evreyu?" Ne pobol'she li?... u menya pered glazami pis'ma evreev, da i ne iz prostolud'ya, a obrazovannix evreev, - i skol'ko nenavisti v etix pis'max k "korennomu naseleniyu"! A glavnoe , - pishut, da i ne primechayut etogo sami."

 

My point was not that he was an anti-semite as some of his biographers think but to show that the thought "he did not care at all about jews" is wrong. This does not mean though that he was an anti-semite, he never was.

 

I have never heard about anti-semitism among armenians in Armenia (in Soviet Union one could never hear about anti-semitism in Armenia). The "worst" attitude towards them among us is usually that of Lebanese Armenians (or close to them) . Let me guess why...

Sometimes I understand people having that feeling because I worked and studied with jews, they provoke that attitude towards themselves because of THEIR attitude to others like "use and throw away", their xenophobia,and looking to others "from the top of the hill".

 

I happened to hear a conversation btw two famous american jewish scientists-academicians about the war in Israel. The point was that there is no solution to the problem unless all the b*** arabs are exterminated there. Do I need to continue? They came to the point that there may be no solution to the national problem unless it is wiped out. Hmmm, I recalled nazi german and the Ottoman Empire.

That you write so much about this confuses me because I can't remember when armenians made jewish pogroms (don't tell me please about events that might have happened in Byzantine), or had a war with them.

[nairi]

Vahan, I'm sorry, but I simply refuse to understand generalizationists, under any condition. Yes, I too have met some very arrogant, petty, racist Jews, but I have also met some very nice ones, including three of my closest friends, one of whom is half Indian. I will therefore never understand people who throw Jews, or any other people for that matter, including Palestinians and Turks, under one roof and label them. We are all individuals at the end of the day, and it's all about personality, not race, religion, or nationality.

 

As for Ara focusing on Jews: have you seen some of the stuff people come out with on this forum, and worse perhaps, outside of this forum? Unfortunately it's not only about Jews, it's about racism and chauvinism in general amongst Armenians.

 

Btw, can you translate that Russian passage? I don't speak Ruski

[sen_Vahan]

"Esli ug zashla rech' o predrassudkax, to kak vi dumaete: evrey menee pitaet predrassudkov k russkomu,chem russkiy k evreyu?" Ne pobol'she li?... u menya pered glazami pis'ma evreev, da i ne iz prostolud'ya, a obrazovannix evreev, - i skol'ko nenavisti v etix pis'max k "korennomu naseleniyu"! A glavnoe , - pishut, da i ne primechayut etogo sami."

 

"If talking about prejudice one may ask: a jew has less prejudice to a russian or vice versa? isn't that more?... I have letters from jews in front of me, and not from poor jews but from educated ones, and how much of hatred are in there towards the native population! What is most important is that they write and do not even see it."

 

Hope this helps. Yes we are all individuals but also belong to certain group of peoples/nations/races with own interests,etc.

I can hardly imagine that such an educated and talented writer as Chekhov was an anti-semite. He was. How come, what happened to a big russian literature star to roll down to the so-called anti-semitism? Moreover, even some of Dostoevsky's biographers agree upon his being the same. Isn't this strange?

 

As for anti-... crap in this forum I think it is not so sharply represented. At least we have good moderators. But unfortunately they do not delete what Ara posts about jews here. If I follow your approach of individualism in relations then sorry but what Ara posts about them/us is complete crap because in majority we are not anti-semits here and we can be insulted to read it. He should find another classroom

[nairi]

And paraphrasing (if I may Ara): "Only those who recognize themselves in my writing feel insulted". In other words, why would you feel insulted about something that isn't about you?

 

I'm not sure if it's strange or not, but there was certainly no reason for them to give up their intellect, objectivity, and more importantly, humanity just because of a few idiot Jews.

 

Thanks for the translation. I trust your word

[sen_Vahan]

Originally posted by ara baliozian:

Armenian anti-Semitism interests me because it exposes some of us as racists"

 

Exactly , some of us not all and not the majority. So, why does he need to do generalizations? I thought you were against any kind of generalization

 

" And paraphrasing (if I may Ara): "Only those who recognize themselves in my writing feel insulted". In other words,why would you feel insulted about something that isn't about you? "

 

Why do I need to read so much about that problem which is given as if all of us were that kind. Ara talks about armenianism, about anti-semite armenians, etc here which is as somebody called 'Armenia online'. The way he puts things may easily insult many of us who don't share his thoughts and who does not fit into his "HEROES".

So, your paraphrasing is wrong, sorry

 

 

"I'm not sure if it's strange or not, but there was certainly no reason for them to give up their intellect, objectivity, and more importantly, humanity just because of a few idiot Jews. "

 

First, not a few but a lot Second, as I said I can hardly imagine that people LIKE THEM had that feeling towards jews. I am asking why? The way you put it equals Dostoevsky and Chekhov to mediocre citizens and modern writers.(also mediocre in thier majority)

 

"Thanks for the translation. I trust your word "

 

Khndrem Misht hamezek

[nairi]

Vahan jan, where did Ara generalize Armenian anti-Semitism?

 

You don't

 

They probably were

[sen_Vahan]

Generalization is all over his thread.

Right, I don't need to read it and he should not lose his readers if cares about them as I said before.

