Thursday. June 26, 2008
*********************************************
IT COMES WITH THE TERRITORY
**************************************************
To write for Armenians means to share your thoughts and experiences with readers who are better and smarter than you. But since their superiority is self-conferred, it cannot be objective, or honest, or real. It may even be pure fiction and fantasy, and more precisely, a shameless lie.
*
It is not at all unusual for an Armenian to think that, if he identified himself as a patriot or uses patriotism as a shield, he becomes invulnerable to charges of fascism and hooliganism. He may even utter all kinds of nonsense and get away with it. To such an Armenian I say, if you view patriotism as a noble sentiment, why this need to make an ass of yourself?
*
The sad truth is, there are no safe ideas, ideals, and ideologies. Consider what happened to the ideals of the French Revolution in the Terror, or to Marxism in Stalin's USSR, and to the Word of God in the sermons of American televangelists and Armenian bishops.
*
It is not enough to voice lofty principles. One must earn the right. For myself, I shall always be grateful to Judas for not writing an ode to loyalty. But as an Armenian, I am used to reading editorials on tolerance by fanatics and listening to sermons on chastity by fornicators. As they say, it comes with the territory.
#
Friday, June 27, 2008
*********************************
MANY QUESTIONS, ONE ANSWER
***************************************************
We all want the same thing: to improve matters.
We all agree we have problems.
We are unanimous in admitting we need reforms.
It's amazing the number of things we agree on.
It's the solutions we don't agree on.
It's when we start discussing solutions that the crap hits the fan.
Our Turcocentric ghazetajis want to begin by reforming the Turks, which is easier said than done.
Others want to democratize our mafias in the Homeland. Ditto.
Still others want to deliver sermons to our bishops to show them the path leading to church unity.
All these projects boil down to a single word: honesty.
How do you introduce honesty in a dishonest environment?
How do you convince a brainwashed dupe that he is not as smart as he thinks he is? How do you convince a crook that in the long run and for all concerned (including himself, especially himself) honesty is better than dishonesty?
How do you convince a bishop that “a house divided against itself cannot stand”? How do you convince a boss that an ideology that divides the nation does more harm than good?
How do you convince a benefactor that by supporting institutions that legitimize divisions he may not be doing us a favor?
Finally, how do you reform a reformer?
Let me rephrase the question:
How do you teach the value of humility to a megalomaniac with messianic ambitions?
How do you convince a sanctimonious prick that uttering pious platitudes does not make him an admirable specimen of humanity, and that patriotism means love of country as well as fellow countrymen?
To say my solution is better than yours is to imply you have a better chance to succeed where far better men than yourself failed.
What is the answer?
Is there one?
Isn't there anything I can do?
Do I give up?
Hell no!
You begin by reforming yourself.
And that, my friend, is a project that may keep you busy for the rest of your life.
I speak from experience.
#
Saturday, June 28, 2008
****************************************
OF APES AND MEN
*************************************
The most effective way to moronize a nation is (a) by brainwashing the people to think they are smart; (b) by introducing nationalism in a multicultural or bastardized environment, and (c) by dividing them into mutually hostile groups or tribes.
*
For biological as well as cultural reasons, the offspring of mixed marriages (which I was brought up to think as bastards) are smarter, healthier, and more tolerant, if only because they are products of two or more worldviews, traditions, and values. But they are also more vulnerable to charges of disloyalty and treason. This may explain why, once upon a time people of the Middle East were the smartest and the most progressive in the world. But gradually and as a result of tribal and religious divisions and power struggles, they allowed themselves to be bullied, brainwashed, and intimidated by power hungry megalomaniacs with the horizons, moral compass, and IQ of apes.
*
We will never have any peace as long as we think we are better than Turks and vice versa. The same applies to all our internecine tribal, ideological, and denomination divisions.
*
The more underdeveloped the brain, the more easily it is brainwashed.
*
I can't imagine anything more cowardly than verbally abusing someone anonymously and from a safe distance. It is no wonder that in Russia Armenians are known as “cowardly.” And I agree with Gandhi when he said, “A coward has no right to identify himself as a member of the human race.”
*
Speaking of cowardly Armenians, you may be interested to know that in Greece Armenians are known as “Turkish gypsies,” and in France as “filthy.” I am now beginning to suspect these offensive labels have as much merit as our own self-assessment of ourselves as smart, progressive, and civilized.
*
If you don't like what I write, stop reading me. I assure you, that's the most effective and civilized way of silencing a writer. To verbally abuse him or trying to silence him because he dares to say things that you don't like reading is to prove him right.
#
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
comments
Sunday, June 22, 2008
*********************************************
ON MURDER
*********************************
Of you expose a liar, a rapist, or a murderer, you don't need to deliver a sermon against lies, rape, and murder -- unless of course you are infatuated with the sound of your own voice.
*
You may have noticed that the very same people who demand instant solutions to our problems are themselves part of the problem. It follows, these gentlemen will never be satisfied with any solution that will expose them as dupes or charlatans. And if a reform-minded person were to appear among them, they will dismiss him as an ignoramus or a daydreaming fool, sometimes even an enemy of the people. They will laugh at him. They will insult him. And if he keeps talking they will silence him. What they want, what they really need, is not a reformer but a messiah. And if a messiah were to appear among them, they will crucify him. I am reminded of Antranik Zaroukian's words: “Even as they speak of crucifixion, they nail us to the cross.”
*
Speaking of the murder of Archbishop Levon Tourian in December 1933 in New York, Charles King writes: “The murder cemented divisions within the Armenian diaspora that have remained in place until today, for unlike the many other perpetrators of violence against Armenians – from Ottoman pashas to Soviet commissars – the authors of the twentieth century's most spectacular public murder of an Armenian cultural leader, inside an Armenian church, were Armenians.” See THE GHOST OF FREEDOM: A HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS (New York, 2008, page 178).
#
Monday, June 23m 2008
***********************************
COPS
***********************
After the collapse of the USSR, writes Charles King in THE GHOST OF FREEDOM: A HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS (New York, 2008), traffic cops in Armenia used to buy their job. There was even a pricing system for the purchase based on which sites were likely to be the most profitable. “For example, a roadblock on the way to a fashionable restaurant outside Lake Sevan commanded the highest price because citizens were reckoned to be carrying a significant amount of cash on their way to those destinations. The officer would then recoup his initial financial outlay, plus profit, through the collection of fines.”
Now I am in a better position to understand why, after a visit to the Homeland, a friend told me, “Everyone wants to emigrate, except cops.” I also remember an American friend saying, “Armenian traffic cops must be just about the ugliest men I have ever seen.”
Again, according to Charles King, drivers of expensive cars were not stopped because they were assumed to be men of influence.
Elsewhere he remarks: “Dysfunctional politics can sometimes serve the interests of politicians themselves even as they lead the people they claim to represent towards certain ruin.”
*
The more talk of patriotism, the more corrupt the state. Hitler was a patriot. So was Mussolini. As for Stalin: he was the only head of state who called World War II “the Patriotic War.”
*
Nothing offends me more than the spectacle of an idiot preaching patriotism.
*
The most effective way of destroying a nation is by lowering its standards, so that every imbecile can parade as a genius, and every dupe as a statesman of vision capable of solving all our problems.
*
All nations have their share of imbeciles, but in our case the imbeciles are either at the top or most likely to get there.
#
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
*****************************************
FOOLS, DUPES, AND MESSIAHS
******************************************
In a commentary headlined “No hope for democracy,” I read: “There is not going to be a revolution in [Mugabe's] Zimbabwe. Half the working-age population lives abroad.”
Are you thinking what I am thinking?
*
There is only one solution to an intolerant community, and that is tolerance. I am therefore suspicious when those who parade as problem-solvers become intolerant in defense of their solutions.
*
When a problem and a messiah meet, the problem is sure to prevail.
*
An average, garden-variety fool is smarter than the smartest dupe. No fool will ever be taken in by a bearded charlatan who promises him an afterlife in which he will spend his time deflowering virgins, unless of course he is also a dupe.
*
When I was a boy I wanted to be a famous writer. Not a good writer or a great writer, but a famous writer. In my old age all I want to be is an honest witness, and I am beginning to suspect being an honest witness among Armenians is a far more demanding undertaking than being a great writer.
*
You can recognize a brainwashed dupe by the fact that he is dead from the neck up.
*
An Armenian's capacity to dish out and/or consume verbal crap seems to be limitless.
*
We survived the Turk. Will we survive the Armenian?
*
The shortest list in the world: that of living Armenian intellectuals.
#
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
*****************************************
THE ROAD TO HELL
*******************************
Self-interest and ideas are mutually exclusive concepts. Where self-interest enters, ideas exit.
*
I don't judge a man by his nationality or loyalty to a tribe, race, or ideology. I judge him by the degree of humanity he has been successful in defending against the dehumanizing forces of the world and his fellow men.
*
No one can save a man, let alone a nation, that does not want to be saved or is programmed for self-destruction. Only a total ignoramus with messianic ambitions will tell you, if we do this, that, or the other, we will save the nation. And if you were to ask why I go on writing and what is my real aim, the answer to the first question will have to be, “Force of habit,” and the answer to the second question, “If I can convince an intolerant Armenan to be less intolerant, I consider it a major victory.” And if you were to ask next my number of major or minor victories, I would have to say either none or plead an amendment – the one dealing with self-incrimination.
*
According to Charles King in THE GHOST OF FREEDOM: A HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS, (page 226), constnat talk of genocide “has encouraged a patriotism built on victimhoom,” which has stunted our ability “of confidently looking to the future.” To our Turcocentric ghazetajis I say: “And you thought you were doing us a favor by defending our interests?”
Whoever said “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” sure knew what he was talking about.
#
*********************************************
ON MURDER
*********************************
Of you expose a liar, a rapist, or a murderer, you don't need to deliver a sermon against lies, rape, and murder -- unless of course you are infatuated with the sound of your own voice.
*
You may have noticed that the very same people who demand instant solutions to our problems are themselves part of the problem. It follows, these gentlemen will never be satisfied with any solution that will expose them as dupes or charlatans. And if a reform-minded person were to appear among them, they will dismiss him as an ignoramus or a daydreaming fool, sometimes even an enemy of the people. They will laugh at him. They will insult him. And if he keeps talking they will silence him. What they want, what they really need, is not a reformer but a messiah. And if a messiah were to appear among them, they will crucify him. I am reminded of Antranik Zaroukian's words: “Even as they speak of crucifixion, they nail us to the cross.”
*
Speaking of the murder of Archbishop Levon Tourian in December 1933 in New York, Charles King writes: “The murder cemented divisions within the Armenian diaspora that have remained in place until today, for unlike the many other perpetrators of violence against Armenians – from Ottoman pashas to Soviet commissars – the authors of the twentieth century's most spectacular public murder of an Armenian cultural leader, inside an Armenian church, were Armenians.” See THE GHOST OF FREEDOM: A HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS (New York, 2008, page 178).
#
Monday, June 23m 2008
***********************************
COPS
***********************
After the collapse of the USSR, writes Charles King in THE GHOST OF FREEDOM: A HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS (New York, 2008), traffic cops in Armenia used to buy their job. There was even a pricing system for the purchase based on which sites were likely to be the most profitable. “For example, a roadblock on the way to a fashionable restaurant outside Lake Sevan commanded the highest price because citizens were reckoned to be carrying a significant amount of cash on their way to those destinations. The officer would then recoup his initial financial outlay, plus profit, through the collection of fines.”
Now I am in a better position to understand why, after a visit to the Homeland, a friend told me, “Everyone wants to emigrate, except cops.” I also remember an American friend saying, “Armenian traffic cops must be just about the ugliest men I have ever seen.”
Again, according to Charles King, drivers of expensive cars were not stopped because they were assumed to be men of influence.
Elsewhere he remarks: “Dysfunctional politics can sometimes serve the interests of politicians themselves even as they lead the people they claim to represent towards certain ruin.”
*
The more talk of patriotism, the more corrupt the state. Hitler was a patriot. So was Mussolini. As for Stalin: he was the only head of state who called World War II “the Patriotic War.”
*
Nothing offends me more than the spectacle of an idiot preaching patriotism.
*
The most effective way of destroying a nation is by lowering its standards, so that every imbecile can parade as a genius, and every dupe as a statesman of vision capable of solving all our problems.
*
All nations have their share of imbeciles, but in our case the imbeciles are either at the top or most likely to get there.
#
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
*****************************************
FOOLS, DUPES, AND MESSIAHS
******************************************
In a commentary headlined “No hope for democracy,” I read: “There is not going to be a revolution in [Mugabe's] Zimbabwe. Half the working-age population lives abroad.”
Are you thinking what I am thinking?
*
There is only one solution to an intolerant community, and that is tolerance. I am therefore suspicious when those who parade as problem-solvers become intolerant in defense of their solutions.
*
When a problem and a messiah meet, the problem is sure to prevail.
*
An average, garden-variety fool is smarter than the smartest dupe. No fool will ever be taken in by a bearded charlatan who promises him an afterlife in which he will spend his time deflowering virgins, unless of course he is also a dupe.
*
When I was a boy I wanted to be a famous writer. Not a good writer or a great writer, but a famous writer. In my old age all I want to be is an honest witness, and I am beginning to suspect being an honest witness among Armenians is a far more demanding undertaking than being a great writer.
*
You can recognize a brainwashed dupe by the fact that he is dead from the neck up.
*
An Armenian's capacity to dish out and/or consume verbal crap seems to be limitless.
*
We survived the Turk. Will we survive the Armenian?
*
The shortest list in the world: that of living Armenian intellectuals.
#
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
*****************************************
THE ROAD TO HELL
*******************************
Self-interest and ideas are mutually exclusive concepts. Where self-interest enters, ideas exit.
*
I don't judge a man by his nationality or loyalty to a tribe, race, or ideology. I judge him by the degree of humanity he has been successful in defending against the dehumanizing forces of the world and his fellow men.
*
No one can save a man, let alone a nation, that does not want to be saved or is programmed for self-destruction. Only a total ignoramus with messianic ambitions will tell you, if we do this, that, or the other, we will save the nation. And if you were to ask why I go on writing and what is my real aim, the answer to the first question will have to be, “Force of habit,” and the answer to the second question, “If I can convince an intolerant Armenan to be less intolerant, I consider it a major victory.” And if you were to ask next my number of major or minor victories, I would have to say either none or plead an amendment – the one dealing with self-incrimination.
*
According to Charles King in THE GHOST OF FREEDOM: A HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS, (page 226), constnat talk of genocide “has encouraged a patriotism built on victimhoom,” which has stunted our ability “of confidently looking to the future.” To our Turcocentric ghazetajis I say: “And you thought you were doing us a favor by defending our interests?”
Whoever said “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” sure knew what he was talking about.
#
Saturday, June 21, 2008
forked tongues
Thursday, June 19, 2008
*************************************************
CROCODILES
**************************
Politics and literature don't mix. Politics, power, and propaganda are inseparable. Where goes one, the others are sure to follow. By contrast, the aim of literature is to understand reality by exposing the inconvenient facts that have been swept under the carpet. Hence Hemingway's definition of a writer as one with “a built-in sh*t detector.”
