as i see it (cont.) - Pt. II

[ara baliozian]

BADIV

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

About our high rate of assimilation (85% if I am not mistaken),

we are told again and again that it must be ascribed

to social, historical, and cultural conditions and pressures beyond our

control.

But I think that’s only half of the story.

The other half being our treatment of one another.

I have yet to meet an Armenian

who was not at one time or another

stabbed in the back by a fellow Armenian;

and I am not talking here about poets,

writers, academics and intellectuals in general

who have been merciless towards one another,

but of Armenians in all walks of life,

including schoolteachers, clergymen, partisans, merchant

– yes, including Oriental carpet dealers.

I have been told so many horror stories that there are times

when I think an Armenian who gives up his identity as an Armenian

may be justified indeed to consider himself an emancipated human being

and to look down on us who continue to blabber endlessly

about Armenianism as if it were a noble cause.

I myself grew up among survivors who had a sense of honor --

some kind of weight, moral compass, self-esteem and dignity.

The worst thing they could say about another

was that "badvavor mart che" (he is not a man of honor).

Who speaks in those terms today?

I try very hard to remember when was the last time

that I heard the word badiv (honor),

and I can't help wondering:

What the hell is going here?

[sen_Vahan]

Dear Ara Baliozian,

 

I agree that armenians brag too much about being the first Christians.

An armenian:"We are the first Christians!"

French, Russian or any other representative:"Oooooooo! That's great!"

People no matter to which nation they belong to react very emotionally to such kind of things, that's why I guess armenians like repearting that. For example, an armenian:"Erevan is older than Roma!"

The other representative:"Wow, it is so old!!" I think all the nations like exaggerating.

I started reading your books and I realize that I do not agree with many things you are saying although I red just a little bit. I want to ask you questions and I can do that either in this topic or I can open a new one and ask my questions there. Whichever is more convenient for you.

My first question is: Why I have NEVER heard about Ara Baliozian? I grew up in Armenia.

Vahan

[Hyeflyer]

To Ara When I read your posts I do not feel alone.In a private post to you I had said we are just Armenians.We are no better or worse than any others. We tend to view ourselves better than others humans.We have not been put through any trials or tribulations that anyone else has not also shared.We are just Armenians no better no worse.Thank you for being brave enough to say this publicly.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, February 15, 2002

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

1.

I am grateful to all charlatans who,

with their example, taught me the value of honesty.

2.

To those who accuse me of misleading the naОve and the uninformed,

I say: Armenians are smarter than that.

They can spot a phony when they see one.

Don't worry about them.

Worry instead about yourself and your false sense of superiority

in thinking you are invulnerable to the lies of propaganda.

3.

People profess to love the truth

but live as though they were afraid of it --

hence the old Armenian saying:

"If you speak the truth, you will be chased out of seven villages."

4.

The very same people who pour venom on every line I write

and sling mud at me (hoping some of it will stick),

accuse me of being negative.

5.

Everything I write I owe to Armenian intolerance and charlatanism.

6.

We are so spoiled by pseudo-chauvinist mumbo jumbo that

anything remotely objective we label as anti-Armenian,

which may suggest that there are a great many anti-Armenian writers

in Armenian literature.

[ara baliozian]

Dear Vahan:

may i confess that i myself don't know about a great many Armenian writers.
neither have i read a great many Canadian writers though i have been living in Canada for over 40 years. nothing to feel bad about. we have more important things to worry about.../ara

[ara baliozian]

and thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.
i may have my share of critics and enemies,
but i also have my share of friendly readers who agree with me.../ara

[ara baliozian]

ARMENIANISM ALLA TURCA

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

In his FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE (New York, 2000),

Jacques Barzun writes:

"It might be said that such conduct

has always been the way of states, classes, and individuals.

But the atmosphere one breathes is different

when the vulgar way becomes the ideal.

It turns the thoughtful into cynics or pessimists."

And I add: it also blurs the line between

Armenianism alla Turca and the real thing.

Elsewhere he quotes Sydney Smith:

"The only way to make the mass of mankind see the beauty of justice

is by showing them in pretty plain terms

the consequences of injustice."

And further down:

"Men are much like the children they beget –

they always make faces at what is to do them good,

and it is necessary sometimes to hold the nose

and force the medicine down the throat."

[sen_Vahan]

Dear Ara Baliozian,

You say:"I am all for peace,coexistence, and cooperation with our enemies.I don't see blockade and the occasional massacre (whether we are the victims or vicrimizers makes no difference)as a desirable,or even viable,option"

Why then you call them "enemies" if you want to live in peace with them?

I also think that "some day,if Armenians,Turks,and Azeris step forward and identify themselves as supporters of peace...we may be surprised to discover that they are - and they have always been - in the majority". But if a serious problem arise between these peace supporters (for example, territories) it will again turn out that all of them are old enemies. Doesn't the history show that? Maybe the problem is that "war is the alfa and omega of life"?

Vahan

 

--------------------------------------------

ONE SAD TRUTH:

WE REMAIN HOPELESSLY DIVIDED AND FRAGMENTED TODAY BECAUSE WE BEHAVE NOT AS A NATION BUT AS A COLLECTION OF TRIBES./by Ara Baliozian

[ara baliozian]

Sunday, February 17, 2002

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

1.

Some readers agree with me.

Other disagree.

Still others ignore me.

And then there are those who for reasons of their own

have programmed themselves to disagree with everything I say.

So that if I were to say, "You are right,"

they would react by saying, "No, I am wrong!"

And if I were to say, "You are a man of honor,"

they would say "No, I am a scumbag!"

and for once they would be right,

except that being right for this type of Armenian

is such an alien concept that

it verges on the absurd, the unheard of, and the fantastic.

2.

Turkish patriotism is bad.

Armenian patriotism is good.

Turks are brainwashed.

Armenians are educated.

Turks are dumb.

Armenians are smart. No, not all of them, of course.

Armenians who speak in such terms

also make a sharp distinction between their kind of Armenian

(patriotic, educated, smart)

and the other kind

(unpatriotic, brainwashed, dumb).

The question that we should ask at this point is:

What if in our efforts to dehumanize the Turks

we have succeeded only in dehumanizing ourselves?

Likewise:

what if in our efforts to dehumanize a fraction of our fellow Armenians

(and specifically those who disagree with us).

we succeed only in dehumanizing ourselves?

[ara baliozian]

LATER [18 February, 2002]

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

1.

Good detectives know that to solve a crime

it is sometimes necessary to enter into the mind of the criminal

and to think like him.

One reason Turks and Armenians disagree

is that they have no interest in identifying themselves

with those they view as criminals.

Result: a hung jury and a killer (or a perjurer) that walks.

2.

There is no such thing as perfect justice in this world,

and sometimes a little justice is better than no justice √

as when you sue a big company for a hundred million dollars

and you are awarded a penny.

3.

When Raffi Hovannisian visited Turkey

in his capacity as Armenian▓s foreign minister and stated:

"You must accept full responsibility for the Genocide,"

or words to that effect,

the Turks turned their backs on him and said:

"We can't deal with someone who hates us!"

And sure enough, the Yerevan regime thought so too

and forced Raffi to resign.

What went wrong?

4.

The Turks explain their crimes against humanity or "deportations"

by accusing Armenians of acts of treason, terrorism, and insurrection

in time of war when their own existence as a nation was in peril.

They refuse to consider the reasons that drove

Armenian freedom fights or terrorists

(depending on who is in charge of the semantics)

to do what they did to the same degree that

we refuse to consider their own reasons.

We prefer our version of the story that says,

the Turks massacred us because they are born killers

and bloodthirsty Asiatic barbarians.

But if they are what we say they are,

why did they allow us to live and prosper for six centuries?

5.

So far our Genocide has become an international political football.

What are the chances that it will be resolved in our favor

in the near or distant future?

If we say it▓s murder one

and they say justifiable homicide or even self defense,

I am afraid we may have to compromise

by accepting a plea of manslaughter, an apology, and a penny.

[Twilight Bark]

I congratulate you two gentlemen in your profound discovery that Armenians are mere mortals. Mr. Baliozian knows that he is the only Armenian alive that can see things clearly. The rest of us can humbly feed near his feet, collecting the crumbs dropping from his intellectual feast. In order to do that, we need to agree with everyting he says. Not just the platitudes he regurgitates, but the neat little poison pills he mixes in as well. Mr. Baliozian has been socialized in an environment of semi-literate simpletons for too long to realize that too many Armenians are aware of the issues he untiringly repeats and too many Armenians have the intellectual and spiritual depth for his trivial view of life and humanity to add any value to the Armenian intellectual life. I am sure he disagrees, and I will be dismissed as either an ignoramus or worse.

Dear highflyer, just look around here. Do you see many Armenians claiming some sort of fundamental superiority? Even the simpletons among us that claim such silliness usually act in their private lives in a way that reflects, if anything, just the opposite psychology. Regardless of what we say, we usually admire the "odar"s more than our own. The typical arrogance that we all too often see displayed by Armenians towards other Armenians is a symptom of that.

"They are Armenians; how good can they be? I, on the other hand, am an exception. I am better than them. Heck, I may even be as good as an odar."

Mr. Baliozian, ironically, shows this exact tendency.

[ February 18, 2002: Message edited by: Twilight Bark ]

[sen_Vahan]

Dear Twilight Bark,

Actually, Armeninans do not show any fundamental superiority but the thing is that almost every Armenian seems to be "Napoleon of his culture".At the same time knowing only a little bit about own history, culture in the best case. In the worst case he/she does not know even the language! Armenians brag too much about their old culture but ,for example, in Moscow (!!!), where you can find lots of Armenians, one cannot find a place to learn the language.Many children born each year in Russia,for example, but they go to Russian schools and don't learn how to read and write in native language. So, what is that? I would call it simply assimilation. The same story in many other countries.That's a typical tribalism. Critisizing our people and country does not mean something negative.I would say the very critisizing is the way for the progress.

Vahan

[ara baliozian]

LIFE IN THE GULAG

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

1.

In his ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH,

Alexander Solzhenitsyn writes:

"Who is a Zek’s worst enemy? Another Zek."

Zeks too, I thought.

2.

Hatred imprisons the mind as effectively

as barbed wire in a Siberian labor camp.

And who does an Armenian hate most?

The Turk.

But in the absence of a Turk,

an Armenian will do just as well.

3.

It is important for an Armenian to learn to speak about Turks

without turning into one.

Also to learn to speak about fellow Armenians….

4.

The world is as ready to view us through our own eyes

as we are ready to view others

(be they Turks or fellow Armenians) through their eyes.

5.

Because I write against Armenianism alla Turca,

I am labeled anti-Armenian

by Armenians who can't tell the difference….

6.

Instead of speaking about Greeks, Kurds, Arabs,

Turks, Patagonians, Hottentots, and Armenians,

we should teach ourselves to speak of human beings.

That way we may learn to emphasize that which we share.

[ara baliozian]

> Dear Ara Baliozian,

> You say:"I am all for peace,coexistence, and cooperation with our

> enemies.I

> don't see blockade and the occasional massacre (whether we are the

> victims

> or vicrimizers makes no difference)as a desirable,or even

> viable,option"

> Why then you call them "enemies" if you want to live in peace with

> them?

 

Okay, henceforth i promise to call them friends...but i am afraid that may confuse the reader....

 

> I also think that "some day,if Armenians,Turks,and Azeris step

> forward and

> identify themselves as supporters of peace...we may be surprised to

> discover

> that they are - and they have always been - in the majority". But if

> a

> serious problem arise between these peace supporters (for example,

> territories) it will again turn out that all of them are old

> enemies.

 

those who are seriously committed to peace

will attempt to negotiate and settle their differences peacefully.

but those eager to hit the warpath will react differently....

 

> Doesn't the history show that? Maybe the problem is that "war is the

> alfa

> and omega of life"?

> Vahan

 

But one can always dream for better days! / ara

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

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

1.

Perhaps all genuine thinking begins with the awareness

that just because we feel intensely about something

it doesn't make it right.

