as i see it - Pt. III

[ara baliozian]

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

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.

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i have at no time questioned ideals. on the contrry, i am all for them, especially if they promote love, compassion, and tolerance..../ara

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, October 28, 2004

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THE POSITIVE AND THE NEGATIVE

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I once heard a Jewish comedian say, he did not care for the Ten Commandments because they stressed the negative.

*

Why were Charents and Bakounts tortured and killed by our commissars? Because they were perceived as a negative influence on Soviet society.

*

Hagop Baronian was betrayed to the Turkish authorities by his fellow Armenians in Istanbul because he too was perceived as negative.

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Freud saw in Christianity “a distorted form of obsessional neurosis,” and Karl Marx as “the legitimator of exploitation.” They did not much care for the Ten Commandments either.

*

What’s positive and what’s negative? It depends on where you stand. My enemy is negative, my friend positive, and my enemy’s enemy is my friend because two negatives make a positive. To paraphrase the African chieftain quoted by C.G. Jung in his memoirs: “If I steal my enemy’s wives, it’s positive. If he steals my wives, it’s negative.”

*

When I sit down to write, it never even occurs to me to choose between being negative or positive…especially if my house is on fire.

*

At the height of the British Empire, Matthew Arnold wrote: “The world, which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, [contains] neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.” As far as I know, no one has ever accused Arnold of stressing the negative at the expense of the positive.

*

A CRITIC’S JOB

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I read the following in Kenneth Tynan’s posthumously published diaries: “A critic’s job is to make way for the good by demolishing the bad.”

*

A PARABLE

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Once upon a time there was a man who lived in a beautiful house on a hill. Upon his return from work one day, he saw from a distance that his house was on fire. On noticing a passerby with a cell phone, he said: “Please, call 911 for me.” And the passerby said: “Why should I?” “Because my house is on fire,” said the other. “That’s the bad news,” said the passerby. “What’s the good news?”

Much later the man, whose house had gone up in smoke, found out that the passerby with a cell phone was an Armenian.

*

AN ARMENIAN DECALOGUE

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I. Thou shalt not confuse the god of our priests with God.

II. Thou shalt not consider intolerance a virtue.

III. Thou shalt not blame foreigners for all our misfortunes.

IV. Thou shalt not entertain the ambitions of a commissar of culture.

V. Thou shalt not resent those who expose the Turk in you.

VI. Thou shalt not practice or promote Ottomanism in the name of Armenianism.

VII. Thou shalt not believe every word you utter as if it were the word of God.

VIII. Thou shalt not pretend to be as infallible as the Pope of Rome, as fearsome as Stalin, and as magnificent as Suleiman.

IX. Thou shalt not parade your ignorance as if it were the latest word in wisdom.

X. Thou shalt not reject the validity of these Commandments on the grounds that they stress the negative and ignore the positive.

#

[ara baliozian]

Friday, October 29, 2004

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ON THE POSITIVE SIDE

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It has been said that reality is often stranger and more brutal than any fiction. But in reality, whenever a door is closed, there may be ten or even a hundred other doors waiting to be opened. Just because we cannot see these doors, it does not mean they are not there. Very often, that which is nearest to us is also the least visible.

*

ON NATIONALIST HISTORIANS

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It is not at all unusual for a nationalist historian to be objective when it comes to other nations and turn into a pathological liar when it comes to his own. This is true not only of Turkish historians but of all historians in general. I wish I were in a position to say that our own historians are an exception to this rule.

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THE RED AND THE WHITE

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The difference between a “red” and a “white” massacre is that, a red massacre is perpetrated by wolves and jackals, and a white massacre is perpetrated by sheepdogs and shepherds.

*

QUESTION / ANSWER

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Why is it that under the repressive, not to say, murderous, regimes of the Red Sultan and Stalin we had literary giants, and under our own bosses, bishops, and benefactors, we don’t even have midgets. My guess is: a combination of ignorance, prejudice, intolerance and envy can be more deadly than an army of jihadist imams and commissars with a license to kill.

