as i see it - Pt. III

[nairi]

You know what they say: only failures vent at the system. My GPA has never been very high and I'm not particularly good at taking standardized tests, so please don't take what I say seriously

[axel]

Nairi, you're not a failure, you're a misunderstood genius

[nairi]

Lol! If only that were true....

[ara baliozian]

Friday, February 28, 2003

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

If you want to know what kind of person

you are dealing with,

Hagop Baronian writes somewhere,

plunge your hand into his pocket.

If it’s empty, he is an honest man.

If he has no pocket, he is a saint.

If his pocket is full of money,

run away from him.

*

"If human consciousness evolves

from individual to family, to nation and to mankind,"

writes Shahan Shahnour, "we shall have to concede that

the Armenian has failed to advance beyond the family stage.

There are Armenian families today,

but not an Armenian nation."

*

It’s simply astonishing the ease with which

fools become infatuated with their own ideas

even when these ideas happen to be recycled crapola.

*

Do you want to be remembered

by the commercial classes?

Oscar Wilde has a very simple answer:

Don't pay your bills.

*

Do you want to be remembered by Armenian anti-Semites?

I have a suggestion:

Say you loathe Nazis, Arabs and anyone else who hates Jews.

And if you add you consider Ariel Sharon

a statesman of vision and

a military leader of genius equal to that of

Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon,

you may consider yourself immortalized!

[ara baliozian]

Solzhenitsyn is right of course.

I too wish we lived in a perfect world. But i know that such a world will never exist. Which is why i am willing to agree with a system that catches one crook among a thousand crooks, because i believe one crook less is better than nothing.

Now you are saying, either you catch all crooks or leave them all alone to carry on...I say to you: we are all free to dream! -- but don't be surprised if your dreams turn into nightmares -- as Goya would say....

[Sasun]

Not really. Even Jews don't make such a comparison.

[nairi]

LMAO Harut! That was too funny!

[nairi]

On second thought Harut, this is quite a serious development, in my opinion. The saddest part is that many skinheads are not the stereotypical bald skinheads anymore. Many have "normal" haircuts, especially the girls. The only way to recognize them is by the brand of clothes they wear, but even that can be misleading sometimes. My most shocking experience was seeing my former neighbors' kid in a Lonsdale coat (he's hardly 19). I know for a fact he didn't get it from his parents. Dutch media seems to pay more attention to the "excess" of refugees coming to this country and the crimes committed by Moroccans than to this unprecedented growth of skinheads. In fact, I haven't heard or read anything about this on TV or in the papers. I have only captured this growth from my own direct observation. Again, I ask myself, what the h... is going on???

[nairi]

Just a bit of semantics here:

 

Semite: 1. A person believed to be or considered as a descendant of Shem. 2. One of a people of Caucasian stock, now represented by the Jews and Arabs, but originally including the ancient Babylonians, Assyrians, Arameans, Phoenicians, etc. Also Shemite.

 

(Webster's Comprehensive Dictionary)

 

So an anti-Semite not only hates Jews, but also Arabs and all other Semites.

 

Beyond semantics, I'm shocked at the unprecedented growth of skinheads in my otherwise very leftist city. Just a year ago a skinhead shop (in disguise) was opened on our main shopping street, and I bump into skinheads almost on a daily basis. There are even skinheads at my university, but professors hardly seem to care about this. What is going on??

[Harut]

here is the mastermind behind those skinhead movements.

[axel]

Dear Ara, you wrote:

 

I am not willing to agree (intellectually speaking) with a system that is run by crooks. And major crooks judging minor crooks is not ethically acceptable. I thought you were against all corrupt regimes but now you seem to put up with some of them by invoking pragmatism. I find this attitude self-contradictory.

 

[ March 04, 2003, 12:40 PM: Message edited by: axel ]

[nairi]

This is quite interesting. Personally I feel that with the coming of the International Tribunal, and now the International Criminal Court, only countries will be tried that have no power. All the powerful countries (hence also the most dangerous) will still be able to get away with their crimes. I don't think I should be okay with that. Am I wrong? How do you guys feel about this?

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, March 01, 2003

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

Memo to a young Armenian writer:

What to do when you are verbally abused by a reader?

Whatever you decide to do

never underestimate the power of your words.

Remember, the more primitive the society,

the more magic and mumbo jumbo.

Armenians are superstitious

and one of their favorite superstition is that

writers are or ought to be infallible.

So that if you call a fool a fool,

don't be surprised if he starts behaving like one.

*

It all began with an "axis of evil."

