as i see it - Pt. III

[Sasun]

Silence contains the worst lies as well as the best truths.

 

Silence is when not only there are no words and emotions but also no thoughts. In such silence there is only truth. To silence the mind is the purpose of meditation, and if one practices for a long time one achieves a state of Samadhi, or Nirvana if you like, where one becomes enlightened and attains to real knowledge and truth.

 

The difference between a fanatic and a moderate is that a moderate suspects there are two sides to every question and if he is honest and objective he may have a better chance to understand reality.

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And there is also the wise man who knows which one of the two sides is true and which one false.

[THOTH]

And there is also the wise man who knows which one of the two sides is true and which one false.

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I think a wise man is one who ussually understands that its ussually not so black and white.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, October 01, 2004

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ON FANATICS

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Fanatics are not born but made, and what makes them are fanatics in the opposite camp. Armenian fanatics exist today because Turkish fanatics existed yesterday; and Turkish fanatics will exist tomorrow because Armenian fanatics exist today. Fanaticism is an endless cycle and if allowed to prevail, the world is bound to drown in blood.

*

When fanatics fight, it is the defenseless and the innocent who die.

*

All fanatics operate on a number of false assumptions or illusions, among them: (one) they are the only answer to a very important question; (two) they are not fanatics but realistic moderates who understand the nature of the adversary; (three) they are instruments of a noble principle or even messengers of God; and (four) they are la crème de la creme (rather than la crème de la scum).

*

One reason the Bible is a perennial best seller is that there is something for everyone in it. Good men will find many passages that speak of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, tolerance, and love, and bad men will find many more lines that justify criminal conduct, including the massacre not only of enemy tribes, including their women and children, but also their cattle. Hence Shakespeare’s dictum: “Even the devil can quote the Scriptures to his advantage.”

*

One of my born-again critics – make it, crypto-commissars or frustrated executioners parading as devout Christians – writes: “There was a time when we burned blasphemers like you at the stake."

*

If “a bourgeois is a bourgeois regardless of nationality”(Lenin), so is a fanatic. A Muslim fanatic and a Christian fanatic might as well be interchangeable, faceless units that share the same ambition: to drag the world back to the Middle Ages and to hell with such degenerate Western concepts as democracy, human rights, free speech, and the separation of church and state.

*

For every proud Armenian, there are probably ten or more proud Turks. In a battle of prides, we don’t have a chance. Which is why I prefer to identify myself as a humble human being that has no use for pride.

*

Where there is chauvinist pride, there will also be self-righteous arrogance, intolerance, hatred, fanaticism, and inevitably bloodshed.

#

[DominO123]

I think a wise man is one who ussually understands that its ussually not so black and white.

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True, and you should follow this rule.

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, October 02, 2004

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WE ARE ALL ASSASSINS

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From an interview with Yan Moix, a contemporary French author: "There is only one reason that prevents us from behaving like animals: the laws of the land. Without laws we would behave like wild beasts in the jungle." (LE POINT, September 2, 2004).

*

Where there is power, it will be abused. This might as well be one of those rare rules that have no exceptions.

*

Knowledge is power. But so is phony knowledge, which can be even more dangerous than abysmal ignorance. By phony knowledge I have in mind the kind that we ascribe to religious leaders, be they popes, ayatollahs or gurus.

*

Think of the countless heretics who were persecuted, tortured and killed by the Church on the grounds that church leaders knew God's will or the workings of the divine mind better than their victims.

*

Closer to home: consider the ease with which we verbally abuse one another on the Internet simply because the computer gives us the power to do so.

*

I remember the title of a 1952 French film directed by Andre Cayatte, NOUS SOMMES TOUS DES ASSASSINS (We Are All Assassins) that became a widely used slogan. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that a fraction of our brain is crocodilian, (students of anatomy tell us this to be literally true), and it will seize the flimsiest excuse to take over our "human" brain.

*

If a Pope of Rome and a Stalin can behave like ruthless killers in the name of a religion of love or an ideology based on the brotherhood of all men, who among us will plead not guilty or pretend that his brain has no crocodilian fraction?

*

The Turks massacred us because they had the power to do so. Does that mean we wouldn't have done the same to them if our positions had been reversed? To put it differently: Is the crocodilian fraction of the Turkish brain bigger than ours? Or, are all men assassins except us?

#

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 03, 2004

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FROM THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

TO THE GRAVEYARD OF BARBARIANS

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

What if Saddam Hussein understands his own people better than the ablest American expert advising Bush? What if the only way to govern Iraq is by being a ruthless dictator willing to conduct genocidal war against unruly tribes? What if this is true of all tribal people, including Armenians? Hence the often-heard line: “We are not yet ready for democracy.” Is it conceivable that the cradle of civilization prefers a political system worthy of murderous barbarians?

