Thursday, February 3, 2011
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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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In a commentary on recent political developments in Egypt
an Arab pundit writes:
“Entire generations of Arab children are raised to believe
that good citizens are measured by their loyalty to government
and that critical thinking is treasonous.”
To put it more bluntly:
Arabs are smart but they are systematically moronized
by their leadership.
So are we.
*
Elsewhere I read:
“Critics are measured more by their courage to be disliked,
by their capacity for dishing it out and taking the inevitable backlash.”
Or, “Tell me who your enemies are and I will tell you how good you are.”
And if you were to tell me you have no enemies,
I shall have no choice but to conclude that
you must be a person of great charm,
which, in Albert Camus' definition, is “sh*t.”
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Friday, February 4, 2011
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Q/A
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Q: Not many people like you. Why is that?
A: I am in no position to employ and compensate anyone. What I say has no cash value, and our dominant mindset is grub first than ethics.
Q: Would you describe yourself as a believer? If yes, what exactly do you believe in?
A: I believe there is an element of wishful thinking in all belief systems, and I believe where wishful thinking enters, reality exits. I believe truth and power to be mutually exclusive concepts. That's because where there is power there will also be a big lie and a big liar: this is as true of emperors, kings, and dictators as it is of popes, imams, and rabbis.
Q: What about a democratically elected head of state?
A: People vote for a politician on the basis of his promises; and in politics, promises and lies might as well be synonymous.
Q: What about an honest politician who makes an honest promise?
A: Promises deal with a future which is unpredictable. An honest politician knows this. That is why when he makes a promise, he lies.
Q: You have said you are in the business of exposing contradictions and lies. Do you believe by doing so you will solve our problems?
A: No, of course not. I believe solving problems is not and cannot be a one-sided process. If the will to solve problems is not there even a messiah will be useless.
Q: Are we doomed?
A: I don't know because I don't know if death is an end or a new beginning.
Q: Where was God before the Big Bang?
A: The same place we were before we were born.
Q: What is your aim in life?
A: To understand and explain reality knowing full well that the most important questions are unanswerable.
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Saturday, February 5, 2011
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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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When I say we are a people like any other people,
I don't just mean the so-called civilized nations of the West,
but also Russians, Turks, Kurds, and Gypsies.
And when I say Russians I don't mean
Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov and their fictional characters
but Bolsheviks.
*
When I say Turks I think of one of our elder statesmen
who once said to me:
“Some key players in our organizations are not Armenians but Turks.
They may speak Armenian fluently
and they may know more about us than we do,
but take my word for it, they are Turks.”
I also think of Puzant Granian,
a prolific writer, critic, poet, and activist,
who once said to me:
“There is a Turk in all of us.”
*
Speaking of Gypsies:
In Greece, where I grew up, we were called Turkish Gypsies.
You say we need solutions?
Two words: de-Ottomanize and de-Stalinize!
*
Sometimes I am urged to get an agent.
Allow me to explain why I don't have one:
No one in his right mind would be interested in earning
10% of nothing.
*
The difference between the Pope of Rome
and the average brainwashed Armenian:
the Pope is infallible and the Armenian is never wrong.
*
Where there is no vision
there will be a total absence of ideas – and worse –
an opposition to all ideas.
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