dupes

Sunday, September 04, 2011
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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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Overheard: “Corruption in Armenia
is like the weather in America:
everybody talks about it
but nobody does a damn thing."
*
Life is a game in which after you learn the rules,
the rules are changed.
*
Zohrab is right:
in life, those who adopt prostitution as a way of life
outnumber the others.
*
If there is a moral in the Arab spring, it is this:
The status quo may collapse when you least expect it.
I therefore say to our bosses, bishops, and benefactors:
Let that be a lesson to you.
*
Their lack of awareness is such that
they assume their brand of patriotism
(which is no better than treason)
is superior to selfless intellectual labor.
*
Our eleventh commandment:
Thou shalt not apply tribal solutions to national problems.
*
I define a good book as one
that if you haven’t finished it by bed-time
you look forward to next morning
with the impatience and anxiety of a lover.
*
Automatically contradicting what your adversary says
is not an argument but a symptom of entrenched prejudice.
#
Monday, September 05, 2011
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REFLECTIONS
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Armenians are brainwashed to hate Turks.
They learn to hate their fellow Armenians on their own.
*
I question the validity of all miracles
but I keep hoping for one:
figure that one out if you can.
*
It is the height of arrogance for a nobody
to strike a modest pose.
*
Men of power depend on kiss-ass incompetents
much more than on honest critics.
*
Not being a masochist
I don’t consider the death of a thousand cuts bliss.
*
A teenager who wins a chess tournament
and another who is forced into prostitution:
guess who is going to make a headline on the front page.
#
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
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ROBLEMS
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After silencing me
they say they need solutions, not criticism.
And they pretend to ignore the obvious fact that
without free speech and dialogue
there can be no solutions.
*
Don’t let them fool you.
We don’t need solutions.
What we need are honest men
whose number one concern is not number one.
*
There are two kinds of solutions:
authoritarian and democratic.
Authoritarian solutions are based
on the erroneous assumption that authority,
even when catastrophically wrong,
must be assumed to be right.
Which also means,
anyone who dares to question the validity of this assumption
must be labeled an enemy and
silenced, excommunicated, exiled, starved,
burned at the stake or shot.
This is as true of the Kremlin as it is of the Vatican.
*
Labels change but human nature remains constant.
*
We are racists not because we hate Turks
but because we hate our fellow Armenians.
*
If you say my criticism is motivated by self-hatred,
I could say that your rejection of my criticism
is motivated by self-infatuation.
*
If love of mankind means
loving greed, intolerance, prejudice, fanaticism,
cruelty, stupidity, and ignorance,
I want no part of it.
#
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
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LEADERS AND DUPES
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Incompetent leaders can do more harm
than competent enemies.
*
It is an established fact known to all except dupes
that the criminal rate among political leaders
is higher than among ordinary citizens.
*
I understand dupes:
I have been one most of my life.
*
According to Cicero:
“Freedom is participation in power.”
If we are free, ours is the freedom
of ants, birds, and herbivores –
free to be stepped on, shot at, and devoured.
*
Nothing works as planned.
Turks believed they can convince the world.
They now know they can’t even convince their own
except the dupes who will believe anything.
*
Subservience to alien tyrants is understandable.
But subservience to our own?
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