*

In his book on Stalin, Montefiore writes that Mikoyan once delivered a speech in which he said: “Every citizen of the USSR should be an NKVD [later KGB] agent.”

*

Censorship is book burning without smoke and fire.

*

The only way to make money as a writer, Flaubtert once said, is by flattering the public. Zohrab put it more bluntly when he said, anyone can engage in prostitution, including lawyers (he was a lawyer). Which reminds me of the American joke: “Please, don’t tell my mother I am a lawyer. She thinks I am a pimp.”

*

An authentic charlatan knows instinctively that if he wants to deceive others, he must begin with himself. In other words, he consents to being his own first victim.

*

The incomprehensible nonsense of a charlatan will be the highest wisdom to another charlatan.

*

Charlatans operate on the assumption that they can fool all the people all the time. This false assumption limits their horizons, condemns them to mediocrity, and leads them to disappointment and defeat when they are finally and inevitably exposed.

*

When I write about charlatans I don’t expect their agreement; and sure enough, out come the cloven hooves.

#

[ara baliozian]

Monday, October 04, 2004

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SOLUTIONS.

ON POLITICS AND POLITICIANS.

WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

A PROBLEM OF IDENTITY.

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

As for solutions to our problems, it is not easy finding solutions in a tribal environment dominated by jihadist leaders who will automatically reject all solutions that do not require the unconditional surrender of the opposition.

*

Do you really know what I think of politicians? I think the world would not be a much worse place if it were run by cab drivers and barbers.

*

I suspect the honesty of chauvinists whose patriotism finds expression only in verbal abuse.

*

About the word happiness: I consider it to be an untrustworthy word. Happiness for a sadist means someone he can torture. The problem is, what if, unable to find a masochist, he victimizes someone who may not be in a position to defend himself?

*

To think in terms of, “If he agrees with me he is smart, and if he disagrees with me he is a fool,” is to condemn oneself to learn nothing from others.

*

The search for identity, about which one hears a great deal today, is a luxury only people with full bellies can afford. To the hungry, there is only one legitimate search, that for food. The hungry may find what he is looking for but I doubt if a man without identity will ever find one, perhaps because you can find only that which exists.

*

There is a type of Armenian whose primary concern is to prove he is a better Armenian, as if Armenianism were a contest that he must win at all cost.

#

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

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FROM MY DIARY

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

On the Bush/Kerry debate, a Canadian pundit comments: “Kerry made more sense but I would vote for Bush. Kerry is an intellectual who seems to be talking down to people. Americans are suspicious of intellectuals. They prefer presidents who are more like themselves.” What about Wilson, FDR, JFK, and LBJ? It seems to me, what one expects from a leader, or for that matter, a doctor, a lawyer, or any professional, is not companionship but competence.

*

On the radio, the haunting slow movement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, which deserves to be heard as often as Dvorjak’s and Haydn’s. And I don’t even remember when was the last time I heard Khachaturian’s Cello Concerto. Was it ten or twenty years ago?

*

When asked if she had ever considered divorce, an English lady is said to have replied: “No, never. Murder several times, but divorce, never.” I read this in Jeffrey Archer’s PRISON DIARY, not a masterpiece but eminently readable.

*

Why is it that a silent woman looks wise, but a silent man dumb?

*

Unbelievable but true: Suleiman the Magnificent once wrote a poem in praise of a contemporary Turkish poet.

*

Is the word mogul related in any way to the word Mongol?

#

[Armen]

Why is it that a silent woman looks wise, but a silent man dumb?

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This was just GREAT! I am a male, actually

Edited October 5, 2004 by ArmenSarg

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

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ANOTHER PAGE FROM MY DIARY

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

Overheard: "Lost my wife ten years ago. Run over by a car. Best thing that happened to me."

*

Nothing gives me more pleasure than a volume of good cartoons. A definition of heaven for me would be a set of good cartoons that stretch to infinity; and a definition of hell, a set of bad translations of German metaphysical philosophers.

*

Schnabel playing Beethoven: He makes even the most tedious passages (and there are so many of them in the G Major Sonata) interesting.

*

Perhaps one reason we feel guilty when accused of a crime we did not even contemplate committing is that, at one time or another, we have probably committed the most unspeakable crimes in our dreams, most of which we may not remember.

*

At the funeral of an elder relative I am introduced to quite a few out-of-town Armenians, one of whom tells me: "Your name sounds vaguely familiar." I am reminded of an old English joke that goes something like this: Two Englishmen meet in a pub.

