Thursday, April 26, 2012
****************************************
TRUTH IS ONE,
LIES MANY
***************************
Where power enters, lies are sure to follow.
*
We all praise knowledge and understanding
but prefer to practice ignorance and misunderstanding.
*
An ideology of brotherhood is used to sow murderous enmity,
and a religion of love and compassion is exploited
to legitimize intolerance, hatred, and massacre.
*
What are wars and revolutions –
revolutions that replace czars with commissars,
and kings with dictators – if not gigantic movements
based on ignorance and misunderstanding?
*
We praise Greek contributions to world civilization
and we forget that the real Greece is not represented by Socrates
but by those who condemned him to death.
Philosophers may praise Socrates
but the average man in the street prefers to behave
like a member of his jury and an executioner.
*
Notwithstanding the countless crimes committed by religious leaders,
we – the majority at any rate – continue to take their dogmas seriously.
*
Is God one or many?
We don’t know.
Nobody does.
But we do know that reality is numberless.
*
When two men confront each other
and both say “I am right, you are wrong,”
the chances are both are not just wrong but dead wrong.
*
He who speaks does not know
and he who is silent is ignorant.
*
At the beginning was the word,
at the end garbage?
What difference does it make if the purpose of words
is to hide meaning?
#
Saturday, April 28, 2012
***********************************
WHAT IF?
***********************
What if “our betters” are in fact our worst?
*
If I am right, why is it that so many are against me?
And if I am wrong, why is it that so many are with me?
Wrong questions.
In our context, or placed in a historic context,
right or wrong might as well be irrelevant.
To be or not to be: that indeed is the right question..
*
The 99% are losers because they are disorganized, leaderless, and divided.
Workers of the world have failed to unite
because they have been divided by lies
(among them nationalism) devised by the 1%.
*
We have failed to unite because survival is our main concern.
To be on the safe side we have been willing to say “Yes, sir!”
to any power structure that promised to be on our side.
In the USSR we were more Bolshevik than the Russians.
In the Ottoman Empire even our best and brightest
were more Ottoman than Turks.
Consider the ease with which Armenians in America are Americanized.
*
We lament our martyrs with total unawareness of the fact that
they are “ours” – in the sense that they are victims
of our own ignorance, blindness, and fanaticism.
You don’t believe me?
Read Naregatsi’s LAMENTATIONS (in which he portrays himself
as “an abusive contradicter ever active in satanic inventions”
(or lies, for short).
Read Zarian (“Armenians survive by cannibalizing one another”).
Read Raffi (“Where Armenian blood flows, search for the Armenian hatchet.”)
If our literature has a central message, this is it:
Our martyrs are our victims.
#
Saturday, April 28, 2012
*******************************************
PROFESSIONAL SECRETS
************************************
Write a page.
Keep the best line,
discard the rest.
*
Dissatisfied with what you have written?
Delete the first and last paragraphs. (Chekhov).
*
Dissatisfied with the final sentence?
Italicize a word in it. (Kenneth Tynan)
*
Your selection of words
is more important than your ideas. (Paul Valery)
*
On the subject of ideas: there are no new ones.
We are all in the business of recycling what has been said before
by far better men than ourselves.
*
Originality is an illusion.
Clarity is your most important asset.
*
Please note that none of the above is mine.
I have cited only the sources that I remember.
#
Warning: If you ever receive an e-mail from me
asking for financial assistance,
please ignore it.
It's probably from a pirate in Somalia.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
explanation
Sunday, April 22, 2012
****************************************
DOUBLE-TALK
*********************************
All our great writers,
from Khorenatsi to Raffi,
and from Abovian to Zarian,
have been sources of embarrassment to our leaders
(in the sense that they have exposed their shortcomings)
who must now pretend to be on the side of our literature.
*
In the parable of the camel and the eye of the needle,
Jesus equates financial success with moral failure.
I am not implying our benefactors are liars and degenerates,
only suggesting that they too,
like the rest of us poor moprtals,
are not beyond engaging in occasional double-talk.
*
To love a harmless enemy – nothing easier.
To love an enemy who slashes burns, and rapes?
When asked that question, Tolstoy is said to have replied:
“Things like that don’t happen every day.”
I know better because I read my morning paper.
*
It is the mightiest of this world who take ideas seriously,
but only ideas that are against them.
*
Indifference is the best revenge.
#
Monday, April 23, 2012
********************************************
DECLINE AND FALL
*********************************
No one can be as ungodly as men who speak in His name –
and I am not thinking only of imams…
*
An adult who repeats what he was taught as a child:
that to me is one of the surest and most unmistakable symptoms of retardation.
*
Everything has been explained by far better men than myself.
What I have written so far might as well be footnotes to a footnote.
*
Even the mightiest empires decline and fall.
Even the most creative cultures stagnate and degenerate.
We call our degeneration survival and we brag about it.
*
If being against organized religions means
rejecting Gregorian chant, Bach’s Cantatas, Mozart’s REQUIEM,
Negro spirituals, and our sharagans,
then I am more Catholic than the Pope.
#
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
*****************************************
AN EXPLANATION
*************************************
Turks say the Genocide never happened.
It’s a figment of our collective imagination.
Americans are afraid to use the G word.
What’s happening here?
To those who don’t understand, allow me to explain.
*
Both Turks and Americans are guilty of massacres.
Very probably they have killed an equal number of innocent civilians:
the first to preserve their empire,
the second to raise it.
As imperial powers they speak the language of top dogs
which might as well be incomprehensible to underdogs.
They have neither friends nor enemies, only interests.
Arguing with them is a waste of time.
They will never see the world as we see it.
We may be successful in convincing isolated voices
here and there, now and then,
but we don’t have enough money to convince the majority.
In politics and international diplomacy,
right and wrong might as well be irrelevant commodities.
*
There is only one way out of this impasse:
to vote as a block.
On the day American candidates realize
We have the power to make or break them,
we may have a better chance to be heard.
Until then we might as well be a voice in the wilderness.
*
The Jewish vote is a deciding factor in American politics
because Jews are better at presenting a united front.
I feel justified therefore in suggesting that
our leadership – our lord and masters,
or bosses, bishops and benefactors,
or the gang that can’t shoot straight …call them what you will –
are as guilty as denialists because
instead of uniting the community
they have polarized and paralized it.
Very much like Turks and Yanks
they have allowed their interests, or powers and privileges,
to speak louder than the interests of the nation.
That indeed is the root of our status as perennial losers.
*
Dostoevsky is right:
“You can’t imagine how powerful a single man can be.”
Or, for that matter, a single community or nation,
when it speaks with one voice.
#
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
****************************************
DIARY
*************************
Two new books that I look forward to reading:
ANTON CHEKHOV: A BROTHER’S MEMOIR by Mikhail Chekhov, and
MEMORIES OF CHEKHOV: ACCOUNTS OF THE WRITER FROM HIS FAMILY, FRIENDS AND CONTEMPORARIES, edited by Peter Sekirin.
*
Watched a lovely French film titled SEQUINS in which one of the central characters is named Mrs. Melkonian whose son Ishkhan dies in a car accident.
*
My definition of hell: to be dependent on the charity of swine.
*
Obese people dig their own grave with a fork; writers with their pen.
*
In our environment patriotism is sometimes confused with shish-kebabism.
*
Brahms used prostitutes. In his old age Gandhi was obsessed with his sexuality and slept with naked teenagers to test his resistance to temptation.
*
Cats hate the water but love fish: hence their tolerance of man.
