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

[ara baliozian]

MONOLOGUES

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

There is a type of reader

who dismisses your ideas as garbage,

and when you ignore him,

he accuses you of preaching dialogue

and practicing monologue.

But I question the sanity of anyone

who wishes to engaged in dialogue with garbage.

And please note that

I am not talking about hooligans now

but about our creme de la creme.

Pity the nation whose creme de la creme is

its creme de la scum.

I am reminded of Arabs

who teach their children to say "Death to the Jews!"

after which they make public declarations

to the effect that they want to negotiate peace with the Jews.

To those who say,

Jews too brainwash their kids to say "Death to the Arabs!"

I reply: If true, then let us agree to say

"A plague on both your houses!"

Because the alternative is to assert:

"My lunatic fringe is right,

but your lunatic fringe is wrong!"

This kind of reasoning (make it, unreasoning)

will make sense only to lunatics.

And I happen to be of the opinion that

you cannot solve a problem

by joining a lunatic fringe.

It has been said that

you cannot solve today’s problems

with yesterday’s answers.

Neither can you solve the problems of a lunatic fringe

with the solution of another lunatic fringe

(assuming they have one).

#

My hope is that one of these days

an Armenian comedian (do we have one?)

will see the humor in my writings,

use them to create a monologue,

and get lots of laughs from his audience.

If some of my readers find me humorless

it may be because they see reflections of themselves

in my writings,

and no one who takes himself seriously

thinks of himself as funny,

and that is his misfortune.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, April 22, 2002

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

#

If you promote moderation,

you will be criticized by fanatics.

If you speak in favor of solidarity,

dividers will crap on you.

If you preach love,

you will be crucified by haters.

And if you defend vegetarianism,

you will be devoured by cannibals.

#

Where religious love enters,

political hatred follows.

#

David may slay Goliath provided

he doesn't commit hara-kiri first,

which is exactly what a nation does

when, after dividing and subdividing itself,

it engages in cannibalism.

#

There is a natural tendency in the brainwashed

to resent anyone who refuses to be brainwashed.

#

In case you don't know:

the most effective way of refuting a writer

is to ignore him.

#

Why would anyone in his right mind

would want to read a writer

who echoes his sentiments and thoughts?

Why would anyone in his right mind

take a human parrot seriously?

#

Just because I assume the role of devil’s advocate,

some of my readers think I am Lucifer.

#

Even if you disagree with everything I say,

you must agree that I speak in defense of something

that is infinitely more important than you and me:

namely, free speech.

[ara baliozian]

P.M.

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

#

A recurring experience:

Unless I write what is expected of me,

even my best friend becomes my mortal enemy.

I am reminded of Turks and Armenians

at the turn of the century – so many things these days

remind me of Turks and Armenians!

From their most loyal ethnic group

we became vermin to be exterminated.

#

When I speak of Ottomanized Armenians,

I don't expect to have their affection.

#

An Amnesty International poster

shows a bearded man behind bars

and the words read:

HIS CRIME: TO THINK.

IF FORGOTTEN, HE WILL DIE.

Armenian version:

HIS CRIME: TO BE HONEST.

IF INSULTED REPEATEDLY,

HE MAY BE SILENCED.

To which I can only say:

Sorry to have disappointed you so far,

my good friends and gentle readers;

but keep trying please,

and may the best man win.

#

Is the pen mightier than the sword?

No, not in an environment where

the tongue is sharper than a Turk’s yataghan

and more venomous than a cobra’s fangs.

[ara baliozian]

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE…

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

#

In a collection of American graffiti of the 1960’s

I remember to have read one that said:

"Kill a commie for Christ!"

At the turn of the century in the Ottoman Empire

it was "Kill a giaour for Islam!"

and now in the Middle East:

"Kill a Jew for Allah!"

#

Some day organized religions and ideologies

will be exposed for what they are:

nests of bigots, homicidal maniacs, and child molesters.

#

All political arguments boil down to:

My homicidal maniacs are better than yours.

#

Arthur Koestler, one of the most intensely political writers of our time,

 

gave up writing on politics in the second half of his life

and concentrated on psychology and biology.

His aim: to investigate what is it exactly

that transforms a decent, law-abiding citizen

into a homicidal maniac.

His tentative conclusion:

the evolution of man is incomplete.

Objective thinking is not the norm but the exception.

