Thursday, June 28, 2012
********************************************
IS JUSTICE BLIND?
*****************************
Justice may be blind but she has a sensitive nose
and can smell the unwashed.
Remember that next time you decide to take a wealthy man to court.
*
The wealthy are so used to having their asses kissed
that they now expect you to also tell the world they smell like roses.
And you will be surprised how many are more than willing
to grab the opportunity.
*
A gentle reader writes: "If, as you say,
Armenian literature is a dead end,
why not give up writing?"
I write for two totally non-literary reasons:
To fight boredom and to acquire friends;
and with every book I have published,
I have acquired a new friend;
also (alas!) two enemies.
#
Friday, June 29, 2012
********************************************
ON –ISMS AND RELATED ATROCITIES
**************************************************************There is God;
there are men who represent Him on earth;
and there are the unwashed
whose sole option is to say “Yes, sir!”
There you have it:
as good a definition of Ottomanism and Armenianism as any.
*
What is Turcocentrism?
Like all –isms it is a closed system of thought
that legitimizes prejudice, intolerance, and hatred,
*
The aim of all –isms is to moronize.
*
The stated aim of patriotism is to promote love of Country
(not necessarily fellow countrymen).
Its unstated aim: to hate and kill the enemy.
Which is what moronized Turks did to us.
Which is also why they refuse – make it, they can’t –
plead guilty as charged.
*
What is historicism?
In my morning paper today
I read the following quotation by Napoleon Bonaparte:
“History is the version of past events
that people decided to agree upon.”
There you have it:
as good a definition of historicism as any.
*
What is the true aim of literature?
To unbrainwash the unwashed.
#
Saturday, June 30, 2012
*****************************************************
OBSERVATIONS
***********************************
Can a writer who belongs to a failed nation by a success?
Cioran, Ionesco, Adamov, Nabokov:
if they are respected names today
it’s because they gave up their homeland and their mother tongue
and adopted French or English as their medium.
*
In order to survive, our crème de la crème
had no choice but to kiss the ass of our crème de la scum.
Zarian.
*
In my dealings with our Turcocentric scholars and ghazetajis
I have noticed that their greatest enemy is not the Turk
but an Armenian who dares to question their methods,
doubt their efficacy, question their messianism,
and expose their true intent
which is not justice but covering up
the cowardice, dishonesty, and incompetence
of our ruling classes.
*
To be powerless may not be a crime
but it is treated as if it were a capital offense.
#
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
slogans
Sunday, June 24, 2012
****************************************
RECAPPING
********************
Belief systems are useful in so far as they expose
the fallacies of other belief systems,
but dangerous when they assert orthodoxy or monopoly.
Marxism was useful in so far as it exposed the fallacies
of feudalism and capitalism but dead wrong
when it legitimized crimes against humanity.
Something similar could be said of Christianity and Islam
whose innocent victims are without number.
*
We have no choice but to come to terms with the fact that
what we know, what we can know,
is only a tiny fraction of what we don’t know.
Metaphysical systems may allow us to travel from A to B,
sometimes even from C to D,
but we will never make it to XYZ.
*
All belief systems are like the Tower of Babel:
sooner or later they will collapse
like the World Trade Center on 9/11.
#
Monday, June 25, 2012
************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
********************************
Propaganda is invisible to the brainwashed.
*
Dissent is a crime only in a state
whose legislators are criminals.
*
In the NEW YORKER (June 18, 2012) I read:
“Greeks invented democracy;
they invented tragedy too.
The problem is that in recent years
they haven’t invented much of anything.”
What about us?
What’s our next “first”?
What if we have run out of them?
*
I may not know better
but I may see something you cannot see.
#
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
*********************************
COMMENTS
****************************
Everything I say is guesswork.
I leave truth to our imams, commissars, and their dupes.
*
For more than a thousand years
the ancient Greeks believed in non-existent gods
and built magnificent temples in their honor.
Which may suggest that a god doesn’t need to exist
in order to be believed and worshipped?
*
We emphasize the importance of good manners to our children;
also the necessity to murder the enemy in time of war.
#
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
************************************
SLOGANS
**************************
“Black is beautiful.”
“Armenians are smart.”
“Jews are the Chosen People.”
These assessments have as much validity or objectivity
as their contradictions.
*
Slogans maybe defined as lies
with political ambitions.
“Separate but equal.”
“Russians are our Big Brothers.”
*
My favorite slogans are the ones
that are contradicted by other slogans:
“All men are brothers.”
“Homo homini lupus”
(Man is wolf to other men).