*
During World War II READER’S DIGEST rejected contributions by Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht.
*
Thomas Mann loved Walt Disney. So do I but I prefer Warner Brothers’ Bugs Bunny.
*
The disagreement of fools: depressing rather than irritating.
#
Warning: If you ever receive an e-mail from me
asking for financial assistance,
please ignore it.
It's probably from a pirate in Somalia.
****************************************
DOUBLE-TALK
*********************************
All our great writers,
from Khorenatsi to Raffi,
and from Abovian to Zarian,
have been sources of embarrassment to our leaders
(in the sense that they have exposed their shortcomings)
who must now pretend to be on the side of our literature.
*
In the parable of the camel and the eye of the needle,
Jesus equates financial success with moral failure.
I am not implying our benefactors are liars and degenerates,
only suggesting that they too,
like the rest of us poor moprtals,
are not beyond engaging in occasional double-talk.
*
To love a harmless enemy – nothing easier.
To love an enemy who slashes burns, and rapes?
When asked that question, Tolstoy is said to have replied:
“Things like that don’t happen every day.”
I know better because I read my morning paper.
*
It is the mightiest of this world who take ideas seriously,
but only ideas that are against them.
*
Indifference is the best revenge.
#
Monday, April 23, 2012
********************************************
DECLINE AND FALL
*********************************
No one can be as ungodly as men who speak in His name –
and I am not thinking only of imams…
*
An adult who repeats what he was taught as a child:
that to me is one of the surest and most unmistakable symptoms of retardation.
*
Everything has been explained by far better men than myself.
What I have written so far might as well be footnotes to a footnote.
*
Even the mightiest empires decline and fall.
Even the most creative cultures stagnate and degenerate.
We call our degeneration survival and we brag about it.
*
If being against organized religions means
rejecting Gregorian chant, Bach’s Cantatas, Mozart’s REQUIEM,
Negro spirituals, and our sharagans,
then I am more Catholic than the Pope.
#
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
*****************************************
AN EXPLANATION
*************************************
Turks say the Genocide never happened.
It’s a figment of our collective imagination.
Americans are afraid to use the G word.
What’s happening here?
To those who don’t understand, allow me to explain.
*
Both Turks and Americans are guilty of massacres.
Very probably they have killed an equal number of innocent civilians:
the first to preserve their empire,
the second to raise it.
As imperial powers they speak the language of top dogs
which might as well be incomprehensible to underdogs.
They have neither friends nor enemies, only interests.
Arguing with them is a waste of time.
They will never see the world as we see it.
We may be successful in convincing isolated voices
here and there, now and then,
but we don’t have enough money to convince the majority.
In politics and international diplomacy,
right and wrong might as well be irrelevant commodities.
*
There is only one way out of this impasse:
to vote as a block.
On the day American candidates realize
We have the power to make or break them,
we may have a better chance to be heard.
Until then we might as well be a voice in the wilderness.
*
The Jewish vote is a deciding factor in American politics
because Jews are better at presenting a united front.
I feel justified therefore in suggesting that
our leadership – our lord and masters,
or bosses, bishops and benefactors,
or the gang that can’t shoot straight …call them what you will –
are as guilty as denialists because
instead of uniting the community
they have polarized and paralized it.
Very much like Turks and Yanks
they have allowed their interests, or powers and privileges,
to speak louder than the interests of the nation.
That indeed is the root of our status as perennial losers.
*
Dostoevsky is right:
“You can’t imagine how powerful a single man can be.”
Or, for that matter, a single community or nation,
when it speaks with one voice.
#
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
****************************************
DIARY
*************************
Two new books that I look forward to reading:
ANTON CHEKHOV: A BROTHER’S MEMOIR by Mikhail Chekhov, and
MEMORIES OF CHEKHOV: ACCOUNTS OF THE WRITER FROM HIS FAMILY, FRIENDS AND CONTEMPORARIES, edited by Peter Sekirin.
*
Watched a lovely French film titled SEQUINS in which one of the central characters is named Mrs. Melkonian whose son Ishkhan dies in a car accident.
*
My definition of hell: to be dependent on the charity of swine.
*
Obese people dig their own grave with a fork; writers with their pen.
*
In our environment patriotism is sometimes confused with shish-kebabism.
*
Brahms used prostitutes. In his old age Gandhi was obsessed with his sexuality and slept with naked teenagers to test his resistance to temptation.
*
Cats hate the water but love fish: hence their tolerance of man.
*
During World War II READER’S DIGEST rejected contributions by Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht.
*
Thomas Mann loved Walt Disney. So do I but I prefer Warner Brothers’ Bugs Bunny.
*
The disagreement of fools: depressing rather than irritating.
#
Warning: If you ever receive an e-mail from me
asking for financial assistance,
please ignore it.
It's probably from a pirate in Somalia.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
observations
Thursday, April 19, 2012
****************************************
BREAKDOWN IN LEADERSHIP
**********************************************
A headline in my morning paper reads:
“Soldier blames breakdown in leadership.”
How many of our historians have ever dared to use that expression –
“breakdown in leadership” – to explain any one
of our divisions, defeats, and catastrophes…
or, for that matter,
our status as perennial losers?
*
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
***************************************
You want something badly
and after getting it you are disappointed,
after which you want something else badly –
and so it goes.
It is almost as if we were programmed
not to learn from history.
#
Saturday, April 21, 2012
*************************************
PATRIOTISM, ARMENIAN STYLE
**********************************************
In our context, patriotism does not mean love of homeland;
patriotism means hatred of the same enemy,
beginning with Armenians who dare to disagree with us.
*
No one can be as dumb as a self-assessed smart Armenian.
*
When cornered about our divisiveness,
among other self-inflicted wounds,
we like to say there are divisions everywhere,
or we are a people like any other people.
Are we really?
We may be as dumb as most of them
but can we really claim to be as smart as some of them?
*
Never underestimate the cunning of a dumb Armenian
or the stupidity of a smart one.
*
The rich should be taxed more
not because they can afford it,
or because they exploit the poor
by overpricing their products or services.
but because they are jerks.
#
Saturday, April 21, 2012
**************************************
OBSERVATIONS
*******************************
Shakespeare wrote about royalty for royalty.
With us it’s losers writing for losers.
*
My guess is – and this is only a guess –
more people have died in Armenia
than anywhere else in the world.
*
Has anyone ever heard one of our chic Bolsheviks say,
“I was wrong about Stalin”?
An infallible leadership will generate infallible citizens.
*
Instead of recycling Saroyan I recycle Zarian:
there you have the root of my failure.
*
To be misunderstood is a routine experience with me.
So much so that whenever I am understood
I begin to suspect what I write has no merit
because all I do is state the obvious.
#
****************************************
BREAKDOWN IN LEADERSHIP
**********************************************
A headline in my morning paper reads:
“Soldier blames breakdown in leadership.”
How many of our historians have ever dared to use that expression –
“breakdown in leadership” – to explain any one
of our divisions, defeats, and catastrophes…
or, for that matter,
our status as perennial losers?
*
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
***************************************
You want something badly
and after getting it you are disappointed,
after which you want something else badly –
and so it goes.
It is almost as if we were programmed
not to learn from history.
#
Saturday, April 21, 2012
*************************************
PATRIOTISM, ARMENIAN STYLE
**********************************************
In our context, patriotism does not mean love of homeland;
patriotism means hatred of the same enemy,
beginning with Armenians who dare to disagree with us.
*
No one can be as dumb as a self-assessed smart Armenian.