In his own words:

"Detached, rational thought is a new and fragile acquisition;

it is affected by the slightest irritation of the old brain which,

once aroused, tends to dominate the scene."

By "old brain" Koestler means our primitive, crocodilian instincts,

of which we remain unaware because,

in the words of a biologist (MacLean):

"The visceral brain is not at all unconscious

but rather eludes the grasp of the intellect

because its animalistic and primitive structure

makes it impossible to communicate in verbal terms."

#

To explain why fanatics, homicidal maniacs,

and the lunatic fringe in general

lack a sense of humor, Koestler writes:

"Laughter makes a man equally unable to kill or to copulate."

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, April 23, 2002

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

#

"Vengeance is mine, said the Lord."

By that it is not meant that God

keeps an account of every transgression down below,

but that in His infinite wisdom

He has inserted a punishment in every transgression.

So that, when a fool makes an ass of himself in public,

his punishment is exactly that:

making an ass of himself in public.

No use trying to reason him out of his foolishness,

which would amount to being an instrument of his salvation.

#

He who hates you,

will hate you if you are wrong;

but he will hate you even more if you are right.

#

God is popular because it allows the riffraff

to parade as noble specimens of humanity

and homicidal maniacs as humble servants of the Lord.

#

As an Armenian writer

I have been subjected to two forms of criticism,

the first of which may be described as

"Sling as much mud as you can

in the hope some of it will stick,"

and the second as:

"Hurl a steady barrage of insults

in the hope at least one will hit a vulnerable spot."

Did I say "forms of criticism?" make it, verbal sewage.

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, April 24, 2002

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

An argument that flows from the ego

("It’s right because I say so," or "Arafart said so!")

is never right because it overestimates the reasoning capacity

of a non-thinking organ (the ego)

at the expense of the brain.

Which makes as much sense

as trying to appreciate Vermeer with one’s ears

and Mozart with one’s eyes,

or playing the violin with one’s toes.

#

Another reason I am against censorship is that

the very same Armenians I would like to see silenced

are also the ones who illustrate and dramatize

all the negative aspects of our identity

that I have been trying to expose.

#

An Armenian hates his enemies more than he loves his country,

and he may preach hatred of the Turks

but he prefers to practice it on his fellow Armenians.

#

One of the worst things that could be said about a man

is that his most highly developed organ is his ego.

#

Because I am anti-humbug,

I am described as anti-Armenian

by Armenians engaged in humbuggery.

[ara baliozian]

LATER THE SAME DAY

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

#

Q: What is larger than the universe?

A: A bloated ego.

#

If you start arguing on the assumption

that you were right yesterday,

you are right today,

and you will be right tomorrow,

you condemn yourself to remain a prisoner

of your own closed mind.

#

Self-esteem is not a reliable index of worth,

in the same way that dogmatism is not an index of certainty.

#

The danger of ignorance is in its unawareness.

If I know that I don't know,

I am harmless because I will concentrate my efforts

on educating myself – an activity that can harm no one.

But if I don't know that I don't know,

then I might as well be a blind man

negotiating a busy intersection.

[ara baliozian]

THE SUBTLE ART

OF MAKING MORTAL ENEMIES

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

The aim of literature

is not to make yourself hateful

but to understand reality.

But if you speak of reality

to an audience that has taken refuge

in a world of illusions,

or if you speak the truth

to an audience of dupes,

or if you try to be honest among charlatans,

you will be hated;

and if your audience is Armenian,

you will be hated unto death.

To be hated unto death in an Armenian environment:

nothing could be easier.

All you need to do is identify your adversary.

If he is a crypto-Stalinist, call him a Stalinist.

If he is a neo-Nazi skinhead, call him a fascist.

If he is a pro-Palestinian anti-Zionist

who supports bloodthirsty fanatics yelling

"Death to the Jews!" and "Death to the USA!"

tell him if Ariel Sharon is not awarded

the next Nobel Peace Prize

it will be because the Nobel committee

is staffed by anti-Semites.

If he is an elitist snob

who looks down at his fellow Armenians,

dismiss him as white trash.

If he is a self-assessed genius,

refer to him as an inbred moron.

And if he is a minor scribbler like me,

ignore him, pretend he doesn't exist – which is why

I am grateful to all my readers,

including the critics…especially the critics

because they have been and continue to be

my main source of inspiration.

If it weren't for them

I would have run out of things to say years ago.

