god & country

Thursday, May 05, 2011
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GOD AND COUNTRY
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I am not in the business of changing anyone’s mind,
only expressing agreement with those
who have already changed theirs
by successfully discarding their prejudices and superstitions.
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God and Country:
if we judge a tree by its fruit,
why is it wrong to judge faith and patriotism
by their number of innocent victims?
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To be honest in our case means
to reject all assertions that flatter our collective image.
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Anyone can change water into wine
if he waits until the guests are so drunk
that they can’t tell the difference between one and the other.
Likewise, anyone can change military defeat to moral victory
if he first convinces the people that
God is on their side and God is invincible.
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When military and religious leaders speak
in the name of God and Country, they lie.
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We understand many things
but not everything, especially not
the most important things.
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To expose lies is not the same as to know the truth.
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A lie is a lie and dying for it will not make it less of a lie.
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There is nothing new under the sun.
Everything I have said so far has been said before
if not by Greek philosophers than by Zen masters.
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Friday, May 06, 2011
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VARIATIONS
ON A FAMILIAR THEME
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Because we have nothing to brag about
we brag about our survival.
We have survived, yes.
So have our divisions
and divisions are weapons of mass destruction.
*
Dinosaurs perished but scorpions survived.
The only reason they don’t brag about it is that
they are not brainwashed to do so.
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How do you deprogram a nation?
You can’t!
Our writers have been trying for fifteen hundred years
and they have failed.
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Between literature and propaganda
we have always chosen propaganda
for the same reason that a fool
prefers to believe he is smart.
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A long series of defeats, massacres and
centuries of subservience to alien scum
have taught us nothing.
Even on the eve of the Genocide our leadership was divided.
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Our leaders are our gravediggers.
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Solidarity is not in our DNA.
Which is why we must be born again
as a different species – namely, human beings.
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You think I am wrong and you are right?
You may have our bosses, bishops, and benefactors on your side
but I have fifteen hundred years of our literature on mine.
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Saturday, May 07, 2011
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HUMBUGGERY
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Free and independent Armenia is a hoax
and as empty an illusion as the brotherhood of nations
under the Soviets.
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Under the Soviets undesirables were sent to Siberia.
Today they lead an anonymous existence
in a suburb of Paris, Los Angeles, and Istanbul.
The more things change…
*
Our editors publish an endless series of anti-Turkish polemics
that so far have produced not a single red cent in reparation
or a single square inch of our historic homeland;
and they refuse to publish me
on the grounds that I write “polemics,”
and publishing polemics, they tell me,
is against their editorial policy.
*
The captain goes down with the ship?
Not always.
In our case the captain is the first to abandon ship.
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