"My name is Porter," says the first.

"Mine is Shakespeare," says the other.

"A familiar name," comments the first.

"It should be," replies the second. "I have been delivering milk in these parts for 35 years."

*

Is it possible to be a political or religious leader and not to engage in some form of propaganda? -- which also means, to mislead people into believing that half-lies are whole-truths?

#

[Anoushik]

*

Schnabel playing Beethoven: He makes even the most tedious passages (and there are so many of them in the G Major Sonata) interesting.

*

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I love Schnabel's interpretation of Beethoven sonatas!

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 07, 2004

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THEM AND US

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

Let me put it bluntly for a change.

The Turks are guilty of covering up our genocide (number of victims 1,500,000).

We are guilty of perpetrating two genocides, albeit of the “white” variant – (one) exodus from the Homeland (number of victims so far 1,500,000 and counting) and (two) assimilation in the Diaspora (number of victims many more than 1,500,000 and counting).

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my question to you is: Whose burden of guilt is heavier? Or, if you prefer: In what way are we different from them?

And before you answer that question, please take into consideration the following two factors: The Turks are motivated to cover up their crime by self-interest -- if they admit guilty as charged, they may lose a chunk of their homeland.

By contrast, we are so blinded by our incompetence, corruption and greed that we don’t even bother asking: Who is going to defend the Homeland if it is depopulated?

#

Friday, October 08, 2004

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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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

I experience a state of mind that is akin to a combination of compassion, pity, self-disgust and helplessness whenever I see someone who is beyond my reach committing the same blunder that I committed twenty or thirty years ago.

*

We sometimes forget that those who disagree with us are also human beings, and like all human beings, they have their own set of blind spots and limitations as a result of a limited number of experiences. After all, who among us will claim that, since he has experienced everything, he knows and understands everything?

*

As soon as I think I have explained a very small fraction of reality, something happens to remind me that I have been on the wrong track, and I must go back to square one and start from scratch.

*

A woman is just a woman to another woman. But she is pure magic and the promise of heavenly bliss to a man. The more distant and inaccessible she is the more powerful her spell. Which may explain why the Muslim version of heaven is much more irresistible to a sexually starving and voracious teenager than its Christian counterpart is to Christians of all ages.

#

[ara baliozian]

I love Schnabel's interpretation of Beethoven sonatas!

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what about Glenn Gould's, Wanda Wandowska's, and Casals's interpeetations of Bach?

[Anoushik]

what about Glenn Gould's, Wanda Wandowska's, and Casals's interpeetations of Bach?

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Glenn Gould is my favorite pianist After watching him talk about Bach in Bruno Monsaignon's documentary I actually fell in love with him And it turns out that a lot of women were in love wih him.

 

I haven't heard much Landowska but I know she was a famous harpshicordist. I know that Glenn Gould actually didn't like Landowska's interpretation of Bach, claiming that it was too Romantic.

 

And Casals... Well I'm afraid to say that it seems that right now I'm an ignorant piano student who doesn't know that much about other musicians and seems to be only interested in piano. I haven't heard much Casals, but again I was told that this great cellist started his day by playing one prelude and fugue from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier on the piano. He knew all preludes and fugues.

 

What about you? Do you like Landowska, Glenn Gould and Pablo Casals?

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 07, 2004

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

THEM AND US

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

Let me put it bluntly for a change.

The Turks are guilty of covering up our genocide (number of victims 1,500,000).

We are guilty of perpetrating two genocides, albeit of the "white" variant - (one) exodus from the Homeland (number of victims so far 1,500,000 and counting) and (two) assimilation in the Diaspora (number of victims many more than 1,500,000 and counting).

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my question to you is: Whose burden of guilt is heavier? Or, if you prefer: In what way are we different from them?

And before you answer that question, please take into consideration the following two factors: The Turks are motivated to cover up their crime by self-interest -- if they plead guilty as charged, they may lose a chunk of their homeland.

By contrast, we are so blinded by our incompetence, corruption and greed that we don't even bother asking: Who is going to defend the Homeland if it is depopulated?

#

Friday, October 08, 2004

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

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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

I experience a state of mind that is akin to a combination of compassion, pity, self-disgust and helplessness whenever I see someone who is beyond my reach committing the same blunder that I committed twenty or thirty years ago.

*

We sometimes forget that those who disagree with us are also human beings, and like all human beings, they have their own set of blind spots and limitations as a result of a limited number of experiences. After all, who among us will claim he has experienced everything and he knows and understands everything?

*

As soon as I think I have explained a very small fraction of reality, something happens to remind me that I have been on the wrong track, and I must go back to square one and start from scratch.