Thank you and God bless all of you!

[ara baliozian]

P.M. [April 25, 2002]

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

#

No one likes to admit that he is

a bloodthirsty bastard on his way to hell.

Which is why, killing in the name of God

has been such a popular support throughout history.

#

I could have been a far better writer

if I had better detractors instead of riffraff.

But alas, it looks like I am destined to remain

a minor, negligible, and forgettable scribbler.

#

When your critics contradict themselves –

when, that is, one accuses you

of being a Tashnak or a capitalist

and the other tries to expose you

as a Ramgavar and a communist,

you may be justified in suspecting that

you are on the right track.

#

We have among us an astonishing number of skinheads

who are convinced that writers are

the true enemies of the people.

Give this riffraff power

and their first priority will be hanging anyone

who refuses to recycle

their particular brand of crapola.

#

Truth cannot set you free

if you are a prisoner of your own ego.

Likewise, historical truth will not be accessible to you

if you are a chauvinist.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, April 26, 2002

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

#

Armenians disagree on many things,

but I think they agree on this:

that being an Armenian means

exposing oneself to a large quantity

of Armenian crap – make it, Ottoman crap

parading as Armenian simply because

it bears the -ian ending.

They may disagree on their definition of crap,

but then, they will disagree on anything,

including the multiplication table and one plus one.

#

If you insult with lies

you will be mortally wounded by the truth.

Morality and justice are not human inventions.

Rather, they are extensions of reality

and its inflexible laws.

#

It is not that some Armenians are not Armenian

(as one of my pundit friends asserts)

but that they are not human.

But they can be easily recognized

by the many layers of the flag

with which they wrap themselves

to hide their true identity as apes and swine.

#

Criticism: exposing contradictions.

Armenian criticism: verbal abuse.

#

According to a work in progress

titled LA VERA HISTORIA

DEL DON QUIJOTE DE LA MANCHA

by a descendant of the Don

(a professor of Spanish literature at the University of Barcelona),

Cervantes got it all wrong.

Don Quixote was not mad,

but very much like Hamlet, he only pretended to be.

He knew Desdemona to be a common slut,

but he also knew that when very young,

she had been brutally raped by the owner of the windmill,

who by then a cardinal in Rome,

was beyond his reach.

What drove the Don to attack the windmill

was not madness compounded by myopia but rage!

According to another work in progress

by a descendant of Othello,

now a professor of English literature in Zimbabwe,

Desdemona was a nymphomaniac.

Moral: Don't believe everything you read

on the internet, in the papers and in books,

including the classics of world literature.

[ara baliozian]

P.M. [26 April, 2002]

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

#

Being an Armenian is hard work.

I wouldn't apply for the job

even if they promised a fat salary,

the very best in fringe benefits,

and a sky-is-the-limit expense account.

#

To those who accuse me of not liking Armenians, I say:

"I will answer you after I survive them."

#

And to those who enjoy reminding me

that my arguments have so far fallen on deaf ears, I say:

"It has never been my intention

to reform the lunatic fringe.

Remember, my friends, far better men than myself tried and failed.

Why should I let that bother me?"

#

There is no such thing as a family,

a community, or a nation without mutual trust,

and trust is not something that can be willed or legislated.

Trust is above all a history of trust.

Which is why we must begin here and now.

#

Only after discovering my identity as a human being

did I acquire a better understanding of my identity as an Armenian.

[ara baliozian]

Saturday, April 27, 2002

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

When a terminally ill 16-year old girl in Canada

refused blood transfusions

because they were against her religious convictions,

there was a legal battle

and the final ruling was that

she was not mature enough to make

life-and-death decisions.

#

When a 14-year old Palestinian boy

(he looked more like ten)

on his way to kill himself and Jews changed his mind

and went home, his mother almost repeated word by word

the Canadian judge’s words.

#

The language of justice and love

(or should I say, the language of reason and common sense)

and the language of politics

are mutually incomprehensible

even when they use the same vocabulary.

#

We are told that a good chess player

thinks five moves ahead and

remembers as many as five thousand patterns.

In politics or history it’s enough to think

of only the next move

and to remember only one pattern:

namely, a tribal people should never challenge

the might of an imperial power,

and it makes no difference if the tribal people

are Armenian revolutionaries at the turn of the century

or Palestinians freedom fighters today.