If Dostoevsky and Chekhov were mediocre citizens/writers then imagine how poor the 20th century was (and the 21st is). Is it why modern writers don't find anything else but refering to them? Probably you should read them first (Dostoevsky&Chekhov) and then the conversation will be much nicer

OK, enough about this otherwise we will disturb Mr. Baliozian too much to write more and more about nasty, hooligan and anti-semite armenians His writings are supposed to be a mirror for us to see how ugly we are, ahh, ohh, ehh

[axel]

Ara,

 

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? [Luke 6:41]

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

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

Armenianism in its purest form –

as opposed to its bastardized chauvinist

or partisan variants – is like virginity:

most of us are destined to lose it sooner or later.

That doesn't necessarily mean that

we will be lesser Armenians,

in the same way that losing one’s virginity

doesn't make one a lesser human being.

So far so good.

What’s not so good is a bordello madam

pretending to be a virgin

or a charlatan parading as a holier-than-thou

or a bloodsucker projecting the image

of a selfless servant of the community.

When Raffi said, "Treason and betrayal are in our blood,"

when Baronian declared "I love mankind but I hate my fellow men,"

and when Zarian confided to his diary,

"Armenians survive by cannibalizing one another,"

they were thinking about these

bordello madams, charlatans, and bloodsuckers

who happen to be a dime a dozen.

[ara baliozian]

MEMO TO A YOUNG ARMENIAN WRITER

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

Never let a bully or a lynch mob

to influence your view of your fellow men.

There are bad Armenians as surely

as there are bad Turks.

In an environment where arguments

do nothing but polarize

avoid all confrontations.

State your case and move on to another.

Better be brief and obscure

than longwinded and boring.

People may respect the incomprehensible

but not the boring.

They may disagree with you;

they may even insult and threaten you,

but if what you say make sense

it will register on their consciousness.

Remember, to victimize comes naturally to all victims.

Do not brag about your ancestors or culture.

To brag is to lie.

No one in his right mind or

with the minimum degree of common sense

believes or respects a braggart.

Only cripples need a crutch.

Stand on your own feet and speak for yourself.

Never trust the judgment of an individual

who says he knows better,

is wiser, or knows everything

except how to behave in a civilized manner.

Phony pundits are a dime a dozen in our environment.

When discussing an Armenian writer

known only to a privileged few,

avoid such cliché qualifiers as "great"

or "one of the greatest"

unless you have the evidence to back it up –

and by evidence I mean passages from his works

that may speak for themselves,

in which case adjectives become redundant.

You may however say that he happens to be

a personal favorite of yours.

Remember, where there are few facts

experts are many and where ignorance is widespread

charlatans proliferate.

Judge a man by his actions not his words.

Never trust a man who says "Trust me!"

or "I know better," or "I am wiser."

The morally superior does not assert moral superiority,

neither does the wise assert wisdom.

Above all, never kill a man who is committing suicide.

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

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

Since fascists made the trains run on time,

I am all for fascists as train conductors and bus drivers.

But I would hang them if they got involved in politics.

I am against capital punishment on principle

but in practice I would make an exception in their case.

*

I don't trust a power structure, a social order and a culture

that punishes honesty because it sees it as a source of menace.

*

According to Voltaire,

"Prejudice is the reasoning of the stupid."

*

If you take yourself seriously,

no one else will.

*

Just because I cannot share your prejudices

am I then your enemy?

*

I don't understand good Christians who preach love

but love only the lovable.

Even godless savages can do that.

*

I was brought up to be good in a world

that has very little use for goodness.

My next career move was even worse:

I chose to be honest in a world that has even less use for honesty.

*

There is a type of paranoiac

who sees red whenever he reads the word charlatan.

*

Patriotism has produced more liars

than any other ism except perhaps charlatanism.

*

It is the easiest thing in the world

to silence a voice; but no power on earth

can silence the voice of your conscience – assuming of course

you have one.

*

I am an Armenian: I am a born dupe.

I was taken in even by my friends.

*

The prospect of being reborn as a rabbi

must be a constant nightmare to an anti-Semite

who believes in reincarnation.

*

A big ego is a crime in search of punishment,

which it will find, and if it cannot find

it will invent.

*

I am tolerant of my critics because I know I am right.

They are intolerant of me because they know they are wrong.

*

It has been said that the patriotic fury of noncombatants

far exceeds the courage of heroes.

In short: A big mouth and a big heart are mutually exclusive.

Or, as the Japanese say,

"Great military leaders are not warlike."

*

It’s silly to finish reading something simply because

you have begun reading it. It’s even sillier to read a writer

who is your intellectual inferior.

*

The customer is always right may be good for shopkeepers

but fatal for writers.

*

The morally superior does not assert moral superiority,

neither does he wise assert wisdom.

You may now guess who does.

*

I repeat myself only when repeatedly misunderstood.

*

There are two kinds of solidarity: positive and negative.

Positive solidarity when a group unites

to engage in a worthy cause.

And then there is the solidarity of a lynch mob….

*

Writing for readers who agree with you

is like speaking to an audience of parrots who can say only "Yes, sir!"

On the other hand, writing for an audience of jackasses

who kick without thinking is no better.

*

There is a type of paranoiac who sees red

when he reads the word jackass.

That doesn't mean that all readers who see red

when they read certain words are in fact paranoiacs.