as i see it

Thursday, February 19, 2009
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PERVERTS
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God is the Unknown and the Unknowable. Truth resides not in places we have seen but in inaccessible dimensions about which we know nothing.
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After defining military defeat as moral victory, we feel justified in identifying ourselves as perennial winners. Ah! The magic power of words and the irresistible temptation of confusing propaganda with reality.
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One man's terrorist, we are told, is another's freedom fighter. One man's believer is another's infidel. One man's hero is another's bloodthirsty barbarian. I may pretend to understand these things but I am as confused as the rest of mankind -- except of course the heroic freedom fighter who believes he is following the Guidance. Or is it the brainwashed dupe who will believe anything that flatters his loathsome little ego?
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To speak in the name of God and do the Devil's work: it takes perverted logic to reach such abysmal depths of moral degradation.
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The greater the cultural achievements of a nation, the greater its depths of moral debasement. After Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, Hitler, Goebbels, and Himmler. After Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Stalin and Beria.
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So you think I stress the negative and ignore the positive? Suppose you are hungry. You walk into a restaurant and order a big bowl of your favorite soup; and as you are about to enjoy it, you notice a fly in it. When you point that out to the waiter, he tells you 99% of your soup is fly-free. Why concentrate on the negative and ignore the positive?
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Friday, February 20, 2009
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AS I SEE IT
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To know better does not always mean to know the truth, and what's the use of knowing better if what you know is a lie?
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The lower they sink, the higher their opinion of themselves. Psychologists have a word for this abnormality: they call it compensation.
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Even people who hate doctors are glad to see them when they are in need of their help. The same does not apply to critics in an environment where everyone has somehow managed to convince himself that God is on his side, he is in good hands, and he never had it so good.
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There will always be a demand for our weeklies if only because Armenians love to see their names in print. Our editors know this and they cram in as many names in every issues as they can.
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One should never speak well of oneself – it smacks of boasting, and to boast is to confess a weakness, namely one's dependence on flattery, even if the flattery is self-administered.
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Some comedians specialize in insulting their audience, and these comedians become popular because most people would rather be insulted than ignored.
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In a letter from an Armenian poet: "After writing for Armenians all my life, I am beginning to hate Turks less."
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Most people are careful not to make the same big mistake twice. The same does not apply to small mistakes which are classified as habits.
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Saturday, February 21, 2009
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ON FORGIVENESS
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To forgive does not necessarily mean to forget. On the contrary. To forgive sometimes means to remember forever after and to wonder what the hell was it that cornered you into such an unArmenian act as forgiving a scumbag who doesn't deserve to live.
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To forgive in order to appear magnanimous or to assert moral superiority is closer to vengeance than to forgiveness.
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Forgiveness, real forgiveness, is rooted in the realization that you are not much different from your enemy and that you may even be worse.
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ON CONTROL FREAKS
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When control freaks speak of freedom, they mean their freedom, your subservience.
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SMILE
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In a convent:
“I will ask you two easy questions and a hard one. What's the name of the first man?”
“That's easy: Adam.”
“What's the name of the first woman?”
“That's easy too: Eve.”
“What did Eve say when she first saw Adam?”
“O my! That's a hard one!”
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I saw six men kicking and punching my mother-in-law. My wife said, “Aren't you going to help” I said, “No. Six should be enough.”
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