Comments

[ara baliozian]

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

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

by ara baliozian

 

Lincoln was wrong: you can fool only one person all

the time: yourself.

 

We don’t burn books; we prefer to bury writers.

 

Whenever I am asked what I do for a living, I say I am

unemployed. For some reason, I find that a more

dignified tag than identifying myself as an Armenian

writer.

 

If any one of us on this forum became president of

Armenia tomorrow, we would have no more problems on

the day after.

 

It has happened more than once that those who develop

an intense dislike of me become my most faithful

readers.

 

Once upon a time a good day was one in which I

produced a good line. Now it is one in which I succeed

in offending a bigot. To paraphrase an old slogan: A

day without a mad bigot is a day without sunshine.

 

Sometimes I cannot help suspecting that our leaders

behave as if their unspoken slogan were: "From defeat

to defeat until the final catastrophe"; or is it -

"From catastrophe to catastrophe until total

annihilation."

 

When asked whether or not I am proud to be an

Armenian, I say, I am surrounded by so many proud

Armenians that I prefer to be a humble one.

 

When a brown-noser adopts a critical stance, you can

be sure of one thing: he will not criticize the

leadership but the people, because to criticize the

leadership would amount to biting the posterior that

lays the golden egg.

 

Sartre: "Literature unveils to readers their own

situation in order that they themselves may assume its

responsibility."

 

I have always been suspicious of people who brag about

their own real or imaginary assets. He who says "I am

smart," seldom is. He who says, "I am wealthy," never

is. And he who says "I am an honorable man," or "I am

a patriotic Armenian," is either a charlatan or a

bloodsucker.

 

It is not easy reasoning with a man who calls you an

idiot. As for the man who threatens to kill you: I

have every reason to suspect, if he realizes his

ambition, his lawyer will plead insanity, and he will

be absolutely right.

 

I have known many charlatans but I have never heard

any one of them admit to being one. Charlatanism and

confession are incompatible concepts. Murderers may

confess; charlatans, never!

 

G.K. Chesterton: "Thieves respect property; they

merely wish the property to become their property that

they may more perfectly respect it."

[Stormig]

Once upon a time a good day was one in which I

produced a good line. Now it is one in which I succeed

in offending a bigot. To paraphrase an old slogan: A

day without a mad bigot is a day without sunshine.

Or, as Zorba says, the day you are not in trouble is when you are dead.

[ara baliozian]

Friday, June 27, 2003

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

According to Toynbee:

“The nature of the breakdowns of civilizations

can be summed up in three points:

a failure of creative power in the minority,

an answering withdrawal of mimesis on the part of the majority,

and a consequent loss of social unity in the society as a whole.”

This just about sums up our status quo: namely,

a corrupt and incompetent leadership,

an alienated community,

and a total absence of solidarity.

*

To a pathological liar,

truth will be a carcinogenic agent.

*

There are those who think

being an Armenian writer and

writing for Armenians are sure symptoms of mediocrity:

so much for our collective self-esteem.

*

Collaborating with a corrupt leadership also means

betraying those who refuse to do so.

*

When it comes to changing minds,

there are no short cuts or painless arguments.

*

It is a writer’s duty to write what he thinks.

But in a fascist environment

a writer writes what those in power think; and

in an Armenian environment a writer guesses

what his readers think and feel and

echoes their sentiments and thoughts –

if, that is, he wants to survive.

*

Do I repeat myself?

Only in so far as I expose the same abuses and aberrations.

Because, as I see it,

I either expose them or conspire to cover them up.

*

To sum up: let us at all times and everywhere

be aware of the phony patriotism of bloodsuckers

and their offspring.