decline

Sunday, December 19, 2010
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DEGENERATION
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Science tells us “most evolutionary change has been degenerative” (J.B.S. Haldane), and “natural selection does not guarantee progress” (Julian Huxley).
It follows, survival in itself is meaningless and may even be a liability and a visible as well as unmistakable symptom of moral degeneration.
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Armenian psychology has evolved not in freedom but in subservience, which means, more cunning and less intelligence, more greed for material possessions and less interest in spiritual attainments. Hence our contempt for selfless intellectual labor, which is shared even by our intellectual class -- that is, our academics.
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The hungry man thinks of food, the sexually starved man of women, the poor of luxuries, and the slave of freedom -- but only after he has satisfied his primary needs, that is, food and sex, by which time he may have acquired the burden of providing for a family and keeping up with the Joneses.
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Like most oppressed people, the Armenian tends to see freedom as the freedom to oppress. Which is why Stalin was a more ruthless tyrant than Ivan the Terrible; the French Revolutionaries were more bloodthirsty than kings, and American capitalists chose to see no contradiction between the assertion “All men are created equal,” and slavery.
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A fund-raiser's assessment of reality: if it can raise funds, it's good; if it can't, it's bad. You may have noticed that fund-raisers are neither vegetarian nor lean, but carnivorous fat slobs. Lean fund-raisers are only the front men. It never pays to underestimate the cunning of degenerates.
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Monday, December 20, 2010
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DEGENERATION (II)
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When things get from bad to worse and from worse to unbearable, you stay away from them. This is seen as a positive development by those in charge of things on the grounds that one less malcontent means one less potential trouble-maker.
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Alienate, silence, and eliminate all potential trouble-makers and you end up with a bunch of dupes who will believe anyone who speaks in the name of God or with the blessing of someone who speaks in the name of God.
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When two men speak in the name of God and they contradict each other, it's not because one of them is right and the other wrong but because both are about to do the Devil's work.
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Remember, some of the worst crimes in the history of mankind (among them our own genocide) were committed in the name of God.
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Belief systems are a dime a dozen and dupes are without number.
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Dupes are not born but made and what makes them is a compulsory educational system.
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Being a dupe is an addiction acquired at a very early age and as such difficult to kick.
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In a world where everyone is brought up to believe his is the only true God, either there are no false Gods or there are no Gods.
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Belief systems exist because there are deceivers and there are dupes. Now then, go ahead and say, my belief system is better than yours because my God is the only true God, my religious leaders are not deceivers, and I am not a dupe.
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Tuesday, December 21, 2010
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CHOPPED LIVER
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Throughout our long history we have fought and died by the thousand and by the million in the armies of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, and more recently of the Soviet Union.
During World War II Armenians fought and died on both sides of the conflict.
In the 20th century alone Armenians have fought and died in Spain, France, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan (with both the Soviets and the Yanks).
But when during World War I we were being massacred by the thousand and the million, no one lifted a finger to help us; and to this day some of the very same people in whose service we fought and died are unwilling to use the G word because it would be against the interests of Turks who are allies – unlike us, whose status apparently does not even rise above that of chopped liver.
That, my friends, is what it means to be weak.
And as if our weakness weren't enough of a burden and a curse, our leaders in their wisdom continue to divide us even as they speechify and sermonize on self-sacrifice, patriotism and solidarity.
How to explain these inconsistencies, paradoxes, contradictions, and oxymorons?
Many years ago, in the ghetto, I had a friend who used to brag about the fact that his father knew more Turkish swearwords than anyone else. When really angry, my friend said, his father would go on cursing forever and it was like music to the ears (my friend took violin lessons).
In one of his Prefaces G.B. Shaw speaks of a similar virtuoso, who it seems, one day lost everything he owned in an accident, and all he could say was: “I cannot do justice to this situation.”
Neither can I.
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Wednesday, December 22, 2010
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CHOPPED LIVER (II)
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It is a fruitless undertaking and a complete waste of time to argue with someone who has programmed himself to disagree with you.
A man who has brainwashed himself cannot be deprogrammed.
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Religion has been a source of comfort and joy to many?
Yes, of course – but not to the countless victims, including those who were massacred in the name of Allah.
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I am sure Germans felt more than just comfortable in the belief that they belonged to a superior race. In the same way that Jews, Christians, and Muslims feel comfortable in the knowledge that theirs is the only True God and anyone who says otherwise is an infidel.
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A belief system in itself and in isolation is harmless, of course. It becomes an instrument of the Devil only when it is organized and its leadership falls into the hands of arrogant, ambitious, and intolerant leaders.
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Readers who are not satisfied with my arguments, urge me to reply to specific questions and to expand on others.
But everything I write is either a reply or an elaboration of a previous point.
As for answering all questions:
I cannot do that.
I don't have all the answers.
No one does – no one that is, except imams, popes, and rabbis, and if you believe them, you will believe anything, including the Big Lie that you know better on the grounds that your imam, bishop, or rabbi said so.
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