*

A THOUSAND AND ONE DOUBTS,

ONLY ONE CERTAINTY

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Unlike some of my self-righteous and chauvinist detractors, I am more than willing to concede that nothing I say is certain and the chances that I may be wrong are very high. I am willing to go further and say that I may even be wrong 99% of the time. But on one point I can assert 100% certainty: namely, in my defense of free speech. I wonder, how many of our self-appointed neo-commissars, who have at one time or another advocated silencing me, have had anything remotely favorable to say about free speech, which happens to be a fundamental human right.

*

ZARIAN AND GARABENTS

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The two authorities I would like to quote at this point are Zarian and Garabents.

Zarian: “Our political parties have been of no political use to us. Their greatest enemy is free speech.”

Garabents (Jack Karapetian): “Once upon a time we fought and died for freedom. We are now afraid of free speech.”

*

ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE

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If, in an Armenian environment, a door is closed, you can be sure of one thing: a trap door will open beneath your feet.

*

MEMO

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Expect the worst and you will not be disappointed.

#

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, October 30, 2004

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BUSHWHACKED

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We are a people like any other people, I am reminded repeatedly, "with our own share of honest men and charlatans." If true, consider some of the insults, slogans, headlines, and graffiti directed at Bush, only a small fraction of which are quoted in BUSHWHACKED: LIFE IN GEORGE W. BUSH'S AMERICA, by Molly Ivins and Lou Debose (New York: Random House, 347 pages, 2003).

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BUSH IS PROOF THAT EMPTY WARHEADS CAN BE DANGEROUS.

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LET'S BOMB TEXAS, THEY HAVE OIL TOO.

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IF YOU CAN'T PRONOUNCE IT, DON'T BOMB IT.

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ONE THOUSAND POINTS OF LIGHT, AND ONE DIM BULB.

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WAR IS NOT A FAMILY VALUE.

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$1 BILLION A DAY TO KILL PEOPLE -WHAT A BARGAIN.

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WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ME AND GOD? HE MIGHT FORGIVE BUSH, BUT I WON'T.

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SMART WEAPONS, DUMB PRESIDENT.

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PEACE TAKES BRAINS.

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IT'S NUCLEAR, NOT NUCULAR, YOU IDIOT!

*

Because I have been paraphrasing and expanding on these slogans in reference to our own leadership, I am perceived as a hostile witness and an enemy that should be silenced. My question is, if you disapprove of our leaders, what have you done to expose their blunders? But if you approve of them, what right do you have to tell me to recycle your own particular brand of pro-establishment crapola?

*

CRITICS, MEDDLERS, AND COMMISSARS

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After criticizing me, a reader writes: "I am not a critic." Zarian is right. "We don't have critics. What we have are meddlers." And more often than not, may I add, meddlers with the ambitions of commissars of culture who miss the good old days when they had a license to kill.

*

EMPEROR MURPHY

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If the massacres can be blamed on the bloodthirsty disposition of the Turks and the double talk of the Great Powers; if the exodus from the Homeland and the high assimilation rate in the Diaspora can be blamed on social and economic conditions beyond our control; the question we must ask is: What the hell do we need leaders for? If so far they have been of no use to us when we needed them most, why don't we get rid of them and consider ourselves perennial subjects of Murphy and his inflexible law, that says: "If things can go wrong, they will go wrong at the worst possible time."

*

IN PRAISE OF HUMILITY

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In a book of Anatolian travel impression by Lord Kinross (who is also the author of a mammoth biography of Ataturk), I remember to have read about his encounters with old Turks who bragged to him on having taught the Armenians a lesson they will never forget.

They brag about having massacred us, and we brag about our survival. May I suggest the world would be a far better place if we, all of us, realize we have nothing to brag about and a great deal to be humble about. Besides, if we brag about our survival, what do we do about the millions who did not? Do we plead amnesia? Do we ignore them? Do we pretend, out of sight, out of mind?

#

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, October 31, 2004

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BUGGERING ON.

FAITH, RELIGION, AND IDEOLOGY.

MASTERS OF THE BLAME GAME.

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Very early this morning I opened my eyes with the words: “Many have tried before me and failed. When they were not silenced, they gave up in despair. Why go on?”

