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July 10, 2010
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EXPLAINING THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE
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“If the Almighty is Perfect,
why did He create an imperfect world?”
As an imperfect being
living in an imperfect world,
my imperfect answer is:
When you do something for the first time,
even if it as simple a task as hammering a nail to the wall,
something is bound to go wrong.
Maybe the world as we know it
is a first experiment, and He will do better next time.
Dissatisfied with my answer?
I plead extenuating circumstances
on the grounds that it is my first try.
Give me a few years or decades of reflection
and I may do better. In the meantime,
may I offer a first-time historic instance
that ended in disaster:
our Revolution at the turn of the last century
in the Ottoman Empire.
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Now an explanation as to why I repeat myself:
my aim in life is to repeat
a handful – no more than three or four – ideas
so often as to make them as undeniable as clichés.
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July 11, 2010
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ADDICTIONS
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According to Alcoholics' Anonymous, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
The same applies to belief systems, or, in the words of a theologian: “You may let go of God, but God will never let you go.”
Once a Muslim, always a Muslim.
Once a Christian, always a Christian.
And once a Bolshevik...
How to recognize a Bolshevik when you run into one?
Easy! Whenever Stalin's crimes come up in conversation, he will mention McCarthy, as if to say, “So you think Americans are better?” He forgets that McCarthy killed no one, whereas Stalin's victims number in the millions, among them the best and the brightest.
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Belief systems are not easy to discard because they have deep roots in our subconscious – roots that were planted when we were children by men with ulterior motives – men who were more committed to power than to love, truth, and compassion.
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A belief system that develops an oligarchy, ritual, tradition, and coercion under the guise of education, is one that has lost its essence and become superstition – less love of God and more fear of God, less progress in understanding the Incomprehensible and more a pact with the Devil. That's the only way to explain the persecution and torture of heretics, suicidal terrorists who kill innocent civilians, priests who sexually abuse children, and bishops who look the other way because they are more concerned with the reputation (that is, the power and prestige) of the Church and less with compassion for the victim.
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Am I judging an institution by its aberrations? I don't think so. Rather, I am assessing an institution's true intent by the mindset and character of its leadership.
But what I find even more offensive about organized religions is their claim of monopoly on truth. All men are no longer brothers; and if they are, half of them are Cains.
When Cain slew Abel, he acted on his own, independently of any belief system. Which means, if there is a killer in all of us, the least religion can do is to refrain from legitimizing and encouraging it. But perhaps that's too much to ask?
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July 12, 2010
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DOGS, PIGS, AND JACKASSES
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If the caravan were to stop every time a dog barks, it would never reach its destination.
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I love reading books on rules. You have to, if you want to break them.
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About our benefactors: I don't grudge their money. I grudge their values on the grounds that a jackass is in no position to appreciate the aroma of rose jam.
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I have never met a capitalist. But once, in a community center, I observed from a safe distance a specimen who was surrounded by a phalanx of hangers-on. You can tell a lot about a man by the kind of brown-nosers he attracts.
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Jesus and Marx agree on nothing except capitalists. Jesus said they will never make it to heaven, and Marx called them bloodsucking pigs who fleece even fleas.
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Plato, himself a wealthy man, explains somewhere that crooks will always be wealthier than honest men because they will use honest as well as dishonest means to amass their fortune. Whereas honest men will use only honest means.
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July 13, 2010
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REFLECTIONS
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When you voice an idea to someone who doesn’t have any of his own, he is sure to disagree with you.
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More often than not our disagreements are not between two conflicting ideas but between an idea and recycled propaganda.
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We blabber so much about Ottoman massacres that we completely ignore our own massacre of ideas.
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In his NAKED LUNCH, William Burroughs quotes a doctor saying: “Baboons always attack the weakest party in an altercation. Quite right too. We must never forget our glorious simian heritage.”
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A biologist friend once said to me: “You don’t need psychology, philosophy, sociology or anthropology to understand and explain Armenians: all you need is zoology.”
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Imagine a sardine in a pool of sharks. And now, imagine an honest member of the Party.
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I once met an Armenian who went out of his way to make himself hateful, after which he accused me of hating Armenians.
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