*
When cornered about our divisiveness,
among other self-inflicted wounds,
we like to say there are divisions everywhere,
or we are a people like any other people.
Are we really?
We may be as dumb as most of them
but can we really claim to be as smart as some of them?
*
Never underestimate the cunning of a dumb Armenian
or the stupidity of a smart one.
*
The rich should be taxed more
not because they can afford it,
or because they exploit the poor
by overpricing their products or services.
but because they are jerks.
#
Saturday, April 21, 2012
**************************************
OBSERVATIONS
*******************************
Shakespeare wrote about royalty for royalty.
With us it’s losers writing for losers.
*
My guess is – and this is only a guess –
more people have died in Armenia
than anywhere else in the world.
*
Has anyone ever heard one of our chic Bolsheviks say,
“I was wrong about Stalin”?
An infallible leadership will generate infallible citizens.
*
Instead of recycling Saroyan I recycle Zarian:
there you have the root of my failure.
*
To be misunderstood is a routine experience with me.
So much so that whenever I am understood
I begin to suspect what I write has no merit
because all I do is state the obvious.
#
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
seeing things
Sunday, April 15, 2012
*************************************
SEEING THINGS
*******************************
Even after they systematically raped our daughters
and brainwashed our boys to kill and die
in their imperialist wars
we continued to be their “most faithful ethnic minority.”
Individuals like Krikor Zohrab and Roupen Sevak
persisted in believing that deep down
Turks were nice people who meant no harm to Armenians
and we could safely trust our collective destiny
into their hands.
If they had any doubts on that score
they did not share them with the people.
Even our political and intellectual leaders were dupes.
*
On more than one occasion
I have been told by angry readers:
“What did you expect them to do?
Urge the people to abandon their 'babenagan douner'
(ancestral homes)?”
Why not, may I ask, if the alternative was
wholesale massacre and deportation into the desert?
*
Once when I reviewed the memoirs of a Russian KGB agent
in which he stated that several of our political leaders
(among them Tashnaks) were KGB plants,
an insider berated me for blabbering about things
I knew nothing about and understood even less?
What if, he said, these so-called former KGB agents
could be of greater use to us?
Leave it to an Armenian to see things
that are not there.
#
Monday, April 16, 2012
***************************************
WHAT I (DON’T) BELIEVE
****************************************
Ideologies and religions – belief systems, in short –
claim to have found a path to truth or god;
and anyone who dares to disagree
must be classified as a heretic,
and as such, an enemy –
and an enemy not only of the belief system
but also of mankind.;
and based on that blatantly false assumption
they proceed to divide civilizations, societies,
empires, nations, and communities.
There you have the root of all evil,
beginning with intolerance, persecution,
and ultimately war and massacre.
*
I am not voicing a theory here.
I am simply stating facts available to anyone
who has eyes to see, ears to hear, and brains to think –
and not to think that he is thinking
but simply to say, if you add 2 to 2
what you get is neither 5 or 22 but 4.
*
If you believe god is one,
or three in one, or, for that matter, four in one –
why should that be a good enough reason
to torture and kill another
who believes the right numbers are five in one?
And yet…
*
The stated aim of all belief systems is to save mankind;
their unstated aim, however, is the destruction of the world.
*
Man is born in sin, we are told.
So are belief systems – born in arrogance
that leads to greed for power.
I don’t believe in belief systems.
#
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
********************************************
STATUS QUO
*****************************
A nation that has lived in darkness for a thousand years
will prefer to go on living in darkness for another thousand years
if the alternative is to see the light.
*
My aim is not to solve our problems
but to say and repeat the obvious
... when the obvious is ignored or forgotten.
*
My aim is not to provide answers to the most important questions
but to question the honesty of those who pretend to have them.
*
If I can place a small distance – even if it is a fraction of an inch –
between us and our certainties -- that is to say lies –
I shall consider my mission accomplished.
*
A religion of love will practice hatred;
and a religion of intolerance will practice intolerance.
A nation that brags about its high IQ
will be subservient to morons,
both foreign and domestic.
*
In the eyes of pragmatists,
daydreamers are contemptible jerks.
In the eyes of our leaders,
writers will be mental masturbators.
*
To solve a problem,
you must first acknowledge its existence.
You may now draw your own conclusions.
#
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
*******************************************************
STATUS QUO (II)
*****************************************
We have many brilliant minds in all fields of human endeavor
but not a single brilliant idea.
Our ablest academics study the past (medievalism and massacrism)
but none of them seems to be interested in our present and future.
I wonder why.
Is it because somewhere very deep inside
they have given up on us?
Or is it because there is no money in it?
*
Our benefactors and panchoonies spend millions
building schools, churches, and community centers
as if raising wall mattered much more than promoting solidarity.
*
Solidarity with us is very much like Mark Twain’s weather.
Every speechifier and sermonizer loves to quote Charents’s final message
(“Oh! Armenian people, your salvation etc.”)
but nobody does a damn thing.
*
“Where there is no vision the people perish” –
and we are perishing in both the Homeland and Diaspora –
by exodus and alienation respectively,
both of which have clearly definable socio-economic reasons
that can be isolated, named, and prevented.
But no one seems to give a damn!
The very same activists who speak of patriotism during the day
turn into gravediggers under cover of darkness.
*
Solidarity is not a commodity you can buy on the marketplace.
Neither is it tax deductible.
Could that be one reason why it is not popular
with our bosses, bishops, and benefactors?
I am not casting aspersions, just wondering…
#
warning: if you ever receive an e-mail from me
asking for financial assistance, please ignore it.
It's not from me but a pirate from Somalia.
*************************************
SEEING THINGS
*******************************
Even after they systematically raped our daughters
and brainwashed our boys to kill and die
in their imperialist wars
we continued to be their “most faithful ethnic minority.”
Individuals like Krikor Zohrab and Roupen Sevak
persisted in believing that deep down
Turks were nice people who meant no harm to Armenians
and we could safely trust our collective destiny
into their hands.
If they had any doubts on that score
they did not share them with the people.
Even our political and intellectual leaders were dupes.
*
On more than one occasion
I have been told by angry readers:
“What did you expect them to do?
Urge the people to abandon their 'babenagan douner'
(ancestral homes)?”
Why not, may I ask, if the alternative was
wholesale massacre and deportation into the desert?
*
Once when I reviewed the memoirs of a Russian KGB agent
in which he stated that several of our political leaders
(among them Tashnaks) were KGB plants,
an insider berated me for blabbering about things
I knew nothing about and understood even less?
What if, he said, these so-called former KGB agents
could be of greater use to us?
Leave it to an Armenian to see things
that are not there.
#
Monday, April 16, 2012
***************************************
WHAT I (DON’T) BELIEVE
****************************************
Ideologies and religions – belief systems, in short –
claim to have found a path to truth or god;
and anyone who dares to disagree
must be classified as a heretic,
and as such, an enemy –
and an enemy not only of the belief system
but also of mankind.;
and based on that blatantly false assumption
they proceed to divide civilizations, societies,
empires, nations, and communities.
There you have the root of all evil,
beginning with intolerance, persecution,
and ultimately war and massacre.
*
I am not voicing a theory here.
I am simply stating facts available to anyone
who has eyes to see, ears to hear, and brains to think –
and not to think that he is thinking
but simply to say, if you add 2 to 2
what you get is neither 5 or 22 but 4.
*
If you believe god is one,
or three in one, or, for that matter, four in one –
why should that be a good enough reason
to torture and kill another
who believes the right numbers are five in one?
