Collaborators

[ara baliozian]

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

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All ideologies and closed systems of thought

produce believers and skeptics.

Likewise, all power structures produce

collaborators and resisters.

And then there are the dupes or "useful idiots"

who will say yes to any system,

and the opportunists who will collaborate

with any structure.

Men of principle who can think for themselves

and are not afraid to say so

have been at all times and everywhere

the exception rather than the rule.

*

During the Soviet period writers like

Sylva Kaputikian, who were faithful members of the Party,

were amply rewarded:

their works were translated into several languages,

they amassed millions in royalties,

they were allowed to travel abroad,

and they had access to the Kremlin,

among other privileges and powers.

As for the dissidents:

we all know what happened to them.

*

Something very similar happened in the Diaspora,

with one difference: no writer ever prospered,

only allowed to survive under the most humiliating conditions.

Some day when Hagop Oshagan’s biography is ever written

we will know more about this particular aspect

of our community existence.

As for our critics and dissident:

consider what happened to Shahnour

(he gave up writing in his mother tongue

and wrote in French to survive),

Massikian (even when he wanted to give away his books

free of charge there were no takers),

and Zarian (he was driven back to the Soviet Union

where he was forced to recycle Kremlin-inspired propaganda).

*

"We are a people like any other people":

does that mean our leadership is always right

and our critics always wrong?

And are we as a nation beyond criticism?

*

When I see our house is on fire

I cry "Fire! Fire!!" as a passerby with a cellphone tells me:

"Keep it down, won’t you please:

can’t you see I am on the phone?"

as another literary-minded smart aleck points out the fact

that I repeated myself.

*

An Armenian’s ignorance is rivaled only

by his need to be loved for qualities he does not possess

but plans to acquire in the future.

*

When an Armenian wounds

he aims to kill.