It was followed by an "axis of weasels."

Now, there is talk of another axis –

an "axis of ignorance."

Next we will no doubt have an axis of

dupes, fanatics, fools….

*

We tend to resist and reject all ideas

that threaten our inner balance;

and the more violently we reject them

the more serious their threat

or the more precarious our inner balance.

It has happened to me more than once that,

even as I rejected a new idea as a blatant falsehood,

I allowed it to penetrate my subconscious

to emerge years later as a self-evident truth.

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, March 02, 2003

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

When a man decides a priori

that he is right or he knows better,

his mind automatically philters out

any evidence that may question his infallibility.

*

Philosophy teaches us that

we don't know where we come from

and where we are going.

Philosophy thus allows us to expose as illusions

all metaphysical and ideological systems

(that is, religions and -isms)

that maintain to have truth on their side.

*

Sultan Abdulhamid II’s cook

was an Armenian by the name of Krikor Sousikian.

But since the Sultan was afraid of being poisoned,

he ate only eggs boiled in the shell

and soup out of cans.

Krikor Sousikian’s predecessor was another Armenian

by the name of Avedis Azdikian,

whose repertoire of dishes was so vast that

it is said he could prepare three millions dishes

from patlijan (eggplant) alone.

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

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

So many contradictory things have been said

about Armenians by Armenians as well as odars

that I no longer believe anything I am told

about Turks, Yanks, Kurds, Jews….

*

If an Armenian insults you

it’s because he considers it his patriotic duty;

but if you return the compliment,

it is a capital offense.

*

Shahan Shahnour: "All revolutionaries operate on the assumption

that they are good and their adversaries evil."

*

Stalin saw reactionaries in the Kremlin,

McCarthy saw Communists in the State Department,

Turks see Armenians behind every Kurd,

and anti-Semites see Jews everywhere.

Prejudice and paranoia might as well be synonymous.

*

Amnesiacs don't engage in feuds.

We have the memory of elephants.

*

It is written: "Don't try to lay an egg

that is bigger than yourself."

*

We will mature as a nation only

when we take ideas as seriously as money.

*

You cannot argue with somebody

who thinks you are nobody.

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

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

The lessons of 9/11:

He who hates you

will do you harm

even if in the long run

it may be against his own self-interest.

That’s because hatred and rational thought

are incompatible concepts.

*

The lessons of World War II:

Appeasement in the name of peace

can be counterproductive.

You cannot negotiate with lust for power.

That’s because lust for power and common sense

(let alone common decency) are mutually exclusive.

And the longer you wait

the more catastrophic the outcome.

*

Like the Catholic Church during the last few centuries,

Islam today legitimizes greedy kings and deranged dictators.

That’s because the power structure of all organized religions

is authoritarian -- with God and His representatives on top

and the ignorant masses at the bottom of the pyramid.

*

The power of knowledge is accessible to all,

but most people prefer the prison of ignorance.

[axel]

You violently reject antisemitism, is that to say it represents a threat to your "precarious" inner balance?

 

Wrong, you speak of Philosophy but you should rather speak of philosophical systems as there is no Philosophy in the absolute but a number of philosophies, each of them based on a number of axioms. Relativistic philosophies (philosophies that assert that absolutes do not exist) actually contradict themselves for the axioms they are based upon are absolute! No valid philosophy can invalidate religion for religion and Faith are beyond the limits of pure reasoning.

 

Knowledge without understanding is worthless.

 

[ March 05, 2003, 06:33 AM: Message edited by: axel ]

[Raffi the Illuminator]

Hey! No fair! LOL I been shaving my head for years too but I'm no "father of skinheads!"

 

But on a more serious note, I think it's alarming that there's a sudden rise in the right-wing neo-nazi subculture in your country. We (Canada) had something similar to that a few years back. Either they are now disappearing (hopefully) or they've "integrated" themselves into society by not adopting the general "look" that most of them have. Or,they quite possibly could have gone underground. Most of them here also appear to be teens. I haven't seen many skinheads older then 20 years old here (Toronto area)in several years. However, I'm quite sure many of them are "recruited" or conditioned by people much older then they are, so I suppose the "older" ones are now less obvious in appearance.

[Raffi the Illuminator]

And to just add and clarify a bit more to my own comments, I haven't heard much about neo-nazi's around here lately in the media or from anti-racist organizations but I suppose that doesn't mean they don't exist. The important thing to note here is that even though the "skinhead movement" may be dying out here but I'm quite sure the idealogy sadly still exists.