#
****************************************
RECAPPING
********************
Belief systems are useful in so far as they expose
the fallacies of other belief systems,
but dangerous when they assert orthodoxy or monopoly.
Marxism was useful in so far as it exposed the fallacies
of feudalism and capitalism but dead wrong
when it legitimized crimes against humanity.
Something similar could be said of Christianity and Islam
whose innocent victims are without number.
*
We have no choice but to come to terms with the fact that
what we know, what we can know,
is only a tiny fraction of what we don’t know.
Metaphysical systems may allow us to travel from A to B,
sometimes even from C to D,
but we will never make it to XYZ.
*
All belief systems are like the Tower of Babel:
sooner or later they will collapse
like the World Trade Center on 9/11.
#
Monday, June 25, 2012
************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
********************************
Propaganda is invisible to the brainwashed.
*
Dissent is a crime only in a state
whose legislators are criminals.
*
In the NEW YORKER (June 18, 2012) I read:
“Greeks invented democracy;
they invented tragedy too.
The problem is that in recent years
they haven’t invented much of anything.”
What about us?
What’s our next “first”?
What if we have run out of them?
*
I may not know better
but I may see something you cannot see.
#
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
*********************************
COMMENTS
****************************
Everything I say is guesswork.
I leave truth to our imams, commissars, and their dupes.
*
For more than a thousand years
the ancient Greeks believed in non-existent gods
and built magnificent temples in their honor.
Which may suggest that a god doesn’t need to exist
in order to be believed and worshipped?
*
We emphasize the importance of good manners to our children;
also the necessity to murder the enemy in time of war.
#
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
************************************
SLOGANS
**************************
“Black is beautiful.”
“Armenians are smart.”
“Jews are the Chosen People.”
These assessments have as much validity or objectivity
as their contradictions.
*
Slogans maybe defined as lies
with political ambitions.
“Separate but equal.”
“Russians are our Big Brothers.”
*
My favorite slogans are the ones
that are contradicted by other slogans:
“All men are brothers.”
“Homo homini lupus”
(Man is wolf to other men).
#
Saturday, June 23, 2012
coffee
Thursday, June 21, 2012
***********************************
COFFEE
************************
Is coffee good for you?
Yes. No. Maybe. No one knows.
There are, it seems, a thousand ingredients in coffee.
How many of them are good and how many bad?
Remains to be seen.
Who would have thought such a simple question
would have so many complicated answers?
But there are more complications
that have nothing to do with coffee itself.
Those who say coffee is bad
also say that coffee drinkers are prone to acquire other
bad habits – such as smoking, drinking, and a sedentary life.
So that even after determining the nature
of the thousand ingredients it may be necessary to factor in
personality traits.
*
Is nationalism good or bad?
Is democracy better than monarchy?
Do angels and demons exist?
What about God and the Devil?
Is there life after death?
Was there life before birth?
*
When asked what he thought of Armenians,
George Bernard Shaw is quoted as having said –
I am now paraphrasing:
“Armenians are a great people
provided they are periodically massacred.”
So much for the usefulness of answers
provided by great intellects.
#
Saturday, June 23, 2012
************************************
POWER
********************
Where there is power,
there will be criminals.
My guess is – and it’s only a guess
because there are no statistics:
the criminal rate on Wall Street, the Kremlin, and the Vatican
are about the same.
*
Speak truth to power?
What nonsense!
Power knows already.
The challenge – the real challenge -- is
convincing the 99%,
which amounts to saying
unbrainwashing the brainwashed.
#
Saturday, June 23, 2012
***************************************
SCENARIO
**************************
Cosmologists tell us planets, stars, and galaxies are born and die.
In a billion years or so the earth will be incinerated by the sun
and our solar system and eventually our galaxy (the Milky Way)
will enter a black hole and emerge as a new galaxy
with its own stars, solar system, and planets.
Perhaps this has happened many times before
and it is happening elsewhere even as I write.
Perhaps in the next cycle the Ottoman Empire will be
an Armenian Empire and we will do to them
what they did to us.
I for one wouldn’t be surprised if in another cycle
Hitler dies of inanition in an Israeli concentration camp
and Stalin freezes to death in a Siberian gulag.
And these things may happen immediately after we die,
because to die means to enter a timeless realm
wherein a fraction of a second is as long as a billion years.
You don’t believe me?
Too good to be true?
Listen to a cosmologist and see how much of what
he says, assumes or supposes rings true
and how much like pure fantasy.
*
If God exists He must be just.
And when I speak of divine justice
I mean the kind of justice beside which
human justice is as nothing!
#
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.
