critix

Thursday, March 08, 2012
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CRITICIZING THE CRITIC
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Just because some readers agree with what I say
that doesn’t make me infallible.
The opposite is also true:
just because some say I am not just wrong but dangerous, bad, and hostile to the nation, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are in a position to deliver a final verdict.
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There are also some readers who are eager to inform me that
when I say Armenians are bad,
I do nothing but project my own failing onto them.
These readers must be mind readers because
that’s exactly what I do.
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Like most Armenians I too believed what I was told
by my schoolteachers, parish priests, and scout masters.
I was born and raised in an Armenian ghetto,
I had an Armenian education and went to church regularly.
I even served mass.
Very probably I have kissed more hands and asses
than most Armenians.
Even as an adult I wrote newspaper commentaries and books
in which I did nothing but recycle chauvinist crapola.
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And now from the specific to the general:
the only way to explain and justify the majority of Russians
under Stalin, Germans under Hitler, Italians under Mussolini,
Turks under Talaat and Kemal (and I could go on…)
is to say that they suffered from infantilism.
They never learned to think for themselves;
they trusted their superiors implicitly
and they repeated slogans and clichés
with the consciousness of retarded parrots.
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My message to my critics is therefore very brief and to the point:
“Grow up!”
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Friday, March 09, 2012
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CONTEMPT
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A good friend of mine has coined a word for self-satisfied dupes
who take themselves seriously: he calls them “inknahivans.”
Not being as inventive, I call them inbred morons.
More accessible. More blunt. My style.
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Churchill’s contempt for Gandhi
and Nabokov’s contempt for Sartre (also of Freud and Mann)
have the same root:
the contempt of the aristocracy
for the bourgeoisie.
The blind leading the blind
and the incompetent leading the ignorant:
there you have it: an explanation of so many of our catastrophes.
Our history might as well be variations on this theme.
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As for solution: I doubt if there is a single Armenian today
who does not know what our problems and their solutions are.
Even a child knows where divisions are the problems,
solidarity is the solution.
Where worship of money is the problem,
respect for ideas is the solution.
Where censorship is the rule,
free speech is the solution.
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Saturday, March 10, 2012
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ACCUSATIONS
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“You have a low opinion of your fellow Armenians.”
Not all of them. I speak only of Armenians I have known and dealt with.
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“You are an atheist.”
It is not the existence of God that I reject but the things that are done in His name.
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“You have been writing for thirty years now. What have you changed?”
Nothing. But I do not consider that my fault. Communities, societies, nations, even empires, civilizations, and cultures can fail as surely as individuals.
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“How can you judge Armenians without setting foot on Armenian soil?”
The soil has never been my target.
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“You have pro-Turkish sympathies.”
I respect all honest men regardless of nationality – and that includes Turks as well as Armenians.”
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“You speak of Armenian affairs but you refuse to get involved in them.”
We have more than our share of “mi kich pogh” Panchoonies. As for speechifiers and sermonizers: If I were to speak my mind as opposed to recycling the usual crap, I would be tarred, feathered, and driven out on a jackass by the Jack S. Avanakians in the audience.
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“You are not a historian. Your knowledge of Armenian history is sketchy. And yet you deliver judgments on the subject.”
You don’t have to know everything about anything in order to form an opinion. My knowledge of Russian, German, and Italian history is sketchy too but I know that Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini were on the wrong track. I know about human rights and free speech – concepts alien to our ruling classes. I know that democracy is better than fascism, authoritarianism, and paternalism – the fallacy that says those in power know better because they are wiser. If anything the opposite is true. Power has at no time improved anyone’s character or enhanced his wisdom; and anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
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