And yet…
*
The stated aim of all belief systems is to save mankind;
their unstated aim, however, is the destruction of the world.
*
Man is born in sin, we are told.
So are belief systems – born in arrogance
that leads to greed for power.
I don’t believe in belief systems.
#
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
********************************************
STATUS QUO
*****************************
A nation that has lived in darkness for a thousand years
will prefer to go on living in darkness for another thousand years
if the alternative is to see the light.
*
My aim is not to solve our problems
but to say and repeat the obvious
... when the obvious is ignored or forgotten.
*
My aim is not to provide answers to the most important questions
but to question the honesty of those who pretend to have them.
*
If I can place a small distance – even if it is a fraction of an inch –
between us and our certainties -- that is to say lies –
I shall consider my mission accomplished.
*
A religion of love will practice hatred;
and a religion of intolerance will practice intolerance.
A nation that brags about its high IQ
will be subservient to morons,
both foreign and domestic.
*
In the eyes of pragmatists,
daydreamers are contemptible jerks.
In the eyes of our leaders,
writers will be mental masturbators.
*
To solve a problem,
you must first acknowledge its existence.
You may now draw your own conclusions.
#
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
*******************************************************
STATUS QUO (II)
*****************************************
We have many brilliant minds in all fields of human endeavor
but not a single brilliant idea.
Our ablest academics study the past (medievalism and massacrism)
but none of them seems to be interested in our present and future.
I wonder why.
Is it because somewhere very deep inside
they have given up on us?
Or is it because there is no money in it?
*
Our benefactors and panchoonies spend millions
building schools, churches, and community centers
as if raising wall mattered much more than promoting solidarity.
*
Solidarity with us is very much like Mark Twain’s weather.
Every speechifier and sermonizer loves to quote Charents’s final message
(“Oh! Armenian people, your salvation etc.”)
but nobody does a damn thing.
*
“Where there is no vision the people perish” –
and we are perishing in both the Homeland and Diaspora –
by exodus and alienation respectively,
both of which have clearly definable socio-economic reasons
that can be isolated, named, and prevented.
But no one seems to give a damn!
The very same activists who speak of patriotism during the day
turn into gravediggers under cover of darkness.
*
Solidarity is not a commodity you can buy on the marketplace.
Neither is it tax deductible.
Could that be one reason why it is not popular
with our bosses, bishops, and benefactors?
I am not casting aspersions, just wondering…
#
warning: if you ever receive an e-mail from me
asking for financial assistance, please ignore it.
It's not from me but a pirate from Somalia.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
insanity
Saturday, April 14, 2012
*******************************************
DUPES
**********************
“Idol-makers don’t believe in idols,”
says a Chinese proverb.
Something similar could be said of politicians.
Do politicians believe in their own propaganda?
I doubt it.
Did Hitler really believe Jews to belong to an inferior race?
Whenever it was pointed out to him
that one of his aides had Jewish blood, he would reply:
“If true, he will try twice as hard to prove his loyalty,”
or words to that effect.
Goering had a similar reaction: he would say,
“I decide who is and is not a Jew.”
A dupe, by contrast, is one who believes what he is told
even when what he is told is propaganda.
*
A politician’s primary concern is power,
not truth and ideas. He will say and do anything
that will legitimize and enhance his power.
The Pope may doubt his faith seven times a day,
but a dupe never.
A dupe is brainwashed to believe
“Mussolini ha sempre ragione”
(Mussolini is always right);
in the same way that a good Catholic
is brought up to believe the Pope is infallible,
and a patriotic Armenian is brainwashed to believe
a nationalist historian’s version of the past
is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
and anyone who does not share his convictions
is a pro-Turkish traitor.
There you have the roots of our
disagreements, divisions, decline, and degeneration.
#
Saturday, April 14, 2012
***************************************
HISTORIANS
***********************************
One of the best books on Armenian history
that I remember to have read many years ago
was by Armenian historian who was also
a Tashnak leader.
*
When asked what history’s verdict would be on him,
Churchill is said to have replied:
“That’s doesn’t worry me because I plan to write it.”
And he did.
And it was a best-seller.
And he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
*
Had Hitler won World War II,
MEIN KAMPF would have been one of the most widely translated
and used textbooks in schools.
*
Once when I published an interview with a Tashnak leader
(may the Good Lord have mercy on his soul),
a Ramgavar leader (ditto) wrote an angry letter to the editor
in which he exposed me as a dupe
and the Tashnak leader as a charlatan.
Whereupon the Tashnak leader,
in another letter to the editor,
dismissed the Ramgavar as a Stalinist stooge.
*
For an Armenian to believe an Armenian historian
is as bad as for a Turk to believe a Turkish historian.
*
Textbooks written by nationalist historians
might as well be conspiracies of liars.
*
Who takes nationalist historians seriously?
“All professions are conspiracies against the laity” (G.B. Shaw).
“There is a sucker born every day,” or is it every minute?
Writing textbooks is a racket like any other,
and having written one myself, I plead guilty as charged.
#
Saturday, April 14, 2012
******************************************
INSANITY
*****************************
What’s a plea of insanity to murderers,
patriotism is to political leaders.
Greed for power, never!
Love of God, Country or King, always!
*
In a democratic environment,
political leaders are classified as public servants.
In an authoritarian or anti-democratic regime
the men at the top behave as masters
and as if that weren’t preposterous enough,
they also claim to be infallible
for the simple reason that
they represent God on earth.
Dictators don’t claim to represent God because,
like Roman emperors, they classify themselves as gods.
You may now guess to which category
our own leaders belong.
*
Ajarian, the foremost expert on the Armenian language
used to say, “Who among us can claim to know
the Armenian language?”
The same could be said of Armenian history.
*
Even in a democracy our political leaders behave
like our masters who can do no wrong.
They can do no wrong even when they divide the community,
which amounts to saying,
even as they plot the destruction of the nation.
#
*******************************************
DUPES
**********************
“Idol-makers don’t believe in idols,”
says a Chinese proverb.
Something similar could be said of politicians.
Do politicians believe in their own propaganda?
I doubt it.
Did Hitler really believe Jews to belong to an inferior race?
Whenever it was pointed out to him
that one of his aides had Jewish blood, he would reply:
“If true, he will try twice as hard to prove his loyalty,”
or words to that effect.
Goering had a similar reaction: he would say,
“I decide who is and is not a Jew.”
A dupe, by contrast, is one who believes what he is told
even when what he is told is propaganda.
*
A politician’s primary concern is power,
not truth and ideas. He will say and do anything
that will legitimize and enhance his power.
The Pope may doubt his faith seven times a day,
but a dupe never.
A dupe is brainwashed to believe
“Mussolini ha sempre ragione”
(Mussolini is always right);
in the same way that a good Catholic
is brought up to believe the Pope is infallible,
and a patriotic Armenian is brainwashed to believe
a nationalist historian’s version of the past
is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
and anyone who does not share his convictions
is a pro-Turkish traitor.
There you have the roots of our
disagreements, divisions, decline, and degeneration.
#
Saturday, April 14, 2012
***************************************
HISTORIANS
***********************************
One of the best books on Armenian history
that I remember to have read many years ago
was by Armenian historian who was also
a Tashnak leader.
*
When asked what history’s verdict would be on him,
Churchill is said to have replied:
“That’s doesn’t worry me because I plan to write it.”
And he did.
And it was a best-seller.
And he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
*
Had Hitler won World War II,
MEIN KAMPF would have been one of the most widely translated
and used textbooks in schools.
*
Once when I published an interview with a Tashnak leader
(may the Good Lord have mercy on his soul),
a Ramgavar leader (ditto) wrote an angry letter to the editor
in which he exposed me as a dupe
and the Tashnak leader as a charlatan.
Whereupon the Tashnak leader,
in another letter to the editor,
dismissed the Ramgavar as a Stalinist stooge.
*
For an Armenian to believe an Armenian historian
is as bad as for a Turk to believe a Turkish historian.
*
Textbooks written by nationalist historians
might as well be conspiracies of liars.
*
Who takes nationalist historians seriously?
“All professions are conspiracies against the laity” (G.B. Shaw).
“There is a sucker born every day,” or is it every minute?
Writing textbooks is a racket like any other,
and having written one myself, I plead guilty as charged.
#
Saturday, April 14, 2012
******************************************
INSANITY
*****************************
What’s a plea of insanity to murderers,
patriotism is to political leaders.
Greed for power, never!
Love of God, Country or King, always!
*
In a democratic environment,
political leaders are classified as public servants.
In an authoritarian or anti-democratic regime
the men at the top behave as masters
and as if that weren’t preposterous enough,
they also claim to be infallible
for the simple reason that
they represent God on earth.
Dictators don’t claim to represent God because,
like Roman emperors, they classify themselves as gods.
You may now guess to which category
our own leaders belong.
*
Ajarian, the foremost expert on the Armenian language
used to say, “Who among us can claim to know
the Armenian language?”
The same could be said of Armenian history.
*
Even in a democracy our political leaders behave
like our masters who can do no wrong.
They can do no wrong even when they divide the community,
which amounts to saying,
even as they plot the destruction of the nation.
#
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
god and country
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
******************************************
GOD AND COUNTRY
*********************************
We are a nation whose 99% has been thoroughly brainwashed
to fear and respect its 1% -- in the name of God and Country of course.
If it’s not the Sultan, it’s Stalin,
and if it’s not Stalin, it’s former KGB agents.
*
When we were children,
reality was what we saw at the movies,
not what we lived.
It is the same with most adults today:
propaganda is their only reality.
*
It is not at all unusual for a smart Armenian
to be a moral moron,
or for an academic to be a careerist creep.
*
If patriotism were a virtue,
it would improve men instead of making them willing to kill others
simply because they believe what he believes.
*
You cannot share your understanding with someone
who operates on the assumption that he already knows and understands
all he needs to know and understand
or someone who respects a wealthy rug merchant more
than a poor poet.
#
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
*****************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**********************************
On several occasions I was successful in having something
... that I wanted very badly…with catastrophic results.
*
We are the offspring of a nation
that has spent most of its millennial existence
brown-nosing some of the worst scum on earth.
Now then, go ahead and speak to me of Armenian self-esteem.
*
It doesn’t take much to convince people
they are on the side of angels
and their enemies in cahoots with the devil.
*
From writers they demand instant solutions;
from sermonizers and speechifiers only clichés and platitudes
and after they have had their fill
they come back for more.
*
Some questions are better answered with another question.
Case in point:
when asked how many bosses, bishops, and benefactors I have known,
I say: “Why don’t you ask me
how many sultans I have known?”
*
Unlike Americans, we don’t have a silent majority;
what we have is a brainwashed or alienated majority.
#
Monday, April 09, 2012
***************************************
CONFESSIONS
***************************************************
Crooks outnumber honest men among us
as well as the rest of the world.
Honesty has never been a profitable line of work.
When I consented to recycle propaganda – that is,
to lie and deceive my readers – I was paid minimum wage.
When I saw the light and realized I was on my way to the devil,
I became an abominable no-man.
*
I once had a friend who made a comfortable living
as a goussagtsagan (a partisan activist), oussouchits (schoolteacher),
and, to compound the felony even further,
the secretary of an archbishop.
He died of cancer.
I am not implying Armenians are carcinogenic agents,
or working for Armenians is to condemn oneself to an early grave.
I am just stating facts as I observed them.
Do with them what you will.
*
I have been a crook as well as an honest man,
and take my word for it, being honest is no picnic.
I foresee the day when I will write the following message:
“Dear friend: I have so few friends left that
if I lose you I will have none.”
Which reminds me of Garabents’s famous last words
as reported to me by a mutual acquaintance:
“I die alone.”
*
In case you were born yesterday and are not familiar with the name,
allow me to inform you that Hagop Garabents (also Jack Karapetian)
was a broadcaster for Voice of America
and a popular novelist who did his utmost to offend no one.
As far as I know he had no enemies
and he was the darling of the establishment.
Another one of his famous lines worth quoting is:
“Once upon a time we shed our blood for freedom.
We are now afraid of free speech.”
#
Sunday, April 08, 2012
**************************************
LIARS
***************************
People never tell you what they really think.
They may avoid lying about little things
(“it’s raining,” “it’s 4:30 PM,” ”I am hungry”),
but in important matters,
as religion and politics,
or belief systems and ideologies,
they might as well be habitual and compulsive liars.
*
This is especially true of men with power.
It took the popes of Rome several centuries
to admit they had been wrong in their treatment of Galileo.
Neither the popes nor his cardinals and bishops
will ever admit they “doubt their faith seven times every day”
(according to an old Italian saying).
Marx said he was not a Marxist
thus admitting he did not think of himself
as the creator of an infallible belief system.
By contrast, Stalin behaved, very much like the popes of Rome,
as if he were infallible.
The difference between Marx and Stalin is that
Marx was powerless, unlike Stalin, who ruled an empire.
Moral: the greater the power, the bigger the lies.
*
We like to explain and justify our divisions and blunders
by saying “we are a people like any other people,”
“we all make mistakes,”
“there are divisions everywhere," and so on.
By that we mean, if popes, imams, and commissars lie and deceive,
why should we be different?
But I maintain there is a difference, and a big one,
between liars who deceiver other liars,
and liars who deceive victims
in order to deceive and victimize them all over again.
#
******************************************
GOD AND COUNTRY
*********************************
We are a nation whose 99% has been thoroughly brainwashed
to fear and respect its 1% -- in the name of God and Country of course.
If it’s not the Sultan, it’s Stalin,
and if it’s not Stalin, it’s former KGB agents.
*
When we were children,
reality was what we saw at the movies,
not what we lived.
It is the same with most adults today:
propaganda is their only reality.
*
It is not at all unusual for a smart Armenian
to be a moral moron,
or for an academic to be a careerist creep.
*
If patriotism were a virtue,
it would improve men instead of making them willing to kill others
simply because they believe what he believes.
*
You cannot share your understanding with someone
who operates on the assumption that he already knows and understands
all he needs to know and understand
or someone who respects a wealthy rug merchant more
than a poor poet.
#
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
*****************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**********************************
On several occasions I was successful in having something
... that I wanted very badly…with catastrophic results.
*
We are the offspring of a nation
that has spent most of its millennial existence
brown-nosing some of the worst scum on earth.
Now then, go ahead and speak to me of Armenian self-esteem.
*
It doesn’t take much to convince people
they are on the side of angels
and their enemies in cahoots with the devil.
*
From writers they demand instant solutions;
from sermonizers and speechifiers only clichés and platitudes
and after they have had their fill
they come back for more.
*
Some questions are better answered with another question.
Case in point:
when asked how many bosses, bishops, and benefactors I have known,
I say: “Why don’t you ask me
how many sultans I have known?”