*
It is a serious blunder to identify a regime with the people and its culture. To do so amounts to saying Hitler is an extension of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, or Chekhov and Stalin share similar aims. Speaking of Chekhov: in one of his letters to a friend (Suvorin, I think) and in an eerily prescient passage, he refers to the next generation of Russian leaders as “crocodiles.” which may suggest that, you don't need supernatural powers to predict the future. (In this connection, see also Dostoevsky's THE DEMONS, sometimes also translated as THE POSSESSED.)
*
“You can't criticize the Homeland if you have never been there,” I am told. With the advent of the computer, I don't feel the need to go anywhere because I receive a veritable avalanche of e-mails by fellow Armenians who have been there, done that, and now sport the T-shirt. Once I even received two books by a retired bishop in which he exposed the corruption within the hierarchy.
*
I have noticed that only Armenians who are in the business – and it is a business – of fund-raising that ascribe all our problems on the war, the earthquake, and the blockade and completely ignore the contribution of our crocodiles and “mi kich pogh” panchoonies to our present malaise.
*
Whenever I run into a smart-ass, loud-mouth, cowardly bully who insults me anonymously and from a safe distance, I have no trouble predicting a brilliant future in politics.
#
Friday, June 20, 2008
********************************************
BULLIES AND YES-MEN
*********************************
When the men at the top are bullies, the result will be a society of cowardly yes-men.
*
After they convince us we are smart, perhaps even the smartest people on earth, they treat us like idiots. Patriotism, that is to say flattery (“chosen people,” “superior race,” “it takes seven Jews to fool an Armenian”) is one of the oldest and most effective instruments of mass persuasion.
*
The honesty of dupes, like the faith of the brainwashed: what is it worth?
*
Once, at the beginning of my career (if you want to call it that) one of our elder statesmen called me a genius. Shortly thereafter when I wrote something with which he disagreed, he called me an idiot. Easy come, easy go. Sic transit gloria mundi. Or, as the French say, “He who can kiss, can bite.”
*
If our literature were a person, he would be a beggar in rags on the verge of starvation. We treat our literature the way we were treated at the turn of the century in the Ottoman Empire. Now then, tell me: In what way are we different from them?
*
People who know and understand, search for more knowledge and understanding. By contrast, the ignoramus is satisfied with his own ignorance.
#
Saturday, June 21, 2008
*********************************************
SPEAKING WITH A FORKED TONGUE
****************************************************
In a land of instant coffee
they want instant solutions.
Instead of doing what they can do,
they demand that others to
what they don't want to do.
Instead of reforming themselves
they want to reform the nation.
Even as they engage in cannibalism
they speak of solidarity, unity, and brotherhood.
They think of our writers as some species of song birds
who did nothing but serenade the moon.
Gentle reader, if you are one of them
my advice to you is:
Don't believe everything you are told
by those who pretend to know better
because they are better.
Don't be afraid to raise your voice and say
you refuse to be taken in by baloney artists
who speak with a forked tongue.
Beyond that there isn't much you
or anyone else can do.
*************************************************
CROCODILES
**************************
Politics and literature don't mix. Politics, power, and propaganda are inseparable. Where goes one, the others are sure to follow. By contrast, the aim of literature is to understand reality by exposing the inconvenient facts that have been swept under the carpet. Hence Hemingway's definition of a writer as one with “a built-in sh*t detector.”
*
It is a serious blunder to identify a regime with the people and its culture. To do so amounts to saying Hitler is an extension of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, or Chekhov and Stalin share similar aims. Speaking of Chekhov: in one of his letters to a friend (Suvorin, I think) and in an eerily prescient passage, he refers to the next generation of Russian leaders as “crocodiles.” which may suggest that, you don't need supernatural powers to predict the future. (In this connection, see also Dostoevsky's THE DEMONS, sometimes also translated as THE POSSESSED.)
*
“You can't criticize the Homeland if you have never been there,” I am told. With the advent of the computer, I don't feel the need to go anywhere because I receive a veritable avalanche of e-mails by fellow Armenians who have been there, done that, and now sport the T-shirt. Once I even received two books by a retired bishop in which he exposed the corruption within the hierarchy.
*
I have noticed that only Armenians who are in the business – and it is a business – of fund-raising that ascribe all our problems on the war, the earthquake, and the blockade and completely ignore the contribution of our crocodiles and “mi kich pogh” panchoonies to our present malaise.
*
Whenever I run into a smart-ass, loud-mouth, cowardly bully who insults me anonymously and from a safe distance, I have no trouble predicting a brilliant future in politics.
#
Friday, June 20, 2008
********************************************
BULLIES AND YES-MEN
*********************************
When the men at the top are bullies, the result will be a society of cowardly yes-men.
*
After they convince us we are smart, perhaps even the smartest people on earth, they treat us like idiots. Patriotism, that is to say flattery (“chosen people,” “superior race,” “it takes seven Jews to fool an Armenian”) is one of the oldest and most effective instruments of mass persuasion.
*
The honesty of dupes, like the faith of the brainwashed: what is it worth?
*
Once, at the beginning of my career (if you want to call it that) one of our elder statesmen called me a genius. Shortly thereafter when I wrote something with which he disagreed, he called me an idiot. Easy come, easy go. Sic transit gloria mundi. Or, as the French say, “He who can kiss, can bite.”
*
If our literature were a person, he would be a beggar in rags on the verge of starvation. We treat our literature the way we were treated at the turn of the century in the Ottoman Empire. Now then, tell me: In what way are we different from them?
*
People who know and understand, search for more knowledge and understanding. By contrast, the ignoramus is satisfied with his own ignorance.
#
Saturday, June 21, 2008
*********************************************
SPEAKING WITH A FORKED TONGUE
****************************************************
In a land of instant coffee
they want instant solutions.
Instead of doing what they can do,
they demand that others to
what they don't want to do.
Instead of reforming themselves
they want to reform the nation.
Even as they engage in cannibalism
they speak of solidarity, unity, and brotherhood.
They think of our writers as some species of song birds
who did nothing but serenade the moon.
Gentle reader, if you are one of them
my advice to you is:
Don't believe everything you are told
by those who pretend to know better
because they are better.
Don't be afraid to raise your voice and say
you refuse to be taken in by baloney artists
who speak with a forked tongue.
Beyond that there isn't much you
or anyone else can do.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
comments
Sunday, June 15, 2008
*****************************************
WHY I AM NOT A PROUD ARMENIAN
*************************************************
In a world inhabited by proud Greeks, Yanks, Brits, Jews, Turks, and Kurds, I prefer to be a humble Armenian.
*
Greeks are proud of their ancient culture. What they fail to mention or explain is why they squandered their priceless heritage to the point that they are now one of the poorest and most backward nations in Europe.
Jews are proud of being the Chosen People. But the truly great and progressive Jews, among them Spinoza, Marx, Freud, and Einstein dismissed all such claims as infantile illusions. And when Jesus taught us the Lord's Prayer that begins with the words “Our Father,” he meant that all men are brothers.
*
Pride is for people who lack self-esteem. He who has self-esteem does not feel the need to make himself ridiculous by bragging about who he is.
*
Another reason why I prefer to identify myself as a humble Armenian is the proud Armenian who wears his prejudices, ignorance, and arrogance as badges of merit and views criticism and dissent, and by extension, free speech and fundamental human rights, as unpatriotic. Such an Armenian ignores the fact that the function of literature, from Socrates to Sartre, and from Khorenatsi to Zarian, is self-criticism. Take away criticism from Western culture, and the West becomes an extension of Asia.