***********************************
COFFEE
************************
Is coffee good for you?
Yes. No. Maybe. No one knows.
There are, it seems, a thousand ingredients in coffee.
How many of them are good and how many bad?
Remains to be seen.
Who would have thought such a simple question
would have so many complicated answers?
But there are more complications
that have nothing to do with coffee itself.
Those who say coffee is bad
also say that coffee drinkers are prone to acquire other
bad habits – such as smoking, drinking, and a sedentary life.
So that even after determining the nature
of the thousand ingredients it may be necessary to factor in
personality traits.
*
Is nationalism good or bad?
Is democracy better than monarchy?
Do angels and demons exist?
What about God and the Devil?
Is there life after death?
Was there life before birth?
*
When asked what he thought of Armenians,
George Bernard Shaw is quoted as having said –
I am now paraphrasing:
“Armenians are a great people
provided they are periodically massacred.”
So much for the usefulness of answers
provided by great intellects.
#
Saturday, June 23, 2012
************************************
POWER
********************
Where there is power,
there will be criminals.
My guess is – and it’s only a guess
because there are no statistics:
the criminal rate on Wall Street, the Kremlin, and the Vatican
are about the same.
*
Speak truth to power?
What nonsense!
Power knows already.
The challenge – the real challenge -- is
convincing the 99%,
which amounts to saying
unbrainwashing the brainwashed.
#
Saturday, June 23, 2012
***************************************
SCENARIO
**************************
Cosmologists tell us planets, stars, and galaxies are born and die.
In a billion years or so the earth will be incinerated by the sun
and our solar system and eventually our galaxy (the Milky Way)
will enter a black hole and emerge as a new galaxy
with its own stars, solar system, and planets.
Perhaps this has happened many times before
and it is happening elsewhere even as I write.
Perhaps in the next cycle the Ottoman Empire will be
an Armenian Empire and we will do to them
what they did to us.
I for one wouldn’t be surprised if in another cycle
Hitler dies of inanition in an Israeli concentration camp
and Stalin freezes to death in a Siberian gulag.
And these things may happen immediately after we die,
because to die means to enter a timeless realm
wherein a fraction of a second is as long as a billion years.
You don’t believe me?
Too good to be true?
Listen to a cosmologist and see how much of what
he says, assumes or supposes rings true
and how much like pure fantasy.
*
If God exists He must be just.
And when I speak of divine justice
I mean the kind of justice beside which
human justice is as nothing!
#
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.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
insanity
Sunday, June 17, 2012
*************************************
THE SULTAN IS DEAD
*******************************
People change.
Nations change.
Consider the Chinese:
from communists to capitalists in a single generation.
Consider the Mongols:
who is afraid of them today?
Consider the Yanks:
from happy-go-lucky under Eisenhower and “I Love Lucy”
to the post-Vietnam, Watergate, and “All in the Family” generation.
*
What about us?
We too have changed – but only two words in our national anthem
(from “Tshvar ander" to “azad angakh”).
What else?
I don’t know.
You tell me!
I am all ears.
If our 99% are taken in by our 1%
it may be because they want to be taken in.
They demand to be duped.
They beg to be duped.
They are grateful to their deceivers.
The Sultan is dead.
Long live Putin!
#
Monday, June 18, 2012
****************************************
QUESTION
************************
Reality is a jungle
and we are as backward and naïve as jungle tribes.
Our friends have been our worst enemies
and our flatterers our most dangerous liars.
For every truth we have invented a Big Lie.
*
Zohrab trusted Talaat.
Mikoyan trusted Stalin.
Gulbenkian left only 5% of his wealth to us,
and who can blame him?
*
Raffi is right.
We don’t have an aristocracy.
We don’t have elites.
Even our best and brightest were taken in by riffraff.
If I see the dark side of things
it’s because I have earned the right.
*
Because I refuse to flatter your ego,
am I then your enemy?
#Tuesday, June 19, 2012
**************************************
NAPOLEON
********************
Napoleon Bonaparte:
I suspect at least one of his contemporaries saying:
“With a name like that he will never amount to anything!”
*
No more wars?
Only if you eradicate the Big Lies of the 1%
and the idiocy of the 99%.
*
You can argue against half-truths
but not against Big Lies.
*
I have been exposed to so much Armenian venom
that I have every reason to suspect
among ten Armenians
nine are sure to be Turks.
#
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
***************************************
INSANITY
************************
The aim of all propaganda is to assert superiority:
my god, or king, or nation, or race (blood)
is better than yours.
*
Propaganda cannot be outlawed
because everyone practