god and country

Wednesday, April 11, 2012
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GOD AND COUNTRY
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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.
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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.
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It is not at all unusual for a smart Armenian
to be a moral moron,
or for an academic to be a careerist creep.
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If patriotism were a virtue,
it would improve men instead of making them willing to kill others
simply because they believe what he believes.
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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.
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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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On several occasions I was successful in having something
... that I wanted very badly…with catastrophic results.
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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.
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It doesn’t take much to convince people
they are on the side of angels
and their enemies in cahoots with the devil.
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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.
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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?”
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Unlike Americans, we don’t have a silent majority;
what we have is a brainwashed or alienated majority.
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Monday, April 09, 2012
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CONFESSIONS
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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Sunday, April 08, 2012
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LIARS
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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.
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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.
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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.
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