#
Monday, June 16, 2008
*****************************************
SUMMING UP
******************************
We cannot trust the solution to our problems into the hands of our dividers. That would be like trust the flock to wolves in sheep's clothing.
*
Turks are not our greatest problem because nations are not killed, they commit suicide.
*
If you are a proud Armenian stay away from Armenian affairs. If you make the mistake of getting involved, you will be tarred, feathered, and dragged through the mud. And if you think the solution to this particular problem is being a humble Armenian, forget it. I have been both and I speak from experience. No matter to who and what you are, if you are honest and mean business, the philistines and commissars will get you and you will curse the day you were born.
*
A bad Armenian can be worse than the worst Turk.
*
Our propensity to create problems far outstrips our ability to solve them.
*
I am fully aware of the fact that discussing our problems may exacerbate them, but it is a temptation I cannot resist. May I also confess that exposing baloney artists is one of the very few pleasures that happen to be within my income bracket.
*
No one can be as dumb as an Armenian impressed with his own brilliance.
#
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
*****************************************
OBSERVATIONS
*******************************
To the dupe, reality is not what he sees or experiences but what he is told, especially when what he is told is carefully tailored to flatter his ego.
*
Better a deprogrammed enemy than a brainwashed friend.
*
In an environment where speechifiers and sermonizers are amply compensated, critics will be seen as nuisances and enemies. The result will be a community swimming in b.s.
*
The certainties of my youth are my greatest sources of embarrassment. I shiver and burn whenever I think of them.
*
It's no use pretending to know better because no one knows everything and we will never know the truth. The best we can hope to do is expose the transparent lies of vested interests and propaganda.
*
The world is a dangerous place where people speak in the name of peace and make war, where they speak in the name of God and do the Devil's work, and where millions of dupes are eager to kill and die in the name of a Big Lie.
#
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
*****************************************
A ROUTINE EXPERIENCE
*******************************************
It might as well be a routine experience with me: readers who assume not only to be better but to know better, and based on that self-serving assumption, they proceed to deliver lectures on patriotism, the kind of nonsense I was exposed to when I was ten. They remind me of our heroic revolutionaries at the turn of the last century who were so sure of their final and inevitable victory that they had a Plan B only for themselves. And like all losers throughout history, they now blame their catastrophic blunder on everyone else but themselves. I once heard one of these revolutionaries (may the Good Lord have mercy on his soul) say, “The chezok [neutral or non-partisan] Armenian is the source of all our problems because he refuses to get involved in Armenian affairs. He is neither hot nor cold. He is nothing.” When Hitler lost World War II and shortly before he had the decency to commit suicide, he put the blame on his fellow Germans, the very same people he had classified as belonging to a superior race. Nothing evil ever dies. Hitler may be dead but his racist ideas continue to live in neo-Nazi skinheads, Putin's ultranationlist Stalinists, and Italy's neo-fascists. I could add our own first-nation-this and first-nation-that propagandists and dime-a-dozen Turcocentric ghazetajis who believe they will usher in a new golden age on the day they corner the Turks into assuming full responsibility for the Genocide, to apologize, and to make financial and territorial reparations. In the meantime they go about pretending there is nothing wrong with us and we are beyond criticism because God and Truth are on our side. It is not that I don't believe what they say, I don't think they believe it themselves.
#
*****************************************
WHY I AM NOT A PROUD ARMENIAN
*************************************************
In a world inhabited by proud Greeks, Yanks, Brits, Jews, Turks, and Kurds, I prefer to be a humble Armenian.
*
Greeks are proud of their ancient culture. What they fail to mention or explain is why they squandered their priceless heritage to the point that they are now one of the poorest and most backward nations in Europe.
Jews are proud of being the Chosen People. But the truly great and progressive Jews, among them Spinoza, Marx, Freud, and Einstein dismissed all such claims as infantile illusions. And when Jesus taught us the Lord's Prayer that begins with the words “Our Father,” he meant that all men are brothers.
*
Pride is for people who lack self-esteem. He who has self-esteem does not feel the need to make himself ridiculous by bragging about who he is.
*
Another reason why I prefer to identify myself as a humble Armenian is the proud Armenian who wears his prejudices, ignorance, and arrogance as badges of merit and views criticism and dissent, and by extension, free speech and fundamental human rights, as unpatriotic. Such an Armenian ignores the fact that the function of literature, from Socrates to Sartre, and from Khorenatsi to Zarian, is self-criticism. Take away criticism from Western culture, and the West becomes an extension of Asia.
#
Monday, June 16, 2008
*****************************************
SUMMING UP
******************************
We cannot trust the solution to our problems into the hands of our dividers. That would be like trust the flock to wolves in sheep's clothing.
*
Turks are not our greatest problem because nations are not killed, they commit suicide.
*
If you are a proud Armenian stay away from Armenian affairs. If you make the mistake of getting involved, you will be tarred, feathered, and dragged through the mud. And if you think the solution to this particular problem is being a humble Armenian, forget it. I have been both and I speak from experience. No matter to who and what you are, if you are honest and mean business, the philistines and commissars will get you and you will curse the day you were born.
*
A bad Armenian can be worse than the worst Turk.
*
Our propensity to create problems far outstrips our ability to solve them.
*
I am fully aware of the fact that discussing our problems may exacerbate them, but it is a temptation I cannot resist. May I also confess that exposing baloney artists is one of the very few pleasures that happen to be within my income bracket.
*
No one can be as dumb as an Armenian impressed with his own brilliance.
#
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
*****************************************
OBSERVATIONS
*******************************
To the dupe, reality is not what he sees or experiences but what he is told, especially when what he is told is carefully tailored to flatter his ego.
*
Better a deprogrammed enemy than a brainwashed friend.
*
In an environment where speechifiers and sermonizers are amply compensated, critics will be seen as nuisances and enemies. The result will be a community swimming in b.s.
*
The certainties of my youth are my greatest sources of embarrassment. I shiver and burn whenever I think of them.
*
It's no use pretending to know better because no one knows everything and we will never know the truth. The best we can hope to do is expose the transparent lies of vested interests and propaganda.
*
The world is a dangerous place where people speak in the name of peace and make war, where they speak in the name of God and do the Devil's work, and where millions of dupes are eager to kill and die in the name of a Big Lie.
#
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
*****************************************
A ROUTINE EXPERIENCE
*******************************************
It might as well be a routine experience with me: readers who assume not only to be better but to know better, and based on that self-serving assumption, they proceed to deliver lectures on patriotism, the kind of nonsense I was exposed to when I was ten. They remind me of our heroic revolutionaries at the turn of the last century who were so sure of their final and inevitable victory that they had a Plan B only for themselves. And like all losers throughout history, they now blame their catastrophic blunder on everyone else but themselves. I once heard one of these revolutionaries (may the Good Lord have mercy on his soul) say, “The chezok [neutral or non-partisan] Armenian is the source of all our problems because he refuses to get involved in Armenian affairs. He is neither hot nor cold. He is nothing.” When Hitler lost World War II and shortly before he had the decency to commit suicide, he put the blame on his fellow Germans, the very same people he had classified as belonging to a superior race. Nothing evil ever dies. Hitler may be dead but his racist ideas continue to live in neo-Nazi skinheads, Putin's ultranationlist Stalinists, and Italy's neo-fascists. I could add our own first-nation-this and first-nation-that propagandists and dime-a-dozen Turcocentric ghazetajis who believe they will usher in a new golden age on the day they corner the Turks into assuming full responsibility for the Genocide, to apologize, and to make financial and territorial reparations. In the meantime they go about pretending there is nothing wrong with us and we are beyond criticism because God and Truth are on our side. It is not that I don't believe what they say, I don't think they believe it themselves.
#
Saturday, June 14, 2008
one-liners
Thursday, June 12, 2008
*************************************
PERVERSIONS
********************************
From subservience to the mighty Sultan to the worship of the Almighty dollar: some may see progress here, but all I see is a movement from Ottoman barbarism to Yankee moronism.
*
The first and most important lesson a patriotic Armenian learns is how to piss on fellow Armenians in the name of patriotism. One reason why I loathe patriots and patriotism, nations and nationalism, empires and imperialism, hooligans and hooliganism, and in general anyone who is willing to massacre innocent civilians simply because he is ordered to.
*
“I may agree with you as a human being, but I cannot agree with you as a nationalist,” a reader writes. This perversion of values might as well be a reliable definition of fascism.
*
Let our Turcocentric ghazetajis speak of Armenians as victims of Turks. I prefer to speak of Armenians as victims of Armenians.
*
In his recently published White House memoirs, Scott McClellan writes, the Bush administration manipulates consent by means of “shades of truth, partial truths, twisting of the truth and spin.” This is news only to the nave, the innocent, the dupes, and the superpatriot.
#
Friday, June 13, 2008
*******************************************
ON JUSTICE
***********************************
When asked, “Recompense injury with kindness. What do you think of that?” Confucius is said to have replied: “With what then will you recompense kindness? Injury must be recompensed with justice, kindness with kindness.”
That makes sense, of course, but what if the injury is inflicted within an unjust social order? What could be more absurd than to speak of justice in a totalitarian or corrupt state?
*
Confucius on the superior man:
“He acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.”
It follows: Never trust a man who suffers from chronic verbal diarrhea, namely, sermonizers, speechifiers, and anyone else who is in the business of recycling their verbal trash.
*
Our history, as it has come down to us, is less reality and more fantasy; it is, as a matter of fact, a conspiracy of dunces and dupes.
*
Corrupt democracies and authoritarian states have identical goals, namely, to manufacture consent by misleading and moronizing the masses. This may explain why, with very minor exceptions, Turks and Armenians are in complete agreement on their own version of the past.
*
It is the easiest thing in the world to fool those who are willing to be fooled.
*
Anti-Semites do not consider anti-Semitism a prejudice because they don't hate Jews; they just think Jews are hateful. Something similar could be said of them and us. It's astonishing the word-games people play to appear better than they are in their own eyes.
#
Saturday, June 14, 2008
***************************************
ONE-LINERS
*************************
In our context, financial success and moral failure might as well be synonymous.
*
A routine occurrence among us: the brainwashed trying to convince the deprogrammed.
*
Instead of bragging about what we know, we should be mortified by what we don't know.
*
I could never write a mystery story because I would reveal the contents of the last page on page one. “Cut the crap” is one of my favorite mottoes.
*
Turning the other cheek? That's easy. To stop wanting to murder the bastard. That's different.
*
You can't educate brainwashed hoodlums who are out to educate you.
*
If your answer raises two more questions, you are on the right path.
*
The ambition of every smart intellectual today is to be the secretary of a national benefactor. That's where the money is.
*
In a authoritarian environment the brainwashed are always better organized than the deprogrammed.
#
*************************************
PERVERSIONS
********************************
From subservience to the mighty Sultan to the worship of the Almighty dollar: some may see progress here, but all I see is a movement from Ottoman barbarism to Yankee moronism.
*
The first and most important lesson a patriotic Armenian learns is how to piss on fellow Armenians in the name of patriotism. One reason why I loathe patriots and patriotism, nations and nationalism, empires and imperialism, hooligans and hooliganism, and in general anyone who is willing to massacre innocent civilians simply because he is ordered to.
*
“I may agree with you as a human being, but I cannot agree with you as a nationalist,” a reader writes. This perversion of values might as well be a reliable definition of fascism.
*
Let our Turcocentric ghazetajis speak of Armenians as victims of Turks. I prefer to speak of Armenians as victims of Armenians.
*
In his recently published White House memoirs, Scott McClellan writes, the Bush administration manipulates consent by means of “shades of truth, partial truths, twisting of the truth and spin.” This is news only to the nave, the innocent, the dupes, and the superpatriot.
#
Friday, June 13, 2008
*******************************************
ON JUSTICE
***********************************
When asked, “Recompense injury with kindness. What do you think of that?” Confucius is said to have replied: “With what then will you recompense kindness? Injury must be recompensed with justice, kindness with kindness.”
That makes sense, of course, but what if the injury is inflicted within an unjust social order? What could be more absurd than to speak of justice in a totalitarian or corrupt state?
*
Confucius on the superior man:
“He acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.”
It follows: Never trust a man who suffers from chronic verbal diarrhea, namely, sermonizers, speechifiers, and anyone else who is in the business of recycling their verbal trash.
*
Our history, as it has come down to us, is less reality and more fantasy; it is, as a matter of fact, a conspiracy of dunces and dupes.
*
Corrupt democracies and authoritarian states have identical goals, namely, to manufacture consent by misleading and moronizing the masses. This may explain why, with very minor exceptions, Turks and Armenians are in complete agreement on their own version of the past.
*
It is the easiest thing in the world to fool those who are willing to be fooled.
*
Anti-Semites do not consider anti-Semitism a prejudice because they don't hate Jews; they just think Jews are hateful. Something similar could be said of them and us. It's astonishing the word-games people play to appear better than they are in their own eyes.
#
Saturday, June 14, 2008
***************************************
ONE-LINERS
*************************
In our context, financial success and moral failure might as well be synonymous.
*
A routine occurrence among us: the brainwashed trying to convince the deprogrammed.
*
Instead of bragging about what we know, we should be mortified by what we don't know.
*
I could never write a mystery story because I would reveal the contents of the last page on page one. “Cut the crap” is one of my favorite mottoes.
*
Turning the other cheek? That's easy. To stop wanting to murder the bastard. That's different.
*
You can't educate brainwashed hoodlums who are out to educate you.
*
If your answer raises two more questions, you are on the right path.
*
The ambition of every smart intellectual today is to be the secretary of a national benefactor. That's where the money is.
*
In a authoritarian environment the brainwashed are always better organized than the deprogrammed.
#
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
meditations
Sunday, June 8, 2008
****************************************
A HOUSE DIVIDED
***********************************
The sanctimonious patriotic prick who asserts moral and intellectual superiority is a far greater threat to our survival as a nation than all our enemies combined. This type of individual discusses our problems as if he were the first to do so. That's because he has neither interest nor respect for what has been achieved in the past by far better men than himself. His sole aim in life is to project the image of an individual endowed with unique powers of perception and to silence anyone who dares to question his judgment and integrity. In short, he is that most repellent of all creatures: an Armenian with political ambitions.
*
If a problem that has been solved is no longer a problem, it follows we have no problems. What we have instead is a long line of so-called leaders who have consistently obstructed the path of those willing to implement solutions.
*
The more a nation is in need of intellectual and moral guidance, the more intolerant it gets. The Soviet Union under Stalin, Germany under Hitler, China under Mao, Italy under Mussolini, Armenia and the Armenian diaspora today.
*
If you want to understand your fellow men, begin by asking yourself: “What if, instead of being better or the best, I am the worst?” Naregatsi's LAMENTATIONS may be said to be a long-winded but honest answer to this question, and in that sense it is the most unread and misunderstood masterpiece in our literature.
#
Monday, June 9, 2008
*************************************************
TRYING TO MAKE SENSE
**************************************
If there is someone out there who has the solution to all our problems but refuses to share it with the rest of us, it may be because he doesn't relish the idea of being crucified.
