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

[Twilight Bark]

Equating a struggle with being subservient is an idea so foolish that only a self-declared "intellectual" with the luxury of being isolated from a normal life can propose. Our resident super-genius must be unfamiliar with the term "inter-dependence". Yes, Mr. Baliozian, non-super-genius, non-prophetic, hum-drum people have to live their lives talking, speculating, disagreeing, arguing, shouting, screaming, protesting, pleading, begging, and making demands. They even write letters to editors and present petitions. Some may even have the gall to write books on issues they care about. It is called "life". I hope you are familiar with the term.

 

From the lowest-level laborer to the boss of a company, people struggle. Even the "boss" has to "take crap" from his customers, and has to try every trick in the book to woo them. At the end of the day, if he was good at that activity he will be the winner. On the other hand, our snotty "intellectual" will dismiss him as being subservient to his customers and colleagues. Life would be so much easier if he sat at home and pontificated nonsense. No one to be subservient to. Indeed. We can only hope that our snotty intellectual does not try to sell his idea to those that still want to live life fully. But we know better, don't we?

 

All right people. Next time somebody inflicts a horrible injustice to you, you know what you have to do for the salvation of your soul. Just think up any mistake you may or may not have made before or after the injustice, relevant or irrelevant to the crime. Proceed to inflate its significance if it exists, and fabricate its significance if it does not. Finally, complete this purification exercise by blaming yourself for the crime inflicted on you. You will feel so much better. And write a thank you note to the one and only super-genius prophet for showing the way.

 

Why struggle for justice when you can sit on your butt and forget about the whole thing. And the reason why you ordinary folk have not seen this self-evident truth is that you are not a super-genius prophet.

 

And Mr. Baliozian, if you think I am doing injustice to you, remember and repeat after me: "It is all my fault". Repeat it several times until you feel convinced. Now, don't you feel much better?

[Twilight Bark]

Mr. Baliozian opined:

Like most Armenians,

I have followed many controversies in our media,

and I have witnessed many more,

but I have at no time heard an Armenian say:

"I was wrong!" or, even better,

"I was dead wrong because I placed

my own ego, interests, family, political party,

church, or tribe above the interests of the nation."

 

I cannot escape from observing that Mr. Baliozian typifies perfectly the specific mold of Armenians he pretends to dislike. In this case, the self-hatred is not in the abstract, such as hating one's own group of origin. He actually seems indistinguishable from the creatures he loathes. Same disposition, same propagandist attitude, same refusal to improve.

 

What makes me sad is that we do not have a proper intellectual class, and Baliozian passes as an "intellectual".

[khodja]

Every smart Armenian should marry a Jew. My brother did and achieved success. I married an Armenian which brought me many problems. When you marry a woman from a Conservative Armenian family, you compound your problems even more. Nothing beneficial emanates from Conservative Armenians. The sooner we enter the present era and seperate the wheat of our traditions from the chaff, the better off we will be. AS I HAVE STATED BEFORE THE BIGGEST DETRIMENT TO OUR PROGRESS IS THE DINOSAUR THAT IS THE HIERACHY OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. They may have held us together in centuries past, but now they hold us back.

[khodja]

Sip,

 

American-born Armenians undergo this operation shortly after birth, so no surgery would be necessary later in life. I never stated that I would never marry another Armenian, just not the daughter of a conservative Armenian family. I would sooner financially support, volunteer for and vote for a progressive candidate, Jew, black, Anglo or whatever, than a conservative Armenian. My perfect candidate or a wife would be one from a progressive Armenian family, although they are in the minority since most of these families have been forceably assimilated into the general population due to the Fascists who run our organizations and churches.

[ara baliozian]

QUESTIONS THAT

I ASK MYSELF EVERY DAY

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

Am I not wasting my time

writing for an audience

most of whom know better,

see farther and are politically

more astute? -- and so astute

that they find my writings useless?

and so patriotic that

they consider me an enemy of the people?

If far better men than myself

were betrayed to the authorities, shot,

butchered, insulted, starved, ignored and buried alive,

what chance do I have?

Do I write because I believe in miracles?

(Because I don't, and if I do,

I believe in negative miracles:

that is, worst case scenarios – expect the worst

and you will never be disappointed….)

Do I write because I like to annoy

the hell out of dupes, bigots and charlatans?

Why not?

Isn't that as good a reason as any?

[ara baliozian]

dear Vahan:

I am thrilled to know that

you are in touch with more broadminded and civilized Armenians.

as you may gather, i have not been as lucky as you, alas!

[Sip]

No kidding? I had no idea. No wonder some of our "friends" (who are no longer on this board) were soooo affraid of the Jewish influence in their lives

[Harut]

are you stating that you are not a smart Armenian?

[Harut]

is this me or you?

[Harut]

de gna aghoti vor Americayum ches tsnvel.

[Twilight Bark]

Hagarag's generation in the US did undergo wholesale genital mutilation. However, currently the said mutilation is typically "offered" rather than pushed on the unsuspecting parents. The mutilation is nowadays presented as a cultural choice as it should be, rather than a medically beneficial operation, which it is not. Therefore, the percentage of Americans with genital mutilation has come down somewhat from the dizzying heights of earlier decades. The babies that still undergo this mutilation either do so because of their parents' religious customs, or stupidity. Not to underestimate the pervasiveness of the latter trait, mind you.

 

[ June 06, 2002, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: Twilight Bark ]

[Harut]

i just don't know how to comment on this.

i'm loughing. i'm sorry to meet such people even over the internet.

[Sip]

Just wanted to make sure of something first ... do you have to do that thing that Jews do to a certain male body part if you marry a jew? Because if you have to, I'd much rather put up with the agony of marrying a conservative Armenian.

 

By the way, just wanted to say that the last few posts have been rather enlightening. Although I am still trying to comprehend most of it.

[Twilight Bark]

Yes, he avoids them like the plague. Nothing like a good reality check to take the wind out of one's sails. The sage is too busy pontificating to notice contemporary ordinary Armenians. Self-imposed exile to the Canadian wilderness also helps in this convenient isolation.

 

[ June 06, 2002, 02:25 PM: Message edited by: Twilight Bark ]

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, June 06, 2002

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

#

I write to explain the incomprehensible to myself,

and I write only when my explanations

clash with conventional wisdom.

#

It is not at all unusual for our chauvinists

to preach Armenian culture and to practice Ottoman barbarism.

#

Where a part-time janitor makes more money

than a full-time writer,

there will be an abundance of recycled crap

and a total absence of ideas.

#

In all political movements,

lust for power is invariably hidden behind noble slogans:

the greater the lust,

the nobler the slogans.

#

There are many forms of cowardice,

surely one of the worst must be

fear of free speech.

#

Every Armenian is infatuated

with the aroma of his own b.s.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, June 07, 2002

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

#

When the old fight,

it is the young who die.

When the rich fight,

it is the poor who die.

If it were up to the old and the rich

to do the dying,

we would have no more wars.

#

When we are young, we are driven.

When old, we wonder what it was that drove us.

#

It is not easy writing for readers

who already know everything they need to know,

even if what they really know

happens to be recycled mumbo jumbo.

#

If verbal diarrhea were writing

and mental masturbation thinking,

every speechifier and sermonizer

and every partisan and dupe

would be another candidate for the Nobel Prize.

[Twilight Bark]

There is an element of truth in that statement. However, it needs to be amended and modified. And it does not go beyond lamentation.

 

The more relevant dichotomy is who orders wars and whose sons and daughters die fighting, and who dies as "collateral damage". I am tempted to propose that the authority to send people to their death should be confined to those who will be sending their own offsprings to the battle field. And this would be very relevant to "low-tech" countries such as Azerbaijan, Turkey, and yes, Armenia. Not that it would be a serious proposal. However, at least in the case of the US, which has "progressed" to the age of high-tech aerial war, where the casualties are enormously lopsided, and largely in the form of civilian "collateral damage", basic re-education and filtering of the decision takers on the basis of universal moral principles is in order. Not that it would be a serious proposal.

 

Of course, in real life we will have old demagogues playing with peoples lives just as it has been the case for all of human history. And lamentations about the consequences of war can be readily found among Sumerian tablets from the 3rd millenium BC.

 

And then some of the old farts decide to start a war to capture the feeling?

 

And I will restrain myself from writing something too clever here ...

[khodja]

I see that Twilight Bark is using one of my favorite phrases, "collateral damage." The Armenian establishment "kills" (character asassination) any Armenian who disagrees with them. They view this as collateral damage.

[Twilight Bark]

Conversations in third-person

 

Mr. B adopts terms such as "verbal diarrhea" and "mental masturbation" that have been used to describe his output, and uses them to describe his critics. Fair enough. Infantile (another one of those); but fair enough.

 

Mr. B's disciple, in good form, labels anyone that has a differing viewpoint "establishment", and their viewpoints as "character assassination".

 

Mr. TB, on the other hand, is just too bored with being an unimportant prole, and is fully enjoying the "accusation" of being an "establishment type". Of course, the disciple can always reconcile his and his master's outlooks on intellectual, if heated, discussion by re-classifying Mr. TB as an unimportant "dupe" or a "charlatan" of the establishment. Then the universe will make sense again.

 

[ June 07, 2002, 11:21 AM: Message edited by: Twilight Bark ]

[sen_Vahan]

Dear Ara Baliozian,

 

Unfortunately, I could not feel whether or not you were ironic in this response but I hope you were not. No, I am in touch with broadminded Armenians as well as with many others. I meet a lot of Armenians from Homeland, Russia, US, France,... and I would say that the majority is not AGAINST Turks, do not consider them bloodthirsty barbarians. It is my observation. The problem is that much time passed and new generations DO NOT even know that much about the Genocide. Is that good? I am not sure. But I know that Turkish state likes that very much and keeping this problem unresolved they may have a success because people tend to forget things and it is natural. The Armenian side may vice versa keep this problem alive using, for example, a propaganda which may or may not be "good". But what else one can do now?

I did not see the Genocide neither my parents. I was born and grew up in Erevan during the Soviet period and I saw Armenian attitude to Turks. Now I meet Turks and understand that their attitude was even worse. But what is the greatest problem for me is that Armenians have the WORST attitude to their compatriots. Young Turks are also not AGAINST Armenians as well as we are not against them. The problem to be solved is IN OUR people and their relations with each other.

 

Vahan

[sen_Vahan]

Hagarag,

 

If you want us to marry Jews (sorry, but I would prefer to consider myself as a smart Armenian...

please think that much of us then will have the problem in their families. What kind of problems? Many guys have success because their Jewish wives sleep with proper persons in time. No? Just take the Bible and read it carefully and see what very well known Jewish fathers did in Egypt, for example. If you think that there is something that a Jewish wife can and an Armenian cannot you are wrong. And if you want to assimilate Jews outside Armenia you are again wrong.

Vahan

[ara baliozian]

LATER

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

#

It is extremely difficult for me

to be civil to individuals who

in a different time and place

would have been my executioners.

#

There is no evidence to suggest that

the average Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, or Jew

is a morally superior being than

the average agnostic or atheist.

Which amounts to saying:

all organized religions are more or less alike

and very often they succeed only in legitimizing prejudice,

and dehumanizing a fraction of mankind with such labels as

pagans, heretics, infidels or giaours.

#

Authority thrives on ignorance.

Where there are leaders

(as opposed to public servants)

there will be spin doctors, cover-up artists,

and an uninformed community.

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, June 08, 2002

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

If I write against chauvinists and charlatans,

it follows, as night follows day,

that I will not be popular among them.

If I write against fascists, partisans,

skinheads and anti-Semites,

or yes-men, hirelings, brown-nosers,

bloodsuckers, self-assessed geniuses

and morally superior white trash,

I will not be surprised in the least

if they will not be favorably disposed towards me.

But it would be a serious blunder on their part

to entertain the illusion that

I have more enemies than friends.

#

It may be bad to criticize our scoundrels

but it would be infinitely worse to assume that,

just because they speak in the name of

the Party, God, or Capital

they are beyond criticism.

#

A power structure that has all the answers

will view questions as subversive.

[ara baliozian]

DISAGREEMENTS

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

#

No matter what you say,

there will be those who disagree with you.

Remember, there are still flat-earth theorists

and dupes who think Hitler and Stalin

were messianic figures.

#

There are honest disagreements

and there are Armenian disagreements.

If throughout our millennial history

consensus has been with us

an unattainable utopian daydream

it’s because our disagreements

are seldom honest disagreements.

#

Honest men with honest disagreements

may agree to disagree

and thus develop a consensus

(which means working together

as opposed to thinking alike).

#

If I have become somewhat of an expert

in the field of Armenian disagreements

it’s because during the last twenty five years

as a full-time writer

I have been subjected to a constant barrage of

disagreements (not to say personal insults)

driven by ego, self-interest, ignorance,

the spirit of contradiction

(highly developed among us),

fascism, Stalinism, anti-Semitism,

one-upmanship and so on –

all of them pretending to be something else,

such as patriotism and dedication to principles and ideals.

But the ego, especially an Armenian ego,

is like a city set on a hill:

it cannot be hidden.

So are fascism, anti-Semitism, ignorance, and the rest.

[ara baliozian]

THE "I" OF THE STORM

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

By reminding us of our own insignificance

in the greater scheme of things,

all religions (especially our own) teach us humility.

The same could be said of the sciences

(especially astronomy) and literature

(Pascal: "The I is hateful"),

especially Armenian literature.

To be an Armenian writer

means to be constantly reminded

by bullies and windbags that writing,

or trying to introduce meaning into an absurd world,

is an exercise in futility,

a waste of time, and an occupation

fit only for unemployable misfits.

Perhaps Narekatsi knew what he was doing

when he barricaded himself behind monastery walls,

addressed his words to God,

and criticized no one but himself

by cataloguing all his sins.

And I suspect, if I were to follow his example

and ignore our charlatans,

no one would bother me.

But I am not sure about that.

After all, even Narekatsi has had

his share of posthumous critics.