ignorance

Sunday, August 21, 2011
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ON IGNORANCE…
AMONG OTHER THINGS
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More often than not
ignorance is not a result of not knowing
but of not wanting to know.
*
To be a dupe means to place
patriotism and propaganda
above honesty and objectivity.
*
My Armenian and Turkish critics
sound remarkably alike – no doubt
as a result of 600 years of cohabitation
compounded by fear of reality.
*
Dupes come in bunches.
Where there is one there will be another.
They need each other’s warmth
like swine in a cold barn.
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Monday, August 22, 2011
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UNANSWERED QUERSTIONS
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Because I support the idea
of a united and strong Armenia,
I engage in treason?
And because my critics are for
a divided, weak, demoralized Armenia,
they are patriots?
But the question, the real question,
which nobody cares to ask is:
We survived the Turk,
will we survive our patriots?
*
What if, when it comes to extermination,
our leaders are better at it than
the Sultan, Talaat, and Stalin combined?
What if there is more truth in what we hate
than in what we pretend to love?
What if we serve the Devil
even when we speak and act in the name of God?
*
Because I write in open forums
where even Turks can read me,
my readers take notice of what I say.
Otherwise they would have ignored me.
They would have pretended I don’t exist.
They would have saved their spittle
for their real enemies – the opposition.
*
For more on this subject, see
A FIRST-RATE MADNESS:
UNCOVERING THE LINKS BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND MENTAL ILLNESS.
By Nassir Ghaemi. 340 pages. The Penguin Press. $27.95.
#
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
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THEN AND NOW
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A hundred years ago
Armenians had to be forcibly driven out from Turkey;
they are now exiting from Armenia on their own.
*
I should like to see a comparative study
of Armenian assimilation rates
in the Ottoman Empire and the United States of America.
*
How many Armenian-Americans can read and write
in Armenian today?
After two or at most three generations in America
assimilation sets in.
But even after six hundred years
in the Ottoman Empire – that is roughly
twenty-four generations – we had a vibrant Armenian literature
in Istanbul.
Name a single Armenian-American writer today if you can.
*
We like to blame Talaat and Stalin
for the slaughter of two generations of our major writers,
but we forget that these writers
were betrayed by Armenians.
*
The only authentic Armenians today
are the skeletons of our 5th-century ancestors
and even the best of them
were odars with mixed blood.
*
Our nationalists may portray themselves as superpatriots
but their true intent is extermination – if, that is,
we judge them by their actions
rather than by their verbally stated intentions.
*
When words and actions don’t match
you may safely discard words as lies – unless of course
you happen to be a certified dupe.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011
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ON LEADERS (II)
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In theory, patriotism, even nationalism,
stands for freedom from imperial oppression,
beginning with free speech.
In practice, try to disagree with one of our superpatriots
and see what happens.
There is a hangman in all our nationalists.
*
Only readers who cling to their Ottomanism and Sovietism
confuse my anti-Ottomanism and anti-Sovietism
with anti-Armenianism.
*
The God of the Old Testament
is a jungle chieftain who thinks men
are such ignorant savages that
they have to be told murder is a no-no.
*
The secret ambition of all leaders
is to be almighty and infallible, like God.
This is as true of the Pope as it is of Stalin.
*
Who are our leaders?
In the Diaspora they are faceless Levantine wheeler-dealers
at the mercy of social, political, cultural, and economic forces
beyond their control – in short:
they are in over their heads.
In the Homeland they are dehumanized bureaucrats
accountable only to the Kremlin.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
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