*
Collectively we are hidebound and ignorant – all dogmatic people are. There is indeed some truth in the popular adage “People have the leadership they deserve.”
*
When a capitalist explains reality or God, he makes sure his explanation will not harm his capital. The same applies to a boss with an ideology and a bishop with an orthodoxy.
*
After dividing mankind into them and us, a nationalist, or anyone who subscribes to a belief system, will proceed to divide “us” into yes-men and dissidents as free speech goes down the drain.
*
If you make sense, don't expect to be understood by fools.
#
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
*****************************************
AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
************************************************
Warning: Do not read what follows, it may cause irreparable damage to your ego.
*
“I didn't know that!” is not argument but an admission of ignorance. Which raises a number of questions: Why is it that we are more eager to contradict than to learn? Why is it that some central facts about our power structures and establishment figures have been kept from us? Who profits by our ignorance?
*
To solve our problems? Nothing could be further from my thoughts. If we have consistently ignored, sometimes even rejected, all solutions, including those that have come down to us from heaven, what are the chances that we will even bother to consider the solutions provided by a marginal scribbler who may well be an enemy of the people?
*
Who is an enemy of the people? Anyone who refuses to kiss the fat ass of a megalomaniacal nonentity with political ambitions.
*
It is not always easy to tell which part of a yes is prompted by subservience or inability to think for oneself and which by consent.
#
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
*********************************
Some of the most venomous e-mails I receive are from Armenians who tell me I should be more positive.
*
All subservient people harbor deep inside somewhere an imperialist ego.
*
The two most important ideas of all politically ambitious charlatans may be summarized as (one) You are either with me; (two) or against me.
*
What is the difference between a fascist head of state who silences intellectuals and a sanctimonious prick who ignores them?
*
A useful no can be more fruitful than a useless yes.
*
I write one-liners because I don't particularly care for the sound of my own voice.
*
The misunderstood, neglected, and impecunious writers is a cliché and I have such a horror of clichés that I prefer to identify myself as an unemployed and unemployable misfit.
#
****************************************
A HOUSE DIVIDED
***********************************
The sanctimonious patriotic prick who asserts moral and intellectual superiority is a far greater threat to our survival as a nation than all our enemies combined. This type of individual discusses our problems as if he were the first to do so. That's because he has neither interest nor respect for what has been achieved in the past by far better men than himself. His sole aim in life is to project the image of an individual endowed with unique powers of perception and to silence anyone who dares to question his judgment and integrity. In short, he is that most repellent of all creatures: an Armenian with political ambitions.
*
If a problem that has been solved is no longer a problem, it follows we have no problems. What we have instead is a long line of so-called leaders who have consistently obstructed the path of those willing to implement solutions.
*
The more a nation is in need of intellectual and moral guidance, the more intolerant it gets. The Soviet Union under Stalin, Germany under Hitler, China under Mao, Italy under Mussolini, Armenia and the Armenian diaspora today.
*
If you want to understand your fellow men, begin by asking yourself: “What if, instead of being better or the best, I am the worst?” Naregatsi's LAMENTATIONS may be said to be a long-winded but honest answer to this question, and in that sense it is the most unread and misunderstood masterpiece in our literature.
#
Monday, June 9, 2008
*************************************************
TRYING TO MAKE SENSE
**************************************
If there is someone out there who has the solution to all our problems but refuses to share it with the rest of us, it may be because he doesn't relish the idea of being crucified.
*
Collectively we are hidebound and ignorant – all dogmatic people are. There is indeed some truth in the popular adage “People have the leadership they deserve.”
*
When a capitalist explains reality or God, he makes sure his explanation will not harm his capital. The same applies to a boss with an ideology and a bishop with an orthodoxy.
*
After dividing mankind into them and us, a nationalist, or anyone who subscribes to a belief system, will proceed to divide “us” into yes-men and dissidents as free speech goes down the drain.
*
If you make sense, don't expect to be understood by fools.
#
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
*****************************************
AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
************************************************
Warning: Do not read what follows, it may cause irreparable damage to your ego.
*
“I didn't know that!” is not argument but an admission of ignorance. Which raises a number of questions: Why is it that we are more eager to contradict than to learn? Why is it that some central facts about our power structures and establishment figures have been kept from us? Who profits by our ignorance?
*
To solve our problems? Nothing could be further from my thoughts. If we have consistently ignored, sometimes even rejected, all solutions, including those that have come down to us from heaven, what are the chances that we will even bother to consider the solutions provided by a marginal scribbler who may well be an enemy of the people?
*
Who is an enemy of the people? Anyone who refuses to kiss the fat ass of a megalomaniacal nonentity with political ambitions.
*
It is not always easy to tell which part of a yes is prompted by subservience or inability to think for oneself and which by consent.
#
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
*********************************
Some of the most venomous e-mails I receive are from Armenians who tell me I should be more positive.
*
All subservient people harbor deep inside somewhere an imperialist ego.
*
The two most important ideas of all politically ambitious charlatans may be summarized as (one) You are either with me; (two) or against me.
*
What is the difference between a fascist head of state who silences intellectuals and a sanctimonious prick who ignores them?
*
A useful no can be more fruitful than a useless yes.
*
I write one-liners because I don't particularly care for the sound of my own voice.
*
The misunderstood, neglected, and impecunious writers is a cliché and I have such a horror of clichés that I prefer to identify myself as an unemployed and unemployable misfit.
#
Saturday, June 7, 2008
comments
Thursday,June 5, 2008
*****************************************
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FASCISTS
**********************************************
In his memoirs, Elia Kazan writes that ordinary Turkish citizens don't just shake the hand of a political leader, they go down on their knees and kiss it. Our political leaders are different. They prefer to have another part of their anatomy kissed.
*
I have yet to meet an Armenian with political ambitions was not a fascist.
*
As a long-time observer of the Armenian scene, I can recognize a fascist by the fact that he doesn't just criticize, analyze, attack, or insult anyone who dares to disagree with him, he goes further. He adopts the role of commissar and issues guidelines.
*
Hitler was proud of German culture. So are we of ours. Even Armenians who know little or nothing and care even less about culture, like to brag about it.
*
The best argument for an Armeno-Turkish alliance is that most Turks are not Turks, neither are most Armenians Armenians. The only thing that separates them is an incompatible educational system – that is to say, two different sets of brainwashers.
*
An Armenian who hates Turks and a Turk who hates Armenians: take away the direction of their hatred and they might as well be two interchangeable units. I speak from experience. I have received hate-mail from both and I see no difference between them.
*
Fascists excel in solving problems, even if in the process they create many more.
#
June 6, 2008
************************************
A QUESTION OF EMPHASIS
***************************************************
I should like to read an autobiography in which the emphasis is on prejudices, blind spots, and defects. I should also like to read a nationalist historian who stresses not military victories but moral failures. Sartre's autobiography comes close to my ideal. So does Spengler's treatment of the West in his DECLINE OF THE WEST, and Toynbee's treatment of British history in his STUDY OF HISTORY.
*
What propels us to greater knowledge is awareness of ignorance. Some of the most asinine opinions I have been exposed to issued from the mouths of individuals who believed they knew everything they needed to know.
*
To emphasize the negative: that is to me the true meaning of patriotism. All our pseudo-patriots want flattery – first nation this, first nation that – and the more they brag, the more of their backside they expose, and they lack the decency and common sense to see this.
#
Saturday, June 7, 2008
***************************************
LITERATURE
************************************************
When our bishops, bosses, and benefactors (or rather, their flunkies) get involved in literature, they do so not to promote it, but to control it. A bishop once asked me to prepare an anthology of Armenian literature. “We have the money,” he said, using the royal pronoun. When I asked if I would have complete freedom of selection, I never heard from him again. In his obituary I read that he had subsidized the publication of over fifty books. “They” had the money, all right.
