idiots

Thursday, August 20, 2009
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USEFUL IDIOTS
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Hegel is right. Those in power will never give it up without a bloody fight.
My critics call me anti-Armenian and pro-Turkish.
They say I am damaged goods in need of psychiatric care.
They say I collect everything negative that has ever been said about us and I quote out of context.
They say my knowledge of history, unlike theirs, is one-sided and defective, my judgment untrustworthy, and my sense of fairness perverted.
And now, consider what's happening in America today.
They go to town-hall meetings armed with guns.
They call Obama a Nazi.
If Obama is a Nazi, so were FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton, because all of them were for comprehensive and universal health care.
If being critical of the status quo were pro-Turkish, then all of our writers, from Khorenatsi and Yeghishé to Zohrab and Zarian were pro-Turkish. Which is not just wrong but absurd in view of the fact that both Khorenatsi and Yeghishé (5th century) lived and wrote at a time when Turks had not yet appeared on the horizon.
To paraphrase Lenin, a dupe is a dupe, and a useful idiot is a useful idiot regardless of nationality. The average Armenian, very much like the average American, is brainwashed to believe he knows all he needs to know and armed with that conviction and with the blessings of his “betters” (which in our case, are no better than wheeler-dealers, and in the case of Americans, private insurance companies, all 1300 of them, each with its own chief executive officer and fat annual bonus) demonize the opposition, sling mud hoping some of it will stick, and entertain the illusion that since this tactic has worked in the past, it may work again.
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Friday, August 21, 2009
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TALAAT & CO.
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There is only one victim mentioned in the entry on Talaat Pasha (spelled Talat Pasa) in the ENCYCLPAEDIA BRITANNICA (1979 edition): himself; and only one Armenian, his assassin.
Please note that, entries in reputable reference works like the BRITANNICA are, as a rule, penned not by nationalist historians with an ax to grind but by so-called objective, impartial, and internationally respected scholars.
As for our great revolutionary heroes: as far as I know, none of them is accorded an entry or even a single line in the BRITANNICA.
Moral: Don't believe everything you read, especially when the subject is politicians and their place in history.
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All talk of good and evil in a political context is relative and dependent on whose ox is being gored. Who could be more evil than an honest politician (assuming of course he exists) who leads the nation to war, defeat, and genocide?
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We like to speak of Lincoln and FDR as shining examples of great statesmen. But in the eyes of millions of Americans Lincoln is no better than Talaat, FDR might as well be a brother to Stalin, and Obama another Hitler.
At one time or another even Nobel Prize winners like Hamsun, Shaw, Churchill, Sartre, and Malraux were taken in by the likes of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Mao.
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Sometimes knowing only one side of the story is worse than knowing nothing if only because total ignorance may lead to curiosity, and partial knowledge may lead to prejudice, hatred, war, and massacre.
In this context it is safe to assume that the brainwashed outnumber the objective, impartial, and honest a thousand to one (assuming he exists).
I am reminded of Hegel's famous last words: “No one understood me except one, and even he didn't understand me.”
But according to Schopenhauer, Hegel was one of the greatest charlatans that ever crawled between heaven and earth.
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Whenever there is any talk of good and evil in human affairs, I am reminded of the African chieftain as quoted by C.G. Jung: “When I steal my enemy's wives, it's good. When he steals mine, it's bad.”
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General Antranik is known to Azeris as an “ethnic cleanser” or their Talaat. Propaganda? Not quite. A Tashnak leader once confided to me: “We had to get rid of him (General Antranik) because he went on a rampage massacring indiscriminately defenseless women and children.”
The same General Antranik once stated: “I am not a nationalist. I am on the side of the oppressed regardless of nationality.”
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Whom can we trust?
My answer: Keep an open mind and trust no one, especially someone with an ax to grind, a score to settle, and a blunder to cover up.
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Saturday, August 22, 2009
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NOTES & COMMENTS
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The perpetrators of the Genocide saw all Armenians as their mortal enemies. We make the same mistake when we see all Turks the same way.
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“No one understands Turks as well as we do,” bragged Oshagan. What he didn't say is what exactly did he do with his superior brand of understanding.
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What matters is not what we know but what we do with our knowledge -- beside dropping our pants and bending over – if you will forgive my French.
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It is because we don't understand our enemies that we don't understand one another; and because we don't understand one another we view dissent as treason. Every failing or transgression has its own inbuilt punishment.
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I cherish my mediocrity if only because I owe my continued existence to it. We all know what happens to those who dare to achieve excellence.
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Panturkism: a movement whose aim is to unite Turks of the world.
There is no corresponding Armenian movement.
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We like to speak of treaties as if they were Holy Writ carved in stone. “Treaties,” General de Gaulle has said, “are like girls and roses: they last while they last.”
And sometimes, unlike girls and roses, they don't even last.
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We recognize two ways of solving a problem:
(one) to pretend it doesn't exist, and
(two) to classify it as insoluble.
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We use the phrase “We need solutions” as synonymous with “Shut up!”
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A fanatic is one in whose Decalogue there is only one commandment: “Thou shalt hate unto death anyone who dares to disagree with the party line.”
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