But politicians are too lazy or ignorant,

and probably both, to do even that much,

perhaps because they don't think

in terms of justice, love, common sense and reason,

but in terms of hatred

which happens to be deaf, dumb, and very, very stupid.

[ara baliozian]

WORDS

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

To some they are just "sound and fury signifying nothing,"

to others they are at the origin of all things.

#

A fool says "I am no fool,"

believes in it, and next thing you know

he expects others to believe in it too,

and, what is even more strange is that, some do.

#

We are all familiar with the case of a president

who declared "I am not a crook!"

and millions believed him,

but he was impeached and driven out of office anyway.

#

When Lincoln said

"You can't fool all the people all the time,"

what he meant was that sooner or later

reality has a way of asserting itself.

You may fool dupes but you can't ignore

the inflexible laws of reality forever.

#

Sometimes we like to think that

by contradicting an argument

we have neutralized reality.

#

Believers think incantations and blessings,

or verbal formulas, can change wine into blood

and bread into flesh,

thus allowing them to engage in a subliminal or

less barbaric form of cannibalism.

#

What a book one could write

on the role of slogans in history!

[ara baliozian]

WORDS / 2

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

Exorcism: magic by means of verbal manipulation.

An anti-Semite attempts to exorcise his anti-Semitism

by identifying himself as an anti-Zionist.

By projecting his own paranoia on others,

a paranoiac assumes there is absolutely nothing wrong with him.

Which may explain why I am called

a fascist by fascists,

a racist by racists,

and a Turkish agent

by Ottomanized Armenians who,

in their efforts to prove themselves

better Armenians, go down into the gutter,

and they love going down into the gutter

because that’s where they feel more at home.

By altering their own perception of reality

they hope to alter not only our own perception

of reality but also reality itself,

and in doing so they succeed only

in exposing themselves as dupes –

dupes of their own vanity, prejudice, and ignorance.

Exorcism works only if you believe in mumbo jumbo.

[ara baliozian]

LOSERS AND WINNERS

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

#

Losers need supporters not critics.

I criticize losers because I am one of them

and I am tired of being a loser.

At least once in my life

I would like to know what it feels like

being a winner.

I criticize perennial losers

like the Arabs and Armenians

to make them winners and not

to gloat over their degradation.

#

Winners don't need defenders,

they can take care of themselves.

I defends Jews because they are victimized by racists

and they have been losers longer

than both Arabs and Armenians combined.

#

I defend the USA against despotic regimes

because I find despotism

morally repellent and politically bankrupt.

#

Despotism feeds on ignorance

and it breeds heroes, martyrs, and losers, not winners.

#

Losers are almost always double victims of

(a) their enemies and

( their own incompetent, corrupt, and hidebound leadership.

[ara baliozian]

Monday, April 29, 2002

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

#

Show me a man who speaks of positive and negative criticism

and I will show you a charlatan who speaks with a forked tongue.

#

Did Sultan Abdulhamid II and Stalin,

or Hitler and Mussolini ever made distinctions

between positive and negative criticism?

My guess is no, because

neither felt the need to speak as a cowardly hypocrite.

#

If we will be harmed by negative criticism

and saved by positive criticism,

are we to assume that the Ottoman and Soviet empires collapsed

because they lacked positive critics?

#

When was the last time

one of our bosses, bishops and benefactors said:

"As a result of this or that positive or constructive criticism

we have decided to introduce the following reforms…"?

#

Psychoanalytical treatment consists

in replacing one form of insanity with another.

What it says in effect is:

If you adjust yourself to an insane social order,

you will be considered sane by your peers.

#

I doubt if there is a single Christian today

who would allow himself to be devoured by wild beasts.

#

What was considered abnormal in Hitler’s Germany

(being anti-Nazi) is seen as normal today.

#

Under Stalin, all dissidents were seen as disturbed personalities

in need of psychiatric care.

#

Homicidal maniacs in the Middle East today

are seen as heroes and martyrs.

#

Paul Valery: "Our most important thoughts

are those which contradict our emotions."

#

George Lichtheim: "People who invent such slogans

("Kill the pigs") are themselves

part of the disease they talk of curing."

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

ERRATUM

While discussing Don Quixote in a recent essay

I mistakenly identified his love interest as

Desdemona rather than Dulcinea.

[ara baliozian]

POLITICS AND POLITICIANS

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

A man who kills will also lie.