*
Whenever I am verbally abused by one of our ubiquitous hooligans parading as superpatriots, my first thought: “He must be a bishop or the son of one.”
*
I once asked one of our Turcocentric ghazetajis if he had read a single Armenian writer, he said he hadn't and he seemed proud of the fact.
*
Our Turcocentric ghazetajis have their counterparts among the Turks who blame everything on the degenerate and corrupt West and on Armenian criminal conduct, and whenever a Turkish intellectual dares to think for himself, he is imprisoned or forced into exile. If I am not the inmate of a gulag today it's because we don't have gulags in the diaspora.
#
*****************************************
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FASCISTS
**********************************************
In his memoirs, Elia Kazan writes that ordinary Turkish citizens don't just shake the hand of a political leader, they go down on their knees and kiss it. Our political leaders are different. They prefer to have another part of their anatomy kissed.
*
I have yet to meet an Armenian with political ambitions was not a fascist.
*
As a long-time observer of the Armenian scene, I can recognize a fascist by the fact that he doesn't just criticize, analyze, attack, or insult anyone who dares to disagree with him, he goes further. He adopts the role of commissar and issues guidelines.
*
Hitler was proud of German culture. So are we of ours. Even Armenians who know little or nothing and care even less about culture, like to brag about it.
*
The best argument for an Armeno-Turkish alliance is that most Turks are not Turks, neither are most Armenians Armenians. The only thing that separates them is an incompatible educational system – that is to say, two different sets of brainwashers.
*
An Armenian who hates Turks and a Turk who hates Armenians: take away the direction of their hatred and they might as well be two interchangeable units. I speak from experience. I have received hate-mail from both and I see no difference between them.
*
Fascists excel in solving problems, even if in the process they create many more.
#
June 6, 2008
************************************
A QUESTION OF EMPHASIS
***************************************************
I should like to read an autobiography in which the emphasis is on prejudices, blind spots, and defects. I should also like to read a nationalist historian who stresses not military victories but moral failures. Sartre's autobiography comes close to my ideal. So does Spengler's treatment of the West in his DECLINE OF THE WEST, and Toynbee's treatment of British history in his STUDY OF HISTORY.
*
What propels us to greater knowledge is awareness of ignorance. Some of the most asinine opinions I have been exposed to issued from the mouths of individuals who believed they knew everything they needed to know.
*
To emphasize the negative: that is to me the true meaning of patriotism. All our pseudo-patriots want flattery – first nation this, first nation that – and the more they brag, the more of their backside they expose, and they lack the decency and common sense to see this.
#
Saturday, June 7, 2008
***************************************
LITERATURE
************************************************
When our bishops, bosses, and benefactors (or rather, their flunkies) get involved in literature, they do so not to promote it, but to control it. A bishop once asked me to prepare an anthology of Armenian literature. “We have the money,” he said, using the royal pronoun. When I asked if I would have complete freedom of selection, I never heard from him again. In his obituary I read that he had subsidized the publication of over fifty books. “They” had the money, all right.
*
Whenever I am verbally abused by one of our ubiquitous hooligans parading as superpatriots, my first thought: “He must be a bishop or the son of one.”
*
I once asked one of our Turcocentric ghazetajis if he had read a single Armenian writer, he said he hadn't and he seemed proud of the fact.
*
Our Turcocentric ghazetajis have their counterparts among the Turks who blame everything on the degenerate and corrupt West and on Armenian criminal conduct, and whenever a Turkish intellectual dares to think for himself, he is imprisoned or forced into exile. If I am not the inmate of a gulag today it's because we don't have gulags in the diaspora.
#
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
kemalism
Sunday, June 1, 2008
*********************************************
ON CHURCH UNITY
********************************
Whenever we speak of solidarity and church unity, we should consider the possibility that we may end up with an ayatollah rather than a pope in Etchmiadzin. But even if we are lucky enough to end up with a pope (a remote possibility that one) let's consider the contributions of the papacy to the world and more particularly to Italy: obscurantism (hence the Dark Ages) dogmatism, intolerance, the persecution of dissidents and heretics, crusades, religious wars (one of which lasted a hundred years) and more recently collaboration with fascist regimes and the mafia. I could also mention fornicating Renaissance popes and American cardinals who covered up and thus aided and abetted child molesting priests. All this assuming of course our church will act in complete freedom, as opposed to being subservient to the king, sultan, and more recently to the KGB (Etchmiadzin) and the CIA (Antelias).
If you think I speak as a hostile witness, listen to Raffi: “Instead of an elite or an aristocracy, we have merchants and clergymen. Merchants are trash. As for the clergy: they have always been against individual freedom.” Elsewhere: “Our clergymen preach patience to us thus promoting subservience to the point of slavery.” But “What's done is done. What we must do now is assess the damage and figure out how to avoid the next catastrophe.”
The next catastrophe, which is also a present catastrophe, is emigration from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora, both of which amount to “white slaughter.” And what are our merchants and clergymen doing to combat this scandal? Preaching and promoting “law and order,” that is to say, subservience to authority. The more things change...
*
A final word on solidarity: one must differentiate between the solidarity of a nation that is brainwashed by a supreme leader who may be more dangerous and evil than a serial killer, and the kind of solidarity that unites a nation with a common identity, culture, and purpose. I suggest it is a serious blunder to place our hopes of solidarity on a leader, party, clique, or mafia.
#
June 2, 2008
******************************************
ABOUT KEMALISM (PART TWO)
****************************************************
Kemal continues to be a taboo subject in Turkey. To say anything remotely critical of him is “to offend Turkishness.” which may result in being dragged to court like a common criminal. But since neither Giles Milton, author of PARADISE LOST; SMYRNA 1922 (London, 2008, 426 pages) nor his reviewer, Philip Mansel, author of one of the very best books on Constantinople, are Turkish citizens, they discuss freely and objectively the events surrounding the destruction of Smyrna.
About the so-called mysterious fire, Mansel writes: “Milton quotes eye-witnesses who saw Turkish soldiers pouring oil.”
About Kemal we read: while the burning, looting, raping, and killing were going on, Mustafa Kemal spent days up in a villa courting his future wife Latife Hanim, daughter of one of the many Turkish businessmen who had profited from 'infidel Izmir.'” We are further told that thousands of Greek and Armenian men of military age were deported into the interior “in theory to rebuild villages destroyed by the retreating Greek army: few returned.”
Mansel concludes his review by echoing the very same sentiments I voiced in my recent essay “About Kemalism.” He writes: “Kemal shows that, if nothing succeeds like success, it can also be true that nothing fails like success...If Izmir had retained even a fraction of its cosmopolitan population, it might have helped Turkey's entry into the European Union.” For more details, see THE SPECTATOR (London, 10 May 2008, page 40); or www.spectator.co.uk
#
JUNE 3,1908
****************************************
UNITY (PART III)
*******************************
Dan Rather: “Our elected leaders will sometimes deceive us, and a free press that does not try to ferret out the truth is not worthy of the name.”
*
W.G. Sebald (German writer): “How I wished that I belonged to a different nation.”
*
“You quote too much,” Vahe Oshagan told me when we first met. If I do, it may be because we either learn from wiser men or allow ourselves to be brainwashed by fools. This may seem to be a simple enough choice. And yet, throughout history, people have invariably allowed themselves to be manipulated by charlatans.
*
Armenians are hard to reform perhaps because every Armenian is convinced he is smart enough to know what's best for himself and the nation.
