notes

January 31, 2010
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MORE ONE-LINERS
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To be a fool means to be at the mercy of worse fools who think they are smart.
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The lower on the totem pole you are, the more subject to checks and balances you will be.
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Faceless bureaucrats follow rules not because they believe in them but because their only concern is their source of income.
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When sacred cows are in charge, they will criminalize the consumption of shish-kebab.
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The truth? Let us say, we may never know it and as human beings we were not meant to know it. All we can hope to do is move in its direction by discarding half-truth and lies.
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Everything makes sense if you find the right explanation.
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The aim of all religions and ideologies is to make you say "Yes, sir!"
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In theory, religion is meant to civilize; but in practice what it does is legitimize barbarism.
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To acquire a faith is not the same as to see the light.
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February 1, 2010
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DIARY
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There are two Armenians mentioned in Cheever's biography: one of them is a loud-mouth phony and the other Saroyan and his “tax problems.” Elsewhere we are informed Saroyan was popular in communist countries and “all but forgotten in the West.”
Cheever and Updike were thought to be good friends but in his diary Cheever had this to say about him: “He describes erections so exhaustively that he's beginning to look like a big prick with a hair-piece” -- a remark that probably hastened Updike's death.
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Those who say “We need solutions,” want nothing of the kind because solutions may expose them as dupes or frauds.
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Politics seems to attract the kind of people whose role model is not Gandhi but Don Corleone.
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A good fraction of mankind today makes a comfortable living by deceiving their fellow men.”
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One should judge a religion not by its theology but by its history, which also means, by its crimes against humanity.
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If I repeat myself it may be because our blunders keep repeating themselves and not repeating myself would amount to either giving up or covering up.
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February 2, 2010
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IF...
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If the West were to adopt the methods of the Ottoman Empire, all Muslims within its borders would be deported to Siberia, Sahara, and even Antarctica. This may still happen if things get worse instead of better.
When civilizations clash it is not always the most civilized that prevails but the most ruthless. Democracy and respect for human rights may be noble principles, but life-and-death situations demand not moderate measures but ruthless tactics.
It is true that most Muslims, perhaps even the overwhelming majority, are not for terrorism, they may even be against it, but so were Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I and Jews in Europe during World War II.
Some of us may not live long enough to witness this apocalyptic denouement. That does not mean it may never happen. On the contrary, it may even be thought of as inevitable.
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February 3, 2010
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FRAGMENTS
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As children we are brought up not to questions the words and conduct of adults. The trouble is, some of us never quite grow up. That's the only way to explain the popularity of men like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao (who is said to have slaughtered more people than the other two combined, or so I read in today's paper).
One could sum up the work of all great thinkers with two words: “Grow up!” Or, as the Scriptures tell us: “When one grows up, one should put aside the toys of one's childhood.”
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I am a man without a country and without a neighborhood, if one defines a neighborhood not as a collection of houses but of homes. Every house in which I have lived at one time or another has been torn down by either war or real-estate developers; only my alma mater stands but it is no longer an educational institution but a cheap motel. As for my present neighborhood where I have lived for fifty years: the old are either dead or in nursing homes; the young have moved on to better neighborhoods or have been arrested on drug charges and taken away never to be seen again, and the immigrants have returned to their homeland.
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Gresham's Law, named after the 16th-century English merchant Sir Thomas Gresham, states, "Bad money drive out good money," meaning: adulterated gold drives out pure gold, for the simple reason that it is cheaper. By extension, opportunists drive out men of principle, and mediocrities drive out those who seek to achieve excellence.
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An extension of Gresham's Law: Evil knows how to organize itself because it appeals to the selfish instincts of the majority.
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Likewise, recycled crap drives out objective judgment, and hoodlums and their verbal abuse drive out dialogue.
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