A nation that commits massacres will also cover them up.

Which is why I believe nothing the Turks say.

But that doesn't mean I am willing to swallow

everything our own politicians dish out.

My father was a survivor of the Genocide

and I don't remember him saying anything remotely kind

about our political parties.

I was educated by Mekhitarist monks

and I don't remember them even mentioning their existence.

When I came to Canada

I acquired both Tashnak and Ramgavar friends

who hated one another more than they hated

the Sultan and Talaat combined.

According to my Tashnak friends

the Ramgavars and the AGBU itself

(sometimes referred to as the KGBU)

were instruments of the KGB.

According to my Ramgavar friends

the Tashnaks as well as the Catholicos of Antelias

were hirelings of the CIA.

According to the KGB,

some of the most important Tashnak leaders today

are former KGB agents.

If George Bernard Shaw is right and

"all professions are conspiracies against the laity,"

then all politicians are compulsive liars.

I am not saying let’s ignore the bums.

My message to them is,

Clean up your act, be accountable, democratize,

because if you don't, you will drag the nation down with you

into the garbage dump of history.

But perhaps what I am really saying is,

Let’s be honest with one another

for "the wages of sin is death."

What are the chances that my message

will penetrate the skulls of our leaders and their dupes?

Allow me to rephrase my question:

Do you believe in miracles?

[ara baliozian]

SLIPPERY SLOPES

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

#

To be on the side of the Arabs today

means to place oneself on a slippery slope

leading to a swamp of despotism, oppression,

tribalism, ignorance, fanaticism, terrorism,

anti-feminism, dogmatism, intolerance,

theocracy and medievalism – all of which

have been rejected by both the East and the West

and all progressive nations around the world.

And sure enough, pro-Arab Armenians today

are insensitive to the abuses of our own

mini-despots and neo-commissars

or are willing to accept them as inevitable facts of life,

and by refusing to share the loathing and rage

of all freedom-loving people against

all forms of authoritarian power structures,

they make themselves contemptible in the eyes of the world.

#

To accept despots as inevitable facts of life

means to tacitly support the abuses and crimes

of totalitarian regimes like those of Hitler,

which also means

to question the reality of the Holocaust.

And sure enough, I have heard several

pro-Arab Armenians from the Middle East

who have done exactly that

without realizing that by doing so

they were indirectly supporting those

who assert our own Genocide

is a figment of our collective imagination.

#

To assert Ariel Sharon is a murderer

of innocent civilians and a war criminal

is also to imply that so are all military leaders

and conquerors from Alexander the Great to Napoleon,

and from Dikran the Great to General Antranik

(who has also been accused by the Azeris of ethnic cleansing),

all of whom are idolized by some and hated

but sometimes also grudgingly admired by others.

I doubt if there is a single Palestinian today

who doesn't think

"If only Arafat were more like Sharon,"

or better, "If only Arafat were a winner

rather than a perennial loser,

even if by being a winner it meant

massacring a few hundred or thousand or million Jews!"

[ara baliozian]

ARABS AND ARMENIANS

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

To identify Arab thinking with Arab leadership

is to assume that all Arabs think alike.

One does not have to be an expert

on the Middle East or Arab literature and culture or psychology

to know that when two Arabs meet

and one of them speaks,

the other does not always reply:

"I agree with everything you say,"

or "I agreed with everything you said yesterday

and I will agree with everything you will say

tomorrow or a year hence."

To say that there are no progressive Arabs

is to imply that all Arabs are subservient dupes.

Progressive Arabs may be a silent minority today

(very much like progressive Armenians)

but sooner or later they are destined to be the majority

for the simple reason that

you cannot arrest the advance of history.

Arab leaders are fully aware of this fact.

They know that sooner or later

they will share the fate of French kings,

Russians czars, Egyptian Farouks,

Soviet commissars, Italian Duces, Nazi fuhrers,

and despots in general.

They teach their children to chant

"Death to the Jews and the USA"

because they want to postpone the day

when Arabs will see the light,

unite and chant

DEATH TO DESPOTS! and

DEATH TO BLOODSUCKERS!

[sen_Vahan]

"To be on the side of the Arabs today

means to place oneself on a slippery slope

leading to a swamp of despotism, oppression,

tribalism, ignorance, fanaticism, terrorism,

anti-feminism, dogmatism, intolerance,

theocracy and medievalism – all of which

have been rejected by both the East and the West

and all progressive nations around the world.