*
What have the Jews learned from their holocaust? Never again! As for us, the only thing we seem to have learned is that Turks are bloodthirsty Asiatic barbarians. Result? Our pundits are now too busy trying to educate, civilize, and enlighten the Turks to have any time left to reform themselves, their fellow Armenians, and their gravediggers. Am I saying Armenians are fools? No. what I am saying is that they are worse than fools because they allow themselves to be deceived by idiots. Am I being negative? If I am, it may be because I lack the wisdom and forbearance to be positive or to see anything remotely positive in our present situation.
*
When Vahe Oshagan's last collection of short stories was universally condemned as obscene, he was quoted as having said: “I am ashamed to be an Armenian.”
#
June 4, 2008
*******************************************
ON COLLECTIVE INFANTILISM
***************************************************
Because I no longer think as I thought when I was ten, I am seen as a hostile witness.
*
If we view our dividers as our leaders as opposed to our gravediggers, it may be because we are afraid to call a spade a spade, and because I refuse to call a spade anything else, I am accused of unArmenian activities.
*
To convince the average Armenian dupe that our bosses, bishops, and benefactors are frauds and charlatans is as difficult today as to convince the average Turk that Kemalism (i.e. dogmatism, paternalism, authoritarianism) is inimical to true democracy and respect for fundamental human rights, and as such closer to fascism and barbarism than to civilization.
*
We share this in common with Turks: we can't recognize fascism when we see it, especially when it wears a benevolent mask.
*
To ask what's positive about our history is the same as asking what's positive about subservience; and subservience, according to Zohrab, corrupts even our virtues.
*
What's positive about our history? Dikran the Great and his ephemeral empire? Dikran the Great was a loud-mouth and undisciplined coward who ran away from a small Roman legion whom he first mistook as ambassadors.
*
There is nothing wrong with our critical faculties. If anything they are highly developed, but they are directed only at the world. Incapable to reforming ourselves, we are eager to undertake an easier project, that of reforming the world, most of which isn't even aware of our existence.
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ON CHURCH UNITY
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Whenever we speak of solidarity and church unity, we should consider the possibility that we may end up with an ayatollah rather than a pope in Etchmiadzin. But even if we are lucky enough to end up with a pope (a remote possibility that one) let's consider the contributions of the papacy to the world and more particularly to Italy: obscurantism (hence the Dark Ages) dogmatism, intolerance, the persecution of dissidents and heretics, crusades, religious wars (one of which lasted a hundred years) and more recently collaboration with fascist regimes and the mafia. I could also mention fornicating Renaissance popes and American cardinals who covered up and thus aided and abetted child molesting priests. All this assuming of course our church will act in complete freedom, as opposed to being subservient to the king, sultan, and more recently to the KGB (Etchmiadzin) and the CIA (Antelias).
If you think I speak as a hostile witness, listen to Raffi: “Instead of an elite or an aristocracy, we have merchants and clergymen. Merchants are trash. As for the clergy: they have always been against individual freedom.” Elsewhere: “Our clergymen preach patience to us thus promoting subservience to the point of slavery.” But “What's done is done. What we must do now is assess the damage and figure out how to avoid the next catastrophe.”
The next catastrophe, which is also a present catastrophe, is emigration from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora, both of which amount to “white slaughter.” And what are our merchants and clergymen doing to combat this scandal? Preaching and promoting “law and order,” that is to say, subservience to authority. The more things change...
*
A final word on solidarity: one must differentiate between the solidarity of a nation that is brainwashed by a supreme leader who may be more dangerous and evil than a serial killer, and the kind of solidarity that unites a nation with a common identity, culture, and purpose. I suggest it is a serious blunder to place our hopes of solidarity on a leader, party, clique, or mafia.
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June 2, 2008
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ABOUT KEMALISM (PART TWO)
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Kemal continues to be a taboo subject in Turkey. To say anything remotely critical of him is “to offend Turkishness.” which may result in being dragged to court like a common criminal. But since neither Giles Milton, author of PARADISE LOST; SMYRNA 1922 (London, 2008, 426 pages) nor his reviewer, Philip Mansel, author of one of the very best books on Constantinople, are Turkish citizens, they discuss freely and objectively the events surrounding the destruction of Smyrna.
About the so-called mysterious fire, Mansel writes: “Milton quotes eye-witnesses who saw Turkish soldiers pouring oil.”
About Kemal we read: while the burning, looting, raping, and killing were going on, Mustafa Kemal spent days up in a villa courting his future wife Latife Hanim, daughter of one of the many Turkish businessmen who had profited from 'infidel Izmir.'” We are further told that thousands of Greek and Armenian men of military age were deported into the interior “in theory to rebuild villages destroyed by the retreating Greek army: few returned.”
Mansel concludes his review by echoing the very same sentiments I voiced in my recent essay “About Kemalism.” He writes: “Kemal shows that, if nothing succeeds like success, it can also be true that nothing fails like success...If Izmir had retained even a fraction of its cosmopolitan population, it might have helped Turkey's entry into the European Union.” For more details, see THE SPECTATOR (London, 10 May 2008, page 40); or www.spectator.co.uk
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JUNE 3,1908
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UNITY (PART III)
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Dan Rather: “Our elected leaders will sometimes deceive us, and a free press that does not try to ferret out the truth is not worthy of the name.”
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W.G. Sebald (German writer): “How I wished that I belonged to a different nation.”
*
“You quote too much,” Vahe Oshagan told me when we first met. If I do, it may be because we either learn from wiser men or allow ourselves to be brainwashed by fools. This may seem to be a simple enough choice. And yet, throughout history, people have invariably allowed themselves to be manipulated by charlatans.
*
Armenians are hard to reform perhaps because every Armenian is convinced he is smart enough to know what's best for himself and the nation.
*
What have the Jews learned from their holocaust? Never again! As for us, the only thing we seem to have learned is that Turks are bloodthirsty Asiatic barbarians. Result? Our pundits are now too busy trying to educate, civilize, and enlighten the Turks to have any time left to reform themselves, their fellow Armenians, and their gravediggers. Am I saying Armenians are fools? No. what I am saying is that they are worse than fools because they allow themselves to be deceived by idiots. Am I being negative? If I am, it may be because I lack the wisdom and forbearance to be positive or to see anything remotely positive in our present situation.
*
When Vahe Oshagan's last collection of short stories was universally condemned as obscene, he was quoted as having said: “I am ashamed to be an Armenian.”
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June 4, 2008
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ON COLLECTIVE INFANTILISM
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Because I no longer think as I thought when I was ten, I am seen as a hostile witness.
*
If we view our dividers as our leaders as opposed to our gravediggers, it may be because we are afraid to call a spade a spade, and because I refuse to call a spade anything else, I am accused of unArmenian activities.
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To convince the average Armenian dupe that our bosses, bishops, and benefactors are frauds and charlatans is as difficult today as to convince the average Turk that Kemalism (i.e. dogmatism, paternalism, authoritarianism) is inimical to true democracy and respect for fundamental human rights, and as such closer to fascism and barbarism than to civilization.
*
We share this in common with Turks: we can't recognize fascism when we see it, especially when it wears a benevolent mask.
*
To ask what's positive about our history is the same as asking what's positive about subservience; and subservience, according to Zohrab, corrupts even our virtues.
*
What's positive about our history? Dikran the Great and his ephemeral empire? Dikran the Great was a loud-mouth and undisciplined coward who ran away from a small Roman legion whom he first mistook as ambassadors.
*
There is nothing wrong with our critical faculties. If anything they are highly developed, but they are directed only at the world. Incapable to reforming ourselves, we are eager to undertake an easier project, that of reforming the world, most of which isn't even aware of our existence.
#
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