elegy

Sunday, April 26, 2009
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ELEGY
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An American chief executive officer – young, handsome, healthy, fabulously wealthy – has committed suicide. One down, ninety-nine to go.
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Two American governors, Spitzer and Blogojevich, were caught red-handed. One resigned, the other impeached. But to me, the greater scandal is the fact that several of Obama's financial advisers are former Wall Street chief executive officers. If it takes one to catch one, how come no one has been caught yet? Bernie Madoff? If he is in jail today it's because he confessed. And then there are the senators who deny the reality of the Genocide not because they are convinced that to be the truth but because they are being handsomely compensated by Turkish lobbyists.
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The rich are swine. Even as I curse my fate, I thank God for making me poor.
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What is the penalty for being wrong? If nothing, anyone can say anything he wants.
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To be easily satisfied with one’s own arguments is an unmistakable symptom of advanced cretinism.
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Monday, April 27, 2009
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LIVE AND LEARN
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When it comes to learning about oneself, friends are useless, enemies more valuable.
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Repeating oneself and being consistently negative are not mortal sins; being dishonest is.
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A hundred years ago our political leaders were naïve daydreamers. Today they are – or rather they think they are – pragmatic operators. I have trouble deciding which is worse: being at the mercy of fools, or idiots who think they are smart?
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Let others speak of the American dream, we can speak only of the Armenian nightmare.
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What kind of loving Father is He that needs to be constantly reminded to “give us this day our daily bread,” after which He lets millions die of malnutrition and starvation.
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You begin to learn only after you unlearn what you have been taught. Likewise, you begin to write only after you give up all literary ambitions.
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I am grateful to readers who don't think highly of me. The temptation to believe sycophants can be overwhelming.
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When experts disagree, prejudice casts the deciding vote.
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Because the prodigal son returned, the fatted calf was butchered. Good news for the guilty son, bad news for the innocent calf. Why couldn't they have a vegetarian feast?
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
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FEEDBACK
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Do not bother reading what follows because I have said it before, and many others have said it before me.
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Some readers tell me I make them laugh. Others say I depress them. I suggest it's not me they are talking about but our reality.
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I wish I were a comedian. The ability to make people laugh at themselves I consider one of the rarest of all gifts.
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We all have our share of failings, limitations, and blind spots. In religious parlance, we are all sinners, including saints. That's Naregatsi's message, in case you are not willing to take my word for it. With one difference. Some of us pretend otherwise, and they happen to be the worst, and it's their awareness of their condition that makes them compensate by assuming a holier-than-thou stance.
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To my critics I say, criticize, if you must, the incompetence of our political leaders, the values of our merchants, the dogmas of our bishops, and the double-talk of our superpatriotic bloodsuckers. Do not shoot our critics, who like piano players in western saloons, are doing their best.
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AMERICANISMS
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“What's your racket?”
“I am not a crook.”
“Do bears shit in the forest?”
“Does the Pope speak Latin?”
And the other day in a movie:
“Does the Pope shit in the forest?”
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
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SKELETONS IN THE CUPBOARD
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FIRST NATION?
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Love our enemies?
We can't even stop hating one another.
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EITHER / OR?
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“Do you think of yourself as a success or a failure?”
Very much like the overwhelming majority of my fellow men, I think of myself as a working stiff.
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MIRACLES
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There are two kinds of miracles:
(one) useless – like walking on water; and
(two) dangerous – like promoting alcoholism by turning water into wine.
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MEMOIRS
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One reason I went into writing is that I hate working for nonentities who expect you to behave like a lesser nonentity – and all for minimum wage. I know now that writing for Armenians is no different – minus the minimum wage, of course.
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WINNERS AND LOSERS
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“Just because you are a loser, it doesn't follow so is the nation. Stop projecting!”
I think of myself as someone who speaks of reality in an environment dominated by propagandists who speak of fantasy, which allows them to see moral victory in military defeat, and a Higher Truth in a Big Lie.
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