Sunday, February 13, 2011
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FIXERS
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Nothing infuriates me more than paying $40.00
to a fat-assed plumber for tightening a screw –
something I could have done myself in less than a minute.
But then what options do I have?
Whenever I try to fix something on my own
I make things worse.
There are times when I cannot help thinking that
by writing as I do I fix nothing.
I may even make things worse.
The words obstinacy and resistance immediately remind me
of an Armenian who has made up his mind and thinks
anyone who dares to disagree with him – or rather,
with the propaganda line he has swallowed hook, line, and sinker –
is either a Turk in disguise or a retard.
Perhaps that's also what happens to all “fixers”
who meddle in human affairs.
In the last century alone mankind has been the beneficiary
of a long line of fixers who made things worse.
Mussolini and Hitler come to mind,
also Stalin, Mao, Latino juntas, and last but far from least
our own glorious turn-of-the century revolutionary heroes.
Let us not be surprised therefore
if things get from bad to worse in Egypt.
#
Monday, February 14, 2011
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MY SECRET AMBITION
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To be read by readers who find me unreadable.
Judging by the number of insults hurled against me,
I must be doing something right.
*
REVOLUTIONARIES
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They are, by definition, dissenters in words as well as in deeds.
And yet, ours seem to be afraid of free speech.
They talk endlessly about Turkish atrocities
but avoid all mention of censorship.
They use someone else's suffering
to cover up their own uselessness.
What saves them is their own insignificance.
*
THOMAS MANN
ON HIS FELLOW GERMANS
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“Wretched, isolated, demented people,
misled by a wild stupid band of adventurers
whom they take for mythical heroes.”
#
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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Authoritarian regimes remain in power
so long as they systemically and successfully moronize their subjects.
*
Lincoln said, “You can't fool all the people all the time,”
because he was born and raised in a democracy.
Had he been born under an authoritarian regime,
he would have said, “You can't moronize all the people all the time.”
*
In a commentary in this morning's paper, I read:
“The democracy movement in Egypt is like a tiger
that has been living in a tiny cage for thirty years.”
They were sheep.
They are now born-again tigers.
All it took was the decision to think for themselves.
*
To be brainwashed and to be systematically moronized
are synonymous operations.
*
Most problems and their solutions
begin and end in the convolutions of our brains.
*
Authoritarian regimes are afraid of free speech
because it may expose them as systematic moronizers.
*
To how many of my readers who insult me
on the grounds that they are smarter and better Armenians
I could say: “I know how you feel. I too was brainwashed once.”
*
I doubt if I will ever meet an Armenian
who has not been taken in by another Armenian.
*
Some day if the Rock of Gibraltar sinks,
it can be easily replaced with an Armenian
who has made up his mind.
*
I am told again and again to get involved in community affairs.
But I am involved.
I became involved when I decided to think for myself.
#
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
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INTELLECTUALS
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In an interview published in LE POINT
(Paris: February 3, 2011, page 22),
when asked if French intellectuals exercise
any influence on national affairs,
Marine Le Pen replied:
“No. I think our intellectual elites are totally disconnected.”
The same cannot be said of our own intellectual elites
simply because we don't have them.
They don't exist.
They have been silenced, alienated, exiled, and marginalized
to the point of irrelevance.
Our speechifiers and pundits may quote
Charents's line on solidarity
but no one does a damn thing.
They operate on the assumption that
they can solve all our problems with speeches.
And as our problems get from bad to worse,
and from worse to worst,
they explain their failure by blaming it on the opposition.
#