ara baliozian Posted June 17, 2001 Report Share Posted June 17, 2001 HONESTY UNITES, CHARLATANISM DIVIDES ***************************************************That’s because when honest men come together, they agree to place the common good above their own parochial, partisan, or personal interests. Moreover, honest men with honest disagreements are capable of developing a consensus, which means "working together" rather than "total agreement on all points."Total agreement on all points is a purely utopian concept. It doesn’t happen even among friends, relatives, coworkers, partners, or, for that matter, members of the same club, party, or organization.Where there are long-standing feuds, you can be sure of one thing: the common good is an absent factor and both sides would rather see each other destroyed than reach a consensus.At the turn of the century, in the Ottoman Empire, the Armenian elite was divided into two distinct groups: the collaborators and the revolutionaries. When they negotiated with each other, these two groups spoke in the name of the people (though none of them had been elected by the people) but they were unable to reach a consensus for the sake of the people; and what was bound to happen happened, with the result that the elites survived but the people perished.What we are witnessing today may be said to be a variation on the same theme, and what is again being ignored is the common good. That’s because, when charlatans speak in the name of the people, what they really have in mind is their own party, church, family, and, more often than not, ego. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 18, 2001 Report Share Posted June 18, 2001 you seem more succesful when when you quote other writers' and people's sayings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon Posted June 18, 2001 Report Share Posted June 18, 2001 Hovik, Are you Zournajian? Just asking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 18, 2001 Report Share Posted June 18, 2001 No I am davuldjian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJ Posted June 18, 2001 Report Share Posted June 18, 2001 ara baliozian Member Member # 271 posted March 18, 2001 11:14 AM --------------------------------------------------------------------------------DISSIDENTS & HISTORY ****************************************The USSR collapsed not because of the evil influence of dissidents like Solzhenitsyn and Sakharovas Stalinists like to assert)but because the policies adopted and implemented by the Kremlinwere wrong.History does not take orders from dissidents.Dissidents don’t shape history. They have no power over the destiny of a nation: all they do is interpret its direction.Our medieval historians predicted our downfall long before it happened. Again and again they warned our kings and warlords that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. But they were ignored. They continue to be ignored today.As for our tribal leaders: repeated failure does not seem to faze them; it is as though they had raised an invisible Chinese Wall between themselves and reality. They recycle the same old propaganda line and they can always count on a tiny band of faithful followers whose critical faculties have been atrophied. As for the alienated majority: they no longer count because they are part of that reality that is on the other side of the invisible Chinese Wall.-------------------- ara baliozian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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