And sure enough, pro-Arab Armenians today

are insensitive to the abuses of our own

mini-despots and neo-commissars

or are willing to accept them as inevitable facts of life,

and by refusing to share the loathing and rage

of all freedom-loving people against

all forms of authoritarian power structures,

they make themselves contemptible in the eyes of the world. "

 

You can be against Arabs or Jews today but can you support the killings of children? And how do you like a war where one fires from a gun and others at the same time take photos right in front of that, running around the soldiers? "The show must go on!"

 

 

"To assert Ariel Sharon is a murderer

of innocent civilians and a war criminal

is also to imply that so are all military leaders

and conquerors from Alexander the Great to Napoleon,

and from Dikran the Great to General Antranik

(who has also been accused by the Azeris of ethnic cleansing),

all of whom are idolized by some and hated

but sometimes also grudgingly admired by others."

 

Good comparison - Sharon and Napoleon! Were you serious about that?

 

"I doubt if there is a single Palestinian today

who doesn't think

"If only Arafat were more like Sharon,"

or better, "If only Arafat were a winner

rather than a perennial loser,

even if by being a winner it meant

massacring a few hundred or thousand or million Jews!"

 

All right then, what is your position? It seems pretty fluid.

 

"To say that there are no progressive Arabs

is to imply that all Arabs are subservient dupes.

Progressive Arabs may be a silent minority today

(very much like progressive Armenians)

but sooner or later they are destined to be the majority

for the simple reason that

you cannot arrest the advance of history.

Arab leaders are fully aware of this fact.

They know that sooner or later

they will share the fate of French kings,

Russians czars, Egyptian Farouks,

Soviet commissars, Italian Duces, Nazi fuhrers,

and despots in general.

They teach their children to chant

"Death to the Jews and the USA"

because they want to postpone the day

when Arabs will see the light,

unite and chant

DEATH TO DESPOTS! and

DEATH TO BLOODSUCKERS!"

 

Generalization is a philosophical thing but yours does not go further than sayings like French kings, Russian Czars, Nazi fuhrers are all the same BLOODSUCKERS and DESPOTS. But if it's true then who is Ariel Sharon?

[ara baliozian]

Wednesday, May 01, 2002

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

It is not at all unusual these days

to read on the internet a civilized Turk

and an ill-mannered Armenian;

or a Turk who makes sense

and an Armenian who sounds like a raving lunatic;

or a Turk who preaches love

and an Armenian who practices hatred;

or a Turk who is human

and an Armenian who behaves like an ape;

or an intelligent Turk

and a dumb Armenian.

No, it is not at all unusual,

but it is very unsettling.

One is almost tempted to suspect

that some Armenians are Turks

and some Turks are – must be! – Armenians.

[ara baliozian]

Thursday, May 02, 2002

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

#

The first and most important condition

of being a popular Armenian writer

is to be dead, preferably murdered

by a hostile regime.

The best a living writer can hope for

from his audience is to be allowed to live.

#

Lovable Armenians? I have met them,

but only in Saroyan’s fiction.

#

The difference between children and adults

is that sometimes, with children,

one explanation is enough.

[Hyeflyer]

Ara please You have a long way to go to be one of Williams contemperarys.Or evan a student.If he was alive now he would be attacked evan more than you.He would have been too assimalated allready to be acepted.You write of your hurt and disapointment in your fellow Armenians but as of now you have not said who or really why.So get on with it either you are a writer as you say or you are a jurnalist.

[ara baliozian]

LATER [May 2, 2002]

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

#

If "unanimity is the best fortress" (Danish proverb),

divisiveness is the most invincible enemy.

#

"When ideas fail," Goethe tells us,

"words come in very handy."

Especially if the words are insults.

And the ambition of every insult

is to paralyze the enemy,

very much the way a cobra’s venom acts on its victim.

Unmask an Armenian who insults you

and the chances are you will expose a Turkish cobra.

#

If we were to judge a man by his opinion of himself,

an inbred moron would be a genius.

#

A fanatic will always have more enemies than a moderate

because he will arouse hostility

among fanatics in the opposite camp

as well as moderates in his own.

#

It is only after the obvious solution is rejected

that a problem is declared insoluble.

[ara baliozian]

Sharon and Arafat are interchangeable.

Give Arafat half a chance and he will behave like Sharon.