*

A woman is just a woman to another woman. But she is pure magic and the promise of heavenly bliss to a man. The more distant and inaccessible she is the more powerful her spell. Which may explain why the Muslim version of heaven is much more irresistible to a sexually starving and voracious teenager than its Christian counterpart is to Christians of all ages.

#

Saturday, October 09, 2004

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FROM MY DIARY

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

Whenever I am told "I love to read but I don't have the time," I translate it to mean, "I hate to read."

*

In his PRISON DIARY, Jeffrey Archer writes that some inmates are "genuinely evil," and others "congenitally stupid." But isn't that true of men on both sides of prison walls?

*

According to a Mahdi in today's paper: "Islam is a religion of peace. A true believer cannot be a terrorist." But what if the credo of a religion is contradicted by its history?

*

Newspaper headlines speak louder than sermons because "actions speak louder than words."

*

Are young terrorists innocent dupes? Yes, of course. But then, all followers are because, to paraphrase Krishnamurti, "If you follow someone, you cease following the truth," or "the Kingdom of God" which is within you.

*

Religions and ideologies survive and prosper because "there is a sucker born every day."

*

Belief systems create dupes because between a pleasant lie and a demanding truth, man will invariably choose the lie.

*

The winner of this year's Nobel Prize is announced. She is an Austrian novelist about whom I know nothing. Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, and Philip Roth must be three of the most disappointed men in the world today, except perhaps Saddam in his cell and Osama in his cave.

*

As soon as I sense where a sentence is leading, I skip the whole paragraph. I read as though I were about to catch a train. No patience with most 19th-century novels. Tried George Eliot and gave up after a dozen pages.

#

[ara baliozian]

Glenn Gould is my favorite pianist After watching him talk about Bach in Bruno Monsaignon's documentary I actually fell in love with him And it turns out that a lot of women were in love wih him.

 

I haven't heard much Landowska but I know she was a famous harpshicordist. I know that Glenn Gould actually didn't like Landowska's interpretation of Bach, claiming that it was too Romantic.

 

And Casals... Well I'm afraid to say that it seems that right now I'm an ignorant piano student who doesn't know that much about other musicians and seems to be only interested in piano. I haven't heard much Casals, but again I was told that this great cellist started his day by playing one prelude and fugue from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier on the piano. He knew all preludes and fugues.

 

What about you? Do you like Landowska, Glenn Gould and Pablo Casals?

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yes, i worship them. as i worship Sviatoslav Richter.

another favorite: conductor Furtwaengler -- they don't make them like that any more.

Still another favorite: Beecham conducting Delius and Bruno Walter conducting Mozart! All of them, they reach and eventually touch heaven.

[Sasun]

I experience a state of mind that is akin to a combination of compassion, pity, self-disgust and helplessness whenever I see someone who is beyond my reach committing the same blunder that I committed twenty or thirty years ago.

When you talk about religion you remind me myself about 5-10 years ago when I was an ignorant atheist/agnostic. I am only 31, and still ignorant, only I have become a little more knowledgable not to make a dogma out of my ignorance.

 

According to a Mahdi in today's paper: "Islam is a religion of peace. A true believer cannot be a terrorist." But what if the credo of a religion is contradicted by its history?

 

Newspaper headlines speak louder than sermons because "actions speak louder than words."

 

History of religion is the history of all souls that have developed spiritually following religions. Such actions are not recorded in history or newspapers.

 

to paraphrase Krishnamurti, "If you follow someone, you cease following the truth," or "the Kingdom of God" which is within you.

 

A spiritual master who has actually realized the Kingdom of God, rather than theoretically knowing it, is worth following in order for the follower to achieve realization too.

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 10, 2004

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“Armenians are smart.” “Armenians are tolerant.” “Armenians are progressive.” I am astonished at the ease with which some Armenians spout similar clichés that are motivated more by self-flattery and less by objective judgment. Speaking for myself: when it comes to my fellow Armenians, I have more questions than answers, questions such as: “If suffering ennobles, why is it that we have among as such preponderance of loud-mouth charlatans who feel more at home in the gutter?”

*

In his latest novel, THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, Philip Roth writes that he grew up “with a definition of the Jew as an object of ridicule, disgust, scorn, contempt, derision, of every heinous form of persecution and brutality.” This might as well be how an Armenian writer feels among his “smart, tolerant, and progressive” fellow Armenians.

*

Between a short sentence and a long paragraph, sermonizers and speechifiers will invariably choose the paragraph and the longer the paragraph, the shorter the meaning, and the greater the distance from the truth.