On the contrary:

where emotions enter, fallacies are sure to follow.

It took mankind millions of years to reject the flat-earth theory:

which may suggest that

the evidence of our own eyes may be even less reliable

than the intensity of our beliefs or emotions.

2.

Goethe: "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be

and you help them to become what they are capable of being."

Great advice. Wonderful advice!

But what if you are dealing with intellectually and morally superior

beings

(self-assessed, of course) who under the pretext of helping you

by sharing their wisdom (non-existent),

crap on you publicly in the hope that

others will join them and they will thus enjoy the spectacle of watching

you

drown in their crap?

3.

Is Goethe popular in Turkey? I wonder.

Would a great foreign writer called Posterior

be popular in the English-speaking world?

4.

If you write against a single charlatan or partisan,

be prepared to make enemies of all charlatans and partisans

and their friends, associates, and relatives.

On the day I decided to speak honestly,

I gave up all hope of being popular among Armenians.

There is only one way to be popular among them,

and that’s by kissing their Goethe.

5.

Edna St. Vincent Millay:

"And he whose soul is flat – the sky

Will cave in on him by and by."

[sen_Vahan]

Dear Ara Baliozian,

Don't you think that "dreaming about better days" is too trivial? No wars means too many people on the Earth.How can you imagine that?Wild people fight wildly, civilized ones - in a civilized manner, without any jatagans, knifes, just by bombing...

Maybe you are dreaming about friendship between Armenians and Turks?If you think we are not ready for that,then I want to ask you whether you know about Turks.Do they want that?

Vahan

 

-------------------------------------------

Despite the fact that Armenians face the problem of assimilation, they still remain very poor. Who are the Europeans today? Overall peace in the world will even increase the assimilation.

[Hyeflyer]

To T.B.Thank you for the compliment of calling Ara And I gentlemen.:} Your post to my post indeed does prove Ara right on many of his points of view. Most are busy trying to uderstand or discover their Armenianness when they should be trying to discover their humanness.

To Ara Keep dreaming off better days.Many dreams are turned to reality by sharing.

[ara baliozian]

WHEN IDEAS COLLIDE WITH REALITY

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

1.

All men are brothers – except my critics.

My critics are more than my brothers.

They are what I was.

There is no falsehood that I have not subscribed to or even recycled as

an adult.

2.

If at times I am merciless

it’s because life has been even more merciless to us collectively.

Compared to how tough life can be,

I don't even qualify as a marshmallow.

3.

In many traditional tales, legends and myths,

he who looks back turns into stone or a pillar of salt.

Perhaps we are too obsessed with the past

to focus on our present problems.

In some perverse way the Turks continue to be in charge of our destiny.

We have not yet emancipated from our Ottoman phase.

4.

Fools exist so that we may not be like them.

It’s up to us to decide whether we shall view fools

as role models or as a warning.

5.

When ideas collide with reality,

the result may be another massacre.

6.

The greatest enemy or liars is not the truth but reality.

[Twilight Bark]

And I meant it.



It is not only nonsensical to strip humans of their layers of identity, but it is downright scary. You may be a parent, and try to understand your place in the world as a parent. That does not mean you are rejecting your humanity. You may be a writer, and may try to make sense of your place in the world and define what kind of a writer you are. That does not mean that you are rejecting your more general identity as a member of humanity. If you want to see humans as featureless drones, go ahead and strip their individuality, an important part of which is their family and "extended family", which in the case of Armenians also defines their ethnicity. If you want to celebrate human individuality, accept how they define themselves, and cherish the idiosyncracies that goes with it.

Don't outsource your thinking to disgruntled propaganda writers.

[ara baliozian]

DON'T SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER

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

1.

On more than one occasion I have been taken to task (a euphemism for "I

have been insulted") for not being as brilliant as Hagop Baronian. If

that were a crime, I deserve to hanged.

2.

In the saloons of the Old West there used to be a sign over the piano

that said: PLEASE DON'T SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, HE IS DOING HIS BEST.

Imagine a trigger-happy gunslinger going around and shooting piano

players on the grounds that they were not as good as Franz Liszt.

3.

