idiots

Thursday, October 1, 2009
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ON THE PRINCIPLE OF CONSISTENCY
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I don't understand why some Armenians consider the phrase “I don't understand” unArmenian.
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Whenever I agree with a writer, I feel as though one of us were redundant. Which is why I find disagreement more stimulating, provided of course it is not an expression of prejudice or oneupmanship.
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How Armenian are we when our cuisine and music share more features with contemporary Turkey than with 5th-century Armenia? I don't mention art and literature because it is extremely difficult to speak of the shadow of a black hat in a dark room.
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When two people believe God or Truth to be on their side and they contradict each other, it is safe to assume it is not God or Truth that they share but Big Lies and the Devil.
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What if God exists but wants to remain anonymous, inaccessible, and incomprehensible?
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Isn't it absurd to think that after a burst of creativity God called it quits and retired? It makes more sense to assume that He is creating other universes in other dimensions even as I write these lines? -- if, that is, the principle of consistency (“Unless something very drastic happens, tomorrow will be the same as today”) applies.
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Friday, October 2, 2009
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HOW SMART ARE WE?
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Our greatest obstacle to progress is our conviction that we are so damn smart that we can do no wrong.
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History speaks louder than propaganda, but not to the deaf.
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How smart are we if it took us 600 years to figure them out?
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Being smart and being a dupe are mutually exclusive concepts.
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No one is smart enough to tell an Armenian something he doesn't already know.
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If I were to name my greatest enemy, it would've to be unawareness of my own ignorance.
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Reading words, understanding their meaning, and placing the meaning in its historical context are three separate operations and require three different disciplines.
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An idea that is against our own interests may not be anti-Armenian in the same way that being a law-abiding citizen and saying yes to authority may not be patriotic.
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Ideas and imagination, intention and action, reality and fantasy: there are no sharp dividing lines between them. With a good lawyer one could plead not guilty, even when guilty as hell, make a good enough case to a jury of one's peers, and get away with murder.
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There is no such thing as a sterile idea, only sterile minds.
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Socrates and Christ have taught me, to say what must be said can be a capital offense.
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I can't imagine anything more unpleasant and dangerous than a mind without doubts.
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Saturday, October 3, 2009
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IDIOTS
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Christians believe their religion to be the only true one. Muslims, ditto.
Where there is unanimity, “cherchez” the Big Lie.
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We brag about being survivors. Imagine a man who survives an accident in which his entire family perishes. Would it even occur to him to brag about his survival?
We are taught to brag by idiots who expect us to see a positive needle in a haystack of negatives.
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Zabel Yessayan and Gostan Zarian survived the Turk's yataghan but fell victim to Armenian idiots – the very same idiots who expect us to believe we never had it so good because we are in the best of hands.
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The aim of propaganda is to moronize the masses by convincing them not to think for themselves because leaders are the brains of the nation, which amounts to saying the people are brainless.
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The French say “Cherchez la femme,” to point out the fact that some very smart men have committed murder because they were infatuated with a worthless slut. Our literature may be said to be a constant battle against our infatuation with empty verbiage. Hence its unpopularity with idiots.
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