And here I am again, “unwashed, unshaved, unshat” (Auden), “buggering on” (Churchill).

*

What matters about an idea is not whether it is positive or negative, or pro-this or anti-that, but how accurately it explains a situation. Which is why, whenever we approach reality with preconceived notions and prejudices, it blows in our face. Our recent history provides us with so many instances of this occurrence that we, or rather, our political parties, have become masters of the blame game in order to avoid all responsibility for their miscalculations.

*

An argument between a commissar without a license to kill and a writer without an audience is like a fight between two bald-headed men over a comb.

*

The difference between faith and religion is that faith unites and religion divides. Religion divides not only in relation to other religions but also within itself – Sunni and Shi’a, Catholic and Protestant, sometimes even Catholic and Catholic, and Protestant and Protestant. The same applies to ideologies, like Marxism or Communism (Stalinist and Trotskyites) and nationalism (Tashnak and Ramgavar).

*

When religions and ideologies divide, they declare their moral and political bankruptcy by ignoring the central message of their faith (love, compassion, tolerance and mercy) or the interests of the nation (strength in solidarity). Because without solidarity, a nation makes itself more vulnerable to the enemy or to social, political and economic forces “beyond its control” – or so the political leaders say in obedience to the rules of the blame game.

#

[ara baliozian]

Monday, November 01, 2004

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THE ALIENATED,

THE ASSIMILATED,

AND THE FORGOTTEN.

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The Armenian critic or dissident may not be the rule, but neither is he the exception we may think he is. Just because we silence critics, it does not mean they cease to exist. And just because we alienate our fellow Armenians, it does not mean they cease being Armenian.

*

The alienated Armenian is not a second-class citizen. Rather, he is a reflection of our own cult of intolerance and hatred.

*

An alienated Armenian means what he says and he says it with his feet. And what he says is what I have been saying: our institutions are run by charlatans who legitimize Ottomanism in the name of Armenianism.

To forget, or to ignore, or to dismiss them as defective Armenians is to compound the felony. They are as much our victims as our parents were of Turkish atrocities, and like our victims of the massacres, they number in the million.

*

The alienated Armenian is our responsibility. Not to recognize this is nothing but an Armenian variation on a Turkish theme.

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Let us not emulate our leaders who have become such masters of the blame game that they see themselves as infallible role models whose every word has the authority of Holy Writ.

*

Imams and bishops may pretend to speak in the name of God, but all politicians, regardless of nationality, will behave like pathological liars for the sake of expediency and whenever it is in their own interest.

#

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

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A new idea will be a source of dread only to the man who is infatuated with his own ignorance.

*

The purpose of an Armenian argument is not thesis-antithesis-synthesis (or consensus) but “You are full of s***! that’s who I am.”

*

As perennial victims, our only chance to achieve top-dog status is in verbal vitriol.

*

Nothing illustrates our Ottoman heritage better than exchange of views.

*

For every insecure Armenian who needs to assert superiority in argument, there will be another who has developed strategies to avoid confrontation.

When asked which church he goes to, a friend of mine is in the habit of replying: “I am with the good guys.”

Another friend has trained himself never to say, “I disagree with you.” Even when he disagrees with a fellow Armenian violently he says, “You may be right.”

*

In an argument, our unstated aim in not consensus but the total destruction of the adversary.

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If our bishops, who speak in the name of the Almighty (Who knows everything) cannot agree, why should we?

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Two people disagree because neither knows the whole truth.

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When we disagree, we cling to our partial knowledge the way a drowning man is said to cling to anything, including a venomous serpent.

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To think to know everything is as bad as to know nothing.

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The only reason some people think they know everything they need to know is that their standards are mighty low and their demands minimal to the point of non-existence.

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He who cannot tell the difference between knowledge and information is a complete ignoramus even when he is well informed.

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

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To understand another you must walk a hundred miles in his moccasins. To know him, to really know him, you must share his beliefs, superstitions, prejudices and misconceptions.

*

I understand Armenians because I grew up in an Armenian ghetto; I had an Armenian education; and I have spent most of my life working for them. I could write a dictionary of Armenian fallacies, clichés, misconceptions, and prejudices, all of which have been mine at one time or another.