*

Only Armenians who have been exposed to many sermons but have not read a single book by Raffi, Zabel Yessayan, Zohrab, Shahnour, Massikian, Zarian, and many other 19th- and 20th-century writers are convinced our Church has played a central role in our survival as a nation.

*

The only way to avoid controversy is to use words with contradictory meanings. If you think this can’t be done, read James Joyce.

*

Judging by the popularity of religions and ideologies, the world seems to be populated by dupes who, when told 2+2=5, say, no, 2+2=22!

*

And speaking of our Church: I wonder, how many Armenians are familiar with Toynbee’s classification of it as a “fossil” – meaning, brain-dead.

*

I read the following in a review of a recent biography of Jorge Luis Borges: “He insisted that he was part of a universal culture and refused to be pigeon-holed as an Argentine writer, though he was that, too, of course.” I like that.

*

More about our Church. The question we should ask is: Do we believe the fellow with a full belly who speaks in the name of God, or the one who speaks for no one but his half-starving self?

#

[Anoushik]

yes, i worship them. as i worship Sviatoslav Richter.

another favorite: conductor Furtwaengler -- they don't make them like that any more.

Still another favorite: Beecham conducting Delius and Bruno Walter conducting Mozart! All of them, they reach and eventually touch heaven.

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What about your favorite composers? Who'se music moves you the most?

...J. S. Bach has always been my favorite but lately I've noticed that Schubert has also become one of my most beloved composers. His piano sonatas are just heavenly.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, October 11, 2004

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A routine occurrence in history: when they are underdogs, men of faith preach love, compassion and mercy; but when they are top dogs, they practice intolerance, hatred and murder.

*

On the roots of our own intolerance: after centuries of “Yes, sir!” to a long line of ruthless and alien lords and masters, we turn into control freaks among our fellow Armenians, banning, censoring, and verbally abusing anyone who refuses to say “Yes, sir!” to us.

*

If “there is a Turk in all of us,” this Turk surfaces only when we deal with fellow Armenians. Hence, the familiar phenomenon of the Armenian who is a lamb among odars and a wolf among his fellow countrymen.

*

Am I right or wrong? Frankly, I am no longer consumed with the rage to prove myself right. I know that in the eyes of those who have programmed themselves to disagree with me, I will always be wrong. I also know that I am not qualified to deprogram Armenians. Nobody is!

*

Those who disagree with me today may agree with me tomorrow. When I was young, I too disagreed with many things with which I agree today.

*

Whenever something bad happens to me, I look for the silvery lining; and whenever, on those rare occasions, I find it, it turns out to have been a mirage. Once, I remember, I even found a positive aspect in our genocide. If it weren’t for the massacres, I thought, we would now be breathing the same air as the Turks, we would be communicating in Turkish with one another, and we would be discussing such topics as the prospect of Turkey joining the EU. And needless to add, we would all be for it.

#

[ara baliozian]

What about your favorite composers? Who'se music moves you the most?

...J. S. Bach has always been my favorite but lately I've noticed that Schubert has also become one of my most beloved composers. His piano sonatas are just heavenly.

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yes, Schubert is great.

not only his sonatas but the shorter pieces -- impromptues and moments musicales.

The slow movements of some of his symphonies are lacerating!!!!

In addition to the 3 B's i love Berlioz, Elgar, Delius, Sibelius, and Schumann; also Mahler and Bruckner, and i could go on.... also Dvorjak...i am sure i could go on and on if i had the time..../ara

[ara baliozian]

...and sure enough, i forgot Mozart, Verdi (especially his REQUIEM), and my very first love, Rossini, whose BARBER OF SEVILLE introduced me to classical music...i will never forget the impact that such arias as "Largo al factotum, " "Una voce poco fa," and "La calunnia a un venticello" made on me..../ ara

[nairi]

So what about Khachaturian? Or Komitas for that matter...

[Anoushik]

Nairi, I love Komitas' music. How can I not? His music defines what being an Armenian means. And I also like Khachaturian's music, especially music from the ballet Spartacus. But I cannot say that he is my favorite composer and I think one reason is that as a pianist I'm more prone to be into composers who wrote a lot of piano music. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Schubert sonatas and currently I'm also studying one and I came to realize that Schubert's music really feels close to my heart, as opposed to Chopin's music.

 

If any of you have a chance listen to Schubert's famous Piano Sonata in Bb Major. It's very long (45 min.) but it's worth the time.

[ED]

And Vivaldi, ah no other composer had an impact as Vavaldi has on me, I always use 4 seasons to unwind from hard day, Raxmaninov is another composer I admire. Anuoshig you must know Piano Concerto No. 2 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Piano Concerto No. 3 Prince Rostislav Overture.