*
Unlike Americans, we don’t have a silent majority;
what we have is a brainwashed or alienated majority.
#
Monday, April 09, 2012
***************************************
CONFESSIONS
***************************************************
Crooks outnumber honest men among us
as well as the rest of the world.
Honesty has never been a profitable line of work.
When I consented to recycle propaganda – that is,
to lie and deceive my readers – I was paid minimum wage.
When I saw the light and realized I was on my way to the devil,
I became an abominable no-man.
*
I once had a friend who made a comfortable living
as a goussagtsagan (a partisan activist), oussouchits (schoolteacher),
and, to compound the felony even further,
the secretary of an archbishop.
He died of cancer.
I am not implying Armenians are carcinogenic agents,
or working for Armenians is to condemn oneself to an early grave.
I am just stating facts as I observed them.
Do with them what you will.
*
I have been a crook as well as an honest man,
and take my word for it, being honest is no picnic.
I foresee the day when I will write the following message:
“Dear friend: I have so few friends left that
if I lose you I will have none.”
Which reminds me of Garabents’s famous last words
as reported to me by a mutual acquaintance:
“I die alone.”
*
In case you were born yesterday and are not familiar with the name,
allow me to inform you that Hagop Garabents (also Jack Karapetian)
was a broadcaster for Voice of America
and a popular novelist who did his utmost to offend no one.
As far as I know he had no enemies
and he was the darling of the establishment.
Another one of his famous lines worth quoting is:
“Once upon a time we shed our blood for freedom.
We are now afraid of free speech.”
#
Sunday, April 08, 2012
**************************************
LIARS
***************************
People never tell you what they really think.
They may avoid lying about little things
(“it’s raining,” “it’s 4:30 PM,” ”I am hungry”),
but in important matters,
as religion and politics,
or belief systems and ideologies,
they might as well be habitual and compulsive liars.
*
This is especially true of men with power.
It took the popes of Rome several centuries
to admit they had been wrong in their treatment of Galileo.
Neither the popes nor his cardinals and bishops
will ever admit they “doubt their faith seven times every day”
(according to an old Italian saying).
Marx said he was not a Marxist
thus admitting he did not think of himself
as the creator of an infallible belief system.
By contrast, Stalin behaved, very much like the popes of Rome,
as if he were infallible.
The difference between Marx and Stalin is that
Marx was powerless, unlike Stalin, who ruled an empire.
Moral: the greater the power, the bigger the lies.
*
We like to explain and justify our divisions and blunders
by saying “we are a people like any other people,”
“we all make mistakes,”
“there are divisions everywhere," and so on.
By that we mean, if popes, imams, and commissars lie and deceive,
why should we be different?
But I maintain there is a difference, and a big one,
between liars who deceiver other liars,
and liars who deceive victims
in order to deceive and victimize them all over again.
#
Saturday, April 7, 2012
life
Thursday, April 05, 2012
***************************************
C’EST LA VIE
*****************************
We are seduced by a glance and a smile
and by the time we realize we have been taken in,
it’s too late – we find ourselves in a hole
with only one option: to dig deeper.
*
I once worked with a cute blonde
who didn’t say much and what she said
was more often than not a quotation from the movies.
In an interview, Updike once said Errol Flynn
had been a greater influence than Jesus.
*
How many of our deepest convictions are quotations of clichés
based on hearsay evidence by dupes and compulsive liars?
*
One man’s hero is another’s villain.
General Antranik is a hero to us
and a villain to Azeris who believe
he massacred innocent and defenseless civilians.
Who is right?
*
When there are two sides to a story,
the chances are both are wrong.
*
Which belief system is right and which wrong?
Does it matter when all belief systems
are manipulated by cunning operators
whose number one concern is number one?
#
Friday, April 06, 2012
************************************
ON SECOND THOUGHT
*************************************
It is not ideas and belief systems that I criticize
but their propaganda.
It would be even more accurate to say that
I expose killers who feel justified to murder those
who disagree with them.
I attack speechifiers and sermonizers
who legitimize intolerance and hatred
in the name of God and love.
*
What is intolerance if not fear of truth?
What could be more absurd than opposing lies with bigger lies?
Isn’t that what popes, imams, and rabbis to?
Read the Old Testament and
count the number of murders, wars, and massacres.
Review the history of Islam.
Consider the abuses of nationalism
and the crimes committed in the name
of colonialism, communism, and the brotherhood of all men.
*
The real atheist is not he
who questions or doubts the existence of God.
The real atheist is he who kills in the name of God.
Who are the enemies of dissent?
if not killers who hide themselves behind pious platitudes
that convinces only dupes.
Isn’t it the quintessence of double-talk
to divide the community and the nation
and to ignore the Biblical injunction
“A house divided against itself cannot stand”?
And as if that weren’t enough,
to brag about our genius for survival.
A house in ruins may exist,
but can it survive?
#
Saturday, April 07, 2012
***********************************
ON MODERATION...
AMONG OTHER THINGS
*************************************
If women are less warlike than men
it may be because they know how easily men are seduced by,
among other things, empty verbiage.
*
Greeks praised moderation above all other virtues,
and yet their history is an endless catalogue of wars –
and whenever they ran out of enemies,
they fought one another
until they were themselves defeated, conquered, and colonized
by Macedonians, Romans, and Turks – that’s what I call
a steady decline and degeneration of enemies.
So much for progress.
*
What about us?
Because our history is a nightmare
we like to modify it by nationalist propaganda –
that is to say, transparent lies.
*
If you ever get close to one of our so-called leaders,
you may be shocked to discover that
what he says publicly stands in direct contradiction
to what he says privately.
That’s another way of saying,
they are habitual compulsive liars.
When it comes to being brainwashed,
it takes one to know one…
and I bear scars to prove it.
#
***************************************
C’EST LA VIE
*****************************
We are seduced by a glance and a smile
and by the time we realize we have been taken in,
it’s too late – we find ourselves in a hole
with only one option: to dig deeper.
*
I once worked with a cute blonde
who didn’t say much and what she said
was more often than not a quotation from the movies.
In an interview, Updike once said Errol Flynn
had been a greater influence than Jesus.
*
How many of our deepest convictions are quotations of clichés
based on hearsay evidence by dupes and compulsive liars?
*
One man’s hero is another’s villain.
General Antranik is a hero to us
and a villain to Azeris who believe
he massacred innocent and defenseless civilians.
Who is right?
*
When there are two sides to a story,
the chances are both are wrong.
*
Which belief system is right and which wrong?
Does it matter when all belief systems
are manipulated by cunning operators
whose number one concern is number one?
#
Friday, April 06, 2012
************************************
ON SECOND THOUGHT
*************************************
It is not ideas and belief systems that I criticize
but their propaganda.
It would be even more accurate to say that
I expose killers who feel justified to murder those
who disagree with them.
I attack speechifiers and sermonizers
who legitimize intolerance and hatred
in the name of God and love.
*
What is intolerance if not fear of truth?
What could be more absurd than opposing lies with bigger lies?
Isn’t that what popes, imams, and rabbis to?
Read the Old Testament and
count the number of murders, wars, and massacres.
Review the history of Islam.
Consider the abuses of nationalism
and the crimes committed in the name
of colonialism, communism, and the brotherhood of all men.
*
The real atheist is not he
who questions or doubts the existence of God.
The real atheist is he who kills in the name of God.
Who are the enemies of dissent?
if not killers who hide themselves behind pious platitudes
that convinces only dupes.