*

When we silence dissent, we cease to have a balanced view of ourselves, and an unbalanced view of ourselves might as well be the initial stage of insanity. To those who say, individuals may go insane, but not nations, may I remind them of what happened to the Italians under Mussolini, the Germans under Hitler, and the Soviets under Stalin. (And today, I am tempted to add: the Americans under Bush.)

*

What could be more ridiculous, not to say absurd, than to suggest that a nation that has endured six centuries of brutal oppression, a series of massacres, dispersion, and destitution in alien environments, can be threatened by the criticism of a single minor scribbler?

*

If you take things seriously, happiness for you is taking nothing seriously, not even death.

*

I love this sentence by Saint-Simon: "My self-esteem has always increased in direct proportion to the damage I was doing to my reputation."

#

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, November 04, 2004

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FOUR MORE YEARS

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I feel like a Jew in 1933.

*

The Christian Right in America may stand for love, mercy, and compassion, but not for tolerance. It views tolerance as un-American, therefore, anti-Christian.

*

Dozens of books have been published by highly reputable scholars and investigative reporters in which Bush’s lies, inconsistencies, contradictions, and dirty tricks are exhaustively exposed and documented, but Bush was re-elected because the average born-again hillbilly trusts televangelists more than intellectuals.

*

In 1933 Germans trusted Hitler more than Thomas Mann. Marx is right. History repeats itself, first time as tragedy, second time as farce.

*

A Nazi is also one who, after hanging a label on a fellow human being, sees only the label.

*

In 1915 we were the Jews of the Turks. And today, I am the Jew of our own bosses, bishops, and benefactors.

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All organized religions preach love, but after hanging a label on a fellow human being (heretic, anti-Christ, infidel, giaour, Untouchable) practice intolerance and hatred.

*

All power structures speak with a forked tongue. Where there is power, there will also be pathological liars and dupes.

*

We have all been Jews and Nazis at one time or another. “Jew” and “Nazi” are labels, granted, but only in the sense that “victim” and victimizer” are labels. To label another is not the same as to assume to have a license to kill.

*

My ambition as an Armenian is to be able to criticize Armenians and to be perceived not as a good Armenian (that would be too much to ask), or even as an Armenian, but as a concerned fellow human being.

#

[ara baliozian]

Friday, November 05, 2004

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VERSIONS OF THE PAST

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When it comes to the past, every major historian will have his own version of it. Which version do we teach our children? Not a difficult question to answer: the version that is most flattering to our collective ego, provided it bears the seal of approval of a regime or power structure, of course.

*

Elementary schoolteachers don’t teach history, they recycle propaganda. This may explain Mark Twain’s celebrated dictum: “I have never let schooling interfere with my education.”

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SELF-KNOWLEDGE

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We are products of history. To understand history is to understand ourselves. Hence, Herder’s description of history as the education of the human race.

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THE REASON BEHIND THE REASON

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What if the reason, the real reason, why we were massacred, was our ignorance of the world?

*

QUESTION

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Was Napoleon a great man, a military genius, a spectacular loser, a hero, a tyrant, a bloodthirsty monster? Even French historians don’t always agree. What if, by occupying Germany, he stimulated German nationalism, which resulted in Hitler?

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THE STERILITY OF LITERATURE

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After Shaw wrote, “One fashionably dressed woman may cost the life of ten babies,” did the number of fashionably dressed women go down?

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IN PRAISE OF SOLIDARITY

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Chinese proverb: “To hunt tigers one must have a brother’s help.”

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WAR AND PEACE

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“Islam is a religion of peace,” according to an imam quoted in our paper today, “but like all religions, it is open to misinterpretations.” Which may be why Socrates, Buddha and Jesus did not write a single line. But then, Marx, who wrote copiously and in exhaustive detail in order to avoid misunderstanding, created the nightmare of Stalinism.

#

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, November 06, 2004

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THE TAO TE CHING ON NATIONS

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"A great nation is like a great man,

When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.

Having realized it, he admits it.

Having admitted it, he corrects it.

He considers those who point out his faults

As his most benevolent teachers.