If Stalin had silenced or purged all Russian writers on the grounds that

they were not as brilliant as Pushkin, where would Russian literature be

today? And if we were to silence all Armenian writers on the grounds that

they are not as brilliant as Baronian, where would Armenian literature be

today? Answer: Nowhere! -- which is exactly where it is today: in no

man’s land in the middle of nowhere. And why? The answer must be obvious:

Because our literary standards are tougher than those of killer

commissars.

4.

I have no difficult whatever in ignoring writers that I don't enjoy

reading. I wonder, why is it that even readers who hate me continue to

read me? If I were a megalomaniac I would say, because I am irresistible.

But after twenty-five years I have learned humility and am even grateful

to be alive. And it is in that spirit that I apologize to all my present

and future readers for not being as brilliant and witty as Baronian.

5.

I would like to read and reply to all my critics, but I don't know how to

react to blind hatred…except to say: please, don't read me; but if you

insist on reading me, please don't shoot me, we are not in the Old West,

and this is not Stalin’s USSR or Khomeini’s Iran.

 

[ February 20, 2002: Message edited by: ara baliozian ]

[Hyeflyer]

To T.B. I will not try to tie up this board.You use the word odar wich in its self shows you view your self sepeate from other people.The biggest obstacle I have tried to overcome in my life was to stop looking at people as Odar,White,Black,Brown,Yellow ect.ect.Armenians teach the children predjudice be using words like odar and they learn to view humans in catagorys in turn sowing seeds of bigotry and predjudice.Humans are not layered like onions we are a jig saw puzzle.

[sen_Vahan]

Dear Ara Baliozian,

I think you are very important for today's Armenian youth. In my opinion,it is sometimes better to read a new writer that a well known old one. So, your ideas are more fresh than those of Hakob Paronyan.And I would like to thank you,

Vahan

[Twilight Bark]

Ah yes. Let us not tie up the board so that Mr Baliozian's megaphone can be heard at full blast. That is plain silly.

I have used the word "odar" in quotation marks to indicate how some (or many) Armenians think. Please pay attention to the quotation marks, and the subtle and not-so-subtle twists in meaning caused their context. For the umpteenth time for you and Mr. Baliozian: I agree with a lot of what he writes. I did not have to learn those problems from either of you. My problem is the superficiality of how he interprets the problems of Armenian culture, the naked sourness and self-disgust that oozes from his postings, and the appallingly inaccurate and unfair generalizations he inserts into the platitudes that all reasonable people would agree with. Mr. Baliozian misdiagnoses the operating, relevant causes of the flaws in Armenian culture, and gives the impression that it is such a repugnant culture that the world would be better off without it. I disagree.

As for our onion shells and puzzle pieces. The two-dimensional puzzle pieces exist on the surface of each onion shell. Sure, you can flatten the onion with a sledgehammer and then call the resulting mess a jigsaw puzzle. That is not a pretty idea of humanity. To say that we do not have a hierarchical structure of identity is to ignore the self-evident. Do it if you prefer the bliss of ignorance to the glorious structure that reality is.

Why is it that whenever I criticize our Saint Ara The "Critic" his groupies treat me like I am a foaming-at-the-mouth chauvinist? Is there no room for healthy self-awareness and self-critique between the stupid extremes of complete self-disgust and skinhead chauvinism?

Regards,
Twilight Bark

[ February 21, 2002: Message edited by: Twilight Bark ]

[sen_Vahan]

Dear highflyer,

you say that Armenians teach their children to think in categories like "otar". Do you know any other way to survive out of homeland?

Second, people are different, they DO belong to different categories, and so do the nations. One of the nations that think suffered much from inhumanity, in fact, think in categories such as "We are the chosen nation, we are the best of the best". I don't mean Armenians, don't worry.

Vahan

[Hyeflyer]

To T.B.I dont see your posts as attacking Ara and or myself.We are all imperfect puzzles and I feel it is our duty to our selves to complete as much of our own puzzle to find what peices are missing.It is only in that way can we be better people thus enabling us to find the way to over come the problems all people face and thus also helping Armenians and Armenia.I find you most interesting.