[Sasun]

Ara, I disagree. As Axel pointed out, there are different philosophies or different schools of philosophy. Different philosophies say different things. Some if not all religions present philosophical concepts by themselves, so a religion can be a philosophy as well.

 

An interesting point: a religious/philosophical school maintains that all that we know and believe, all our thoughts present varying degrees of the absolute Truth. In other words, nobody is wrong, we all know something of truth. According to this school, the absolute truth IS attainable in its entirety by any man which also happens to be the inevitable destination of all men. And we all came from the absolute Truth. This, as you can see, is a different philosophy which says that we DO know where we are coming from and where we are going to.

 

[ March 05, 2003, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: Sasun ]

[nairi]

Thanks for your comments Raffi jan. You're right, most of them are very young, though I've seen some older ones as well, but indeed, most of their leaders are still much older and much more disguised.

 

The neo-Nazi subculture was quite popular here in the 80s, mainly in Rotterdam and The Hague. This partly died down in the 90s, only surviving in limited amounts especially under the "gabbers" (hardcore ravers. Perhaps you've heard of them) and the neo-Ska listeners. It was only in the last two years that I started noticing them in my city. Gangs already existed (small ones), but no skinheads. Our city has always been considered (one of) the most left-wing and tolerant in Holland, always very open to immigrants, refugees, newcomers etc. This is probably the main reason why this growth upsets me so much (as well as scares and shocks me).

 

I guess a lot happened since Pim Fortuyn. It's almost as if he created a whole new type of openness and honesty in this country. People are not afraid to speak their minds anymore, even when it's extremely racist or offensive. Is it indeed just a (rebellious) phase? I do hope so, but sometimes I'm in serious doubt. I bumped into one again yesterday, this time with a swastika tattoed on his neck.

[Accelerated]

mmmm.....here in Sydney I dont think Ive ever seen a skinhead. The only 'racist' thing Ive seen ever (or as far as I can remmember) was last october, during a German Oktoberfest carnival thing....some 'goth' guys (late teens), one of them wearing a black shirt with big 'SS' letters on it. If I was with my friends, its likelly that I would have tried to start trouble with their group, but I was with my dad and his friends (I was the designated driver )

[nairi]

Accel, I love your new signature!

 

Hmm. Actually I just remembered that these skinheads mostly get into fights with their Moroccan counterparts.

 

Still, it surprises me time and again that in a country that is otherwise so tolerant (sometimes too much IMO), there are so many extremist groups. I remember mentioning The Hague as being Grey Wolf territory in another thread. In fact, Holland is the only country in Europe that accepts Grey Wolf meetings to which tens of thousands of Turks from all over Europe attend.

 

And yes Raffi, sadly the ideology is still very much alive (sorry, forgot to mention it in my last post).

[nairi]

Once again I'm confronted with the fact that I spoke too soon. Not only did the ANP (Dutch news agency) report a piece about the Anti-Fascist Action holding a demonstration this Saturday in the hope of preventing the Dutch People's Union's protest march in the same city on the same day, I also zapped into a half-hour discussion with Arabic and Turkish Abu JaJa supporters and opposers, chaired by a Jew. Not that the situation is any better, but at least a public discussion has been opened.

[vava]

I don't really want to diverge even more from Ara's original post(s), but, hey - here we go:

 

I've noticed one thing that is a little unnerving. We've seen several people mention the skinhead 'movement' or 'ideology'. IS there, in fact, a defacto skinhead 'movement'? Do they all subscribe to the same ideology? I'm not too sure - i think that we're generalising here. We're putting a whole lot of people into the same pot, when really many punks, skinheads, pseudo-punks, crusties, whatever you-call-them-now, do not subscribe to the same politics and I would say that most really have NO particular ideology at all!

 

The separations of various sub-cultures in today's youth seem to based NOT upon political/ideological beliefs, but primarily run along the lines of music/pop-culture. Even in describing the groups we tend to define them on these terms:

 

As for skinheads, sure, perhaps there are neo-nazis amongst them - but there are also KKK members amongst southern state ranchers. Does that mean we should protest when farmers come into our cities? We shouldn't let a few extremists smudge our view of an entire group of people based on their choice of haircut.

 

I've known many, lived alongside many skinheads - my neighbour who lives in the condo below mine is a skinhead. He's published 5 books (non-fiction) and teaches political science at 2 of the Universities here, while he completes his PhD. I guess what I'm trying to say is - all skinheads aren't the same.

 

[ March 06, 2003, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: vava ]