He thinks of his enemy

As the shadow that he himself casts."

(A lesson that the Chinese are in the process of relearning and we have yet to learn.)

*

VOLTAIRE ON THE ORIGIN OF RELIGIONS

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"…From the meeting of the earliest scoundrel with the very first fool."

*

PAUL VALERY ON EDUCATION

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"Education in depth consists in undoing one's first education."

(In other words, if you want to understand the world, forget what you were taught by your elementary schoolteachers and learn to think for yourself.)

*

PANAIT ISTRATI ON ARMENIANS

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In his book of Armenian travel impression, Denis Donikian quotes the following passage from Panait Istrati: "The Armenian is a fellow I know as well as I know the Greek and the Jew. I like all three a lot, notwithstanding their defects, the most obvious being their conviction that, if the sun were to set forever, they would be the first to adapt to the new reality."

*

CLAUDE IMBERT ON BUSH

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"A president that consults God before breakfast will always enjoy the support of a good half of his fellow Americans."

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"America under Roosevelt defeated fascism. America under Reagan defeated communism. Two planetary triumphs that confirm America's mission to fight evil [i.e. jihadist Islam]."

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WITTGENSTEIN ON THE ART OF TEACHING

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"My aim is to teach you to pass from a piece of disguised nonsense to something that is patent nonsense." (Or, from charlatanism, whose sole aim is to deceive and mislead you by flattering your vanity, to transparent nonsense that cannot obstruct your understanding of the world and arrest your mental development.)

#

[Armen]

Saturday, November 06, 2004

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THE TAO TE CHING ON NATIONS

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"A great nation is like a great man,

When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.

Having realized it, he admits it.

Having admitted it, he corrects it.

He considers those who point out his faults

As his most benevolent teachers.

He thinks of his enemy

As the shadow that he himself casts."

(A lesson that the Chinese are in the process of relearning and we have yet to learn.)

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One little addition. "China" is a woman in its essence.

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, November 07, 2004

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We are addicted to bragging and lamenting. But whereas what we brag about (such as Dikran’s ephemeral empire) is known, as a rule, only to ourselves, what we lament about (the massacres) is more widely known. Another peculiarity of ours: what we brag about we credit to ourselves, but what we lament about we debit to foreign accounts, i.e. the hypocrisy of the West and the barbarism of bloodthirsty Turkish fanatics.

*

As a child I too was brainwashed to brag until it dawned on me that most people didn’t give a damn about us, or they cared about us as much as we cared about the triumphs and tragedies of countless other nations and tribes throughout history.

*

As a child I was taught about the fact that at a time when the French and the English lived in caves and forests like wild beasts, we enjoyed a Golden Age, our translation of the Bible was called “the queen of translations,” and our literary works were universally acknowledge masterpieces; until I realized that the overwhelming majority of Armenians couldn’t even name a single one of these so-called literary masterpieces.

*

The question that I was never taught to ask is, if we were civilized fifteen centuries ago, why is it that we have today the political awareness of children, that is to say, barbarians living in caves and forests? So much so that, the average Armenian considers anyone who fails to flatter his vanity by recycling chauvinist crapola or is a hostile witness and an enemy who should be silenced.

*

To Armenians addicted to bragging, I suggest the following: Brag all you want, provided you do so in the privacy of your own homes and within the confines of your own club of mutual admiration, of which we have many more than a dog has fleas. But if you insist on bragging in public, do so in such a manner as not to be a source of embarrassment to decent Armenians.

*

I define a decent Armenian anyone who is aware of our collective failings, has acquired a more or less objective view of our past, and is thus in a position to decipher the writing on the wall. This type of Armenian may be rare, but he exists. As a matter of fact, I happen to be personally acquainted with some of them myself.

*

Finally, a warning: One of the worst mistakes an Armenian can make is to view our past through the eyes of our own historians. Imagine, if you can, a law that says, when it comes to character witnesses in a court of law, only mothers are qualified to testify for their sons.

#

[ara baliozian]

Monday, November 08, 2004

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FROM A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

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“Bush and bin Laden need each other to stay in power.”