Isn’t it the quintessence of double-talk
to divide the community and the nation
and to ignore the Biblical injunction
“A house divided against itself cannot stand”?
And as if that weren’t enough,
to brag about our genius for survival.
A house in ruins may exist,
but can it survive?
#
Saturday, April 07, 2012
***********************************
ON MODERATION...
AMONG OTHER THINGS
*************************************
If women are less warlike than men
it may be because they know how easily men are seduced by,
among other things, empty verbiage.
*
Greeks praised moderation above all other virtues,
and yet their history is an endless catalogue of wars –
and whenever they ran out of enemies,
they fought one another
until they were themselves defeated, conquered, and colonized
by Macedonians, Romans, and Turks – that’s what I call
a steady decline and degeneration of enemies.
So much for progress.
*
What about us?
Because our history is a nightmare
we like to modify it by nationalist propaganda –
that is to say, transparent lies.
*
If you ever get close to one of our so-called leaders,
you may be shocked to discover that
what he says publicly stands in direct contradiction
to what he says privately.
That’s another way of saying,
they are habitual compulsive liars.
When it comes to being brainwashed,
it takes one to know one…
and I bear scars to prove it.
#
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
comments
Sunday, April 01, 2012
************************************
ARE WE A GREAT NATION?
****************************************
Some troubles fall on you when
... you least expect them
like a thief in the night.
The Genocide was not one of them.
A series of massacres had already taken place
making Turkish intentions abundantly clear.
Now then, what does that tell you
about our leadership
that clung to the absurd notion that
the Turks wouldn’t dare to finish the job
because the West wouldn’t allow it?
*
And now that the Obama administration
has refused to use the G word,
what are our prospects?
How many more millions of dollars
do we have to waste on politicians
to whom truth and honesty might as well be
words in an alien and incomprehensible tongue?
Do we give up?
No, of course not!
Instead we assign the job
to a dream-team of lawyers
willing to work pro bono,
and we concentrate all our efforts
on improving conditions in the Homeland
where, as I write, another genocide is taking place –
genocide by exodus.
*
Notwithstanding our propaganda,
we are not a great nation;
neither are we a people like any other people.
Once upon a time we were slaves;
we are now slaves of former slaves.
We have committed the worst blunders
that a nation can commit.
There is only one thing left for us to do now:
not to repeat the same blunders.
#
Monday, April 02, 2012
******************************************
GUILTY AS CHARGED
***************************************
They Ottomanized us to the same degree that we Armenianized them (in the sense that they no longer look like mongrelized Mongols) with one important difference: whereas they borrowed the best from us, we assimilated the worst -- namely their contempt for human rights, intolerance of dissent, and subservience as the only proof of good citizenship -- a good Armenian is one who says “Yes, sir!” to his leaders.
Our tribal leaders may say all kinds of nasty thing about one another but that option is not open to the ignorant masses.
*
Don’t think of me as a witness who speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; but as someone who is reacting to an unbearable reality. You are free to agree or disagree with me. All I ask is that you take my testimony under consideration.
*
Once in a while a reader writes to express his agreement. But so far none of our leaders has gone as far as acknowledging my existence, which suggests I may well be on the right path.
*
All our great men – from Abovian to Zarian and from Khrimian Hairik to Komitas – were victims of our own brown-nosing mediocrities. I am not implying I too am great. All I am saying is that I am on their side. If that’s a crime against humanity, I gladly plead guilty as charged.
#
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
*************************************
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE
***********************************
We are responsible for everything that happens to us – not when it happens (by which time it may be too late) but before, when we engaged in wishful thinking based on false assumptions – “Talaat is not like the Sultan,” “the West is one our side,” “the Russians are our big brothers.”
*
We are not the scum of the earth even if we have been treated as if we were not only by alien tyrants but also our own. What could be more cynical than equating patriotism with subservience to a gang of incompetent charlatans on the grounds that they know best what’s good for the nation?
*
Sartre said “Hell is other people.”
He is right.
Hell is other people even when they happen to be brothers.
In our case, especially!...
#
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
***********************************
A LOSE/LOSE PROPOSITION
***************************************
To be an Armenian writer means,
if you are wrong they will disagree with you;
and if you are right they will hate you.
*
COMPROMISE
***************************
If there is a word for compromise in Armenian
I wonder why it is seldom or never used.
*
SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
********************************************
We slept with the enemy for 600 years –
600 long years during which
instead of making history
we acquired bad habits,
subservience being one of them.
Subservience to top dogs
even when they are s.o.b.s,
and contempt for underdogs
even when they are our brothers.
Subservience to bosses, bishops, and benefactors,
contempt for scribblers.
Subservience to lies,
contempt for the truth.
#
************************************
ARE WE A GREAT NATION?
****************************************
Some troubles fall on you when
... you least expect them
like a thief in the night.
The Genocide was not one of them.
A series of massacres had already taken place
making Turkish intentions abundantly clear.
Now then, what does that tell you
about our leadership
that clung to the absurd notion that
the Turks wouldn’t dare to finish the job
because the West wouldn’t allow it?
*
And now that the Obama administration
has refused to use the G word,
what are our prospects?
How many more millions of dollars
do we have to waste on politicians
to whom truth and honesty might as well be
words in an alien and incomprehensible tongue?
Do we give up?
No, of course not!
Instead we assign the job
to a dream-team of lawyers
willing to work pro bono,
and we concentrate all our efforts
on improving conditions in the Homeland
where, as I write, another genocide is taking place –
genocide by exodus.
*
Notwithstanding our propaganda,
we are not a great nation;
neither are we a people like any other people.
Once upon a time we were slaves;
we are now slaves of former slaves.
We have committed the worst blunders
that a nation can commit.
There is only one thing left for us to do now:
not to repeat the same blunders.
#
Monday, April 02, 2012
******************************************
GUILTY AS CHARGED
***************************************
They Ottomanized us to the same degree that we Armenianized them (in the sense that they no longer look like mongrelized Mongols) with one important difference: whereas they borrowed the best from us, we assimilated the worst -- namely their contempt for human rights, intolerance of dissent, and subservience as the only proof of good citizenship -- a good Armenian is one who says “Yes, sir!” to his leaders.
Our tribal leaders may say all kinds of nasty thing about one another but that option is not open to the ignorant masses.
*
Don’t think of me as a witness who speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; but as someone who is reacting to an unbearable reality. You are free to agree or disagree with me. All I ask is that you take my testimony under consideration.
*
Once in a while a reader writes to express his agreement. But so far none of our leaders has gone as far as acknowledging my existence, which suggests I may well be on the right path.
*
All our great men – from Abovian to Zarian and from Khrimian Hairik to Komitas – were victims of our own brown-nosing mediocrities. I am not implying I too am great. All I am saying is that I am on their side. If that’s a crime against humanity, I gladly plead guilty as charged.
#
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
*************************************
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE
***********************************
We are responsible for everything that happens to us – not when it happens (by which time it may be too late) but before, when we engaged in wishful thinking based on false assumptions – “Talaat is not like the Sultan,” “the West is one our side,” “the Russians are our big brothers.”
*
We are not the scum of the earth even if we have been treated as if we were not only by alien tyrants but also our own. What could be more cynical than equating patriotism with subservience to a gang of incompetent charlatans on the grounds that they know best what’s good for the nation?
*
Sartre said “Hell is other people.”
He is right.
Hell is other people even when they happen to be brothers.
In our case, especially!...
#
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
***********************************
A LOSE/LOSE PROPOSITION
***************************************
To be an Armenian writer means,
if you are wrong they will disagree with you;
and if you are right they will hate you.
*
COMPROMISE
***************************
If there is a word for compromise in Armenian
I wonder why it is seldom or never used.
*
SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
********************************************
We slept with the enemy for 600 years –
600 long years during which
instead of making history
we acquired bad habits,
subservience being one of them.
Subservience to top dogs
even when they are s.o.b.s,
and contempt for underdogs
even when they are our brothers.
Subservience to bosses, bishops, and benefactors,
contempt for scribblers.
Subservience to lies,
contempt for the truth.
#
comments
Sunday, April 01, 2012
************************************
ARE WE A GREAT NATION?
****************************************
Some troubles fall on you when
... you least expect them
like a thief in the night.
The Genocide was not one of them.
A series of massacres had already taken place
making Turkish intentions abundantly clear.
Now then, what does that tell you
about our leadership
that clung to the absurd notion that
the Turks wouldn’t dare to finish the job
because the West wouldn’t allow it?
*
And now that the Obama administration
has refused to use the G word,
what are our prospects?
How many more millions of dollars
do we have to waste on politicians
to whom truth and honesty might as well be
words in an alien and incomprehensible tongue?
Do we give up?
No, of course not!
Instead we assign the job
to a dream-team of lawyers
willing to work pro bono,
and we concentrate all our efforts
on improving conditions in the Homeland
where, as I write, another genocide is taking place –
genocide by exodus.
*
Notwithstanding our propaganda,
we are not a great nation;
neither are we a people like any other people.
Once upon a time we were slaves;
we are now slaves of former slaves.
We have committed the worst blunders
that a nation can commit.
There is only one thing left for us to do now:
not to repeat the same blunders.
#
Monday, April 02, 2012
******************************************
GUILTY AS CHARGED
***************************************
They Ottomanized us to the same degree that we Armenianized them (in the sense that they no longer look like mongrelized Mongols) with one important difference: whereas they borrowed the best from us, we assimilated the worst -- namely their contempt for human rights, intolerance of dissent, and subservience as the only proof of good citizenship -- a good Armenian is one who says “Yes, sir!” to his leaders.
Our tribal leaders may say all kinds of nasty thing about one another but that option is not open to the ignorant masses.
*
Don’t think of me as a witness who speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; but as someone who is reacting to an unbearable reality. You are free to agree or disagree with me. All I ask is that you take my testimony under consideration.
*
Once in a while a reader writes to express his agreement. But so far none of our leaders has gone as far as acknowledging my existence, which suggests I may well be on the right path.
*
All our great men – from Abovian to Zarian and from Khrimian Hairik to Komitas – were victims of our own brown-nosing mediocrities. I am not implying I too am great. All I am saying is that I am on their side. If that’s a crime against humanity, I gladly plead guilty as charged.
#
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
*************************************
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE
***********************************
We are responsible for everything that happens to us – not when it happens (by which time it may be too late) but before, when we engaged in wishful thinking based on false assumptions – “Talaat is not like the Sultan,” “the West is one our side,” “the Russians are our big brothers.”
*
We are not the scum of the earth even if we have been treated as if we were not only by alien tyrants but also our own. What could be more cynical than equating patriotism with subservience to a gang of incompetent charlatans on the grounds that they know best what’s good for the nation?
*
Sartre said “Hell is other people.”
He is right.
Hell is other people even when they happen to be brothers.
In our case, especially!...
#
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
***********************************
A LOSE/LOSE PROPOSITION
***************************************
To be an Armenian writer means,
if you are wrong they will disagree with you;
and if you are right they will hate you.
*
COMPROMISE
***************************
If there is a word for compromise in Armenian
I wonder why it is seldom or never used.
*
SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
********************************************
We slept with the enemy for 600 years –
600 long years during which
instead of making history
we acquired bad habits,
subservience being one of them.
Subservience to top dogs
even when they are s.o.b.s,
and contempt for underdogs
even when they are our brothers.
Subservience to bosses, bishops, and benefactors,
contempt for scribblers.
Subservience to lies,
contempt for the truth.
#
************************************
ARE WE A GREAT NATION?
****************************************
Some troubles fall on you when
... you least expect them
like a thief in the night.
The Genocide was not one of them.
A series of massacres had already taken place
making Turkish intentions abundantly clear.
Now then, what does that tell you
about our leadership
that clung to the absurd notion that
the Turks wouldn’t dare to finish the job
because the West wouldn’t allow it?
*
And now that the Obama administration
has refused to use the G word,
what are our prospects?
How many more millions of dollars
do we have to waste on politicians
to whom truth and honesty might as well be
words in an alien and incomprehensible tongue?
Do we give up?
No, of course not!
Instead we assign the job
to a dream-team of lawyers
willing to work pro bono,
and we concentrate all our efforts
on improving conditions in the Homeland
where, as I write, another genocide is taking place –
genocide by exodus.
*
Notwithstanding our propaganda,
we are not a great nation;
neither are we a people like any other people.
Once upon a time we were slaves;
we are now slaves of former slaves.
We have committed the worst blunders
that a nation can commit.
There is only one thing left for us to do now:
not to repeat the same blunders.
#
Monday, April 02, 2012
******************************************
GUILTY AS CHARGED
***************************************
They Ottomanized us to the same degree that we Armenianized them (in the sense that they no longer look like mongrelized Mongols) with one important difference: whereas they borrowed the best from us, we assimilated the worst -- namely their contempt for human rights, intolerance of dissent, and subservience as the only proof of good citizenship -- a good Armenian is one who says “Yes, sir!” to his leaders.
Our tribal leaders may say all kinds of nasty thing about one another but that option is not open to the ignorant masses.
*
Don’t think of me as a witness who speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; but as someone who is reacting to an unbearable reality. You are free to agree or disagree with me. All I ask is that you take my testimony under consideration.
*
Once in a while a reader writes to express his agreement. But so far none of our leaders has gone as far as acknowledging my existence, which suggests I may well be on the right path.
*
All our great men – from Abovian to Zarian and from Khrimian Hairik to Komitas – were victims of our own brown-nosing mediocrities. I am not implying I too am great. All I am saying is that I am on their side. If that’s a crime against humanity, I gladly plead guilty as charged.
#
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
*************************************
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE
***********************************
We are responsible for everything that happens to us – not when it happens (by which time it may be too late) but before, when we engaged in wishful thinking based on false assumptions – “Talaat is not like the Sultan,” “the West is one our side,” “the Russians are our big brothers.”
*
We are not the scum of the earth even if we have been treated as if we were not only by alien tyrants but also our own. What could be more cynical than equating patriotism with subservience to a gang of incompetent charlatans on the grounds that they know best what’s good for the nation?
*
Sartre said “Hell is other people.”
He is right.
Hell is other people even when they happen to be brothers.
In our case, especially!...
#
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
***********************************
A LOSE/LOSE PROPOSITION
***************************************
To be an Armenian writer means,
if you are wrong they will disagree with you;
and if you are right they will hate you.
*
COMPROMISE
***************************
If there is a word for compromise in Armenian
I wonder why it is seldom or never used.
*
SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
********************************************
We slept with the enemy for 600 years –
600 long years during which
instead of making history
we acquired bad habits,
subservience being one of them.
Subservience to top dogs
even when they are s.o.b.s,
and contempt for underdogs
even when they are our brothers.
Subservience to bosses, bishops, and benefactors,
contempt for scribblers.
Subservience to lies,
contempt for the truth.
#
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