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THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE

COMPLEXITIES OF REALITY

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Reality keeps combining factors (of which there may well be an infinite number) constantly. It is impossible to catch up with it or to guess the next permutation.

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TWO WELL-KNOWN MYSTERIES

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Why did God, who could have created a perfect world, create an imperfect one?

*

Why do smart people submit their destiny into the hands of dumb leaders?

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WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?

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As a rule, this question is asked by men, who neither know nor understand themselves, when they are in pursuit of women, who know and understand themselves even less.

In this context, what could be more reductionist (to the point of contradiction) than the Biblical expression “to know”?

*

WHAT ABOUT MEN?

WHAT DO THEY WANT?

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Writes La Bruyere: “Women have no moral sense, they depend for their behavior upon the men they love.”

As for men: they lose whatever sense they may have had at the sight of a well-filled pair of nylons on high heels.

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A BRIEF HISTORY

OF ARMENIAN LITERATURE

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In an environment where everyone lies at the top of his lungs, those who whisper the truth will be ignored.

*

MORE ON WOMEN

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According to Chamfort: “Elles son faites pour commercer avec no faiblesses, avec notre follie, mais non avec notre raison. Il existe entre elles et les hommes des sympathies d’epiderme et tres peu de sympathies d’esprit, d’ame et de character.”

(They are made to deal with our weaknesses and stupidity, but not with our reason. Between them and men there exist epidermic sympathies but hardly any spiritual or intellectual interaction.)

#

[Sasun]

Why did God, who could have created a perfect world, create an imperfect one?

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This world is false. We need realize it, get out of it and go to our real home. Had this world been perfect we would have no reason to seek for answers, and if we don't seek we don't find.

[Armen]

Had this world been perfect we would have no reason to seek for answers, and if we don't seek we don't find.

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To perephrase Sasun ... perfect world equals to permanent stagnation, which in its turn brings to permanent apathy, which in its turn eventually brings to a suicide.

 

So if we shortcut, perfect world means death. Why would God create only death.

[Sasun]

To perephrase Sasun ... perfect world equals to permanent stagnation, which in its turn brings to permanent apathy, which in its turn eventually brings to a suicide.

 

So if we shortcut, perfect world means death. Why would God create only death.

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Yes Armen, on the other hand, if we appreciate the purpose of why the world has problems then it is no longer imperfect. I think this world is just perfect, generally I have no complaints but only appreciation. If I do have complaints that's because I am imperfect.

 

Another way to look at it, you can't call something imperfect if you know practically nothing about it, and what little you now maybe wrong.

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

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IN A FOOL’S PARADISE

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It has been said that men of faith can reconcile themselves to life because they have chosen to live not in reality but in illusion. But illusions being ephemeral, Americans are bound to wake up and realize that they have been bamboozled, hoodwinked and flimflammed by an administration of baloney artists. That’s when the excrement will hit the ventilator.

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RUMORS

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While in Armenia, writes Denis Donikian in his book of travel impressions, he heard the following rumors:

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“In ten years Armenia lost a million Armenians.”

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The first president [Levon Der Bedrossian] built a villa near Valence, France, with stones exclusively from Armenia.”

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“The population of Armenia today is less than 1,500,000.”

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“The same president had a subterranean tunnel dug beneath his residence to serve as an escape route in case the street demonstrations against him became too hostile.”

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“The sudden death of his brother was actually an assassination.”

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“Whenever a politician is killed, the president gets the blame.”

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“The last catholicos died suddenly of cancer. He was caught trying to smuggle abroad the treasures of the Church. It was this that killed him.”

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“The present catholicos has also been diagnosed with cancer.”

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“In Karabagh, where he comes from, Kocharian was nicknamed the Cobra.”

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“The total population of Armenia today is no more than 1,200,000.”

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“Half of the casualties in Karabagh were killed by a bullet in the back.”

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LINES FROM VOZNI

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Donikian also quotes the following witticisms from the satirical magazine VOZNI:

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“In Armenia today, 5% of the population owns everything, 95% owns the rest.”

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“The number of bureaucrats goes up as the number of people goes down.”

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“If some day you dream that you are both rich and in good health, you will better off if you don’t wake up.”

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CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR

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In my old age I don’t mind admitting that I have been wrong about many things most of my life. Am I right about anything today? Only one thing: even when wrong, I know better – not in relations to others but in relation to my younger self.

#

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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What we reveal when we brag about survival:

According to Emerson: "There is this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal." Namely, survival at all cost, even if it means practicing opportunism, hypocrisy, treason and betrayal.

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Whenever I quote someone, I acquire a new enemy. People don't like to be quoted, only praised for their wisdom.

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If you assess yourself as smart (hubris),

you are sure to act dumb (nemesis).

*

Denis Donikian: "The honors conferred on poets by politicians are the dishonor of poetry."

*

Here is Raymond Aron's explanation of how ideologies are implemented: "Well-supported facts are used to bolster up an ideology simply by omission of other facts, which are equally well established."

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To have an approximate view of how far we have fallen, all you need to do is compare the writers slaughtered by Talaat and Stalin with today's faceless and nameless scribblers.

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If you plan to go out hunting tigers, make sure your brother is not working with them.

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The more patriotic an Armenian, the more Ottoman his vocabulary, style and conduct.

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It is not necessary to hate your brother in order to assert your love of your homeland.

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[ara baliozian]

Another way to look at it, you can't call something imperfect if you know practically nothing about it, and what little you now maybe wrong.

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but i know that millions of innocent people have been massacred...

for no justifiable reason. / ara

 

 

fixed the quotes

Edited November 10, 2004 by Sasun

[Sasun]

Another way to look at it, you can't call something imperfect if you know practically nothing about it, and what little you now maybe wrong.

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but i know that millions of innocent people have been massacred...

for no justifiable reason. / ara

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People die sooner or later. Is there a justifiable reason to die?

Edited November 10, 2004 by Sasun

[Anoushik]

People die sooner or later. Is there a justifiable reason to die?

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I can't understand how you just accept that, Sasun. Yes, people die but there is death and then there is death. A person can die very peacefully, having lived a long and fullfilling life, and a person can have a horrible death without having really known life in the first place. There is so much injustice here that the idea of God is incomprehensible. I'd love to believe in God - I really wish that I could, but all my senses and reasoning tell me that a fair God just doesn't exist, much less a perfect God.

[Sasun]

I can't understand how you just accept that, Sasun. Yes, people die but there is death and then there is death. A person can die very peacefully, having lived a long and fullfilling life, and a person can have a horrible death without having really known life in the first place. There is so much injustice here that the idea of God is incomprehensible.  I'd love to believe in God - I really wish that I could, but all my senses and reasoning tell me that a fair God just doesn't exist, much less a perfect God.

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Had God not been perfect he would force you to to believe in him

 

My question still remains: is there a justifiable reason for death, any death?

[DominO123]

I can't understand how you just accept that, Sasun. Yes, people die but there is death and then there is death. A person can die very peacefully, having lived a long and fullfilling life, and a person can have a horrible death without having really known life in the first place. There is so much injustice here that the idea of God is incomprehensible.  I'd love to believe in God - I really wish that I could, but all my senses and reasoning tell me that a fair God just doesn't exist, much less a perfect God.

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[ara baliozian]

Thursday, November 11, 2004

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In whatever I write, my aim is not to assert the superiority of my ideas, but to suggest that there is nothing wrong in once in a while questioning the validity of our fundamental assumptions, in order to separate that which is ours (therefore authentic) from that which is someone else’s (therefore alien).

Cases in point:

What if hating a fellow Armenian is more Ottoman and less Armenian? What if the status quo we support is more authoritarian and less democratic? – that is to say, more Ottoman and less human?

What if inflexibility is not love of principle but infatuation with the self?

And what if, since in an authoritarian environment, yes-men have a far better chance to survive and succeed than honest men, we have been educated, manipulated and brainwashed by charlatans?

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Chinese proverb: “Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.”

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Generosity is a virtue praised by the poor, and avarice is a vice practiced by the wealthy.

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Longevity does not guarantee wisdom, only senility.

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Stolen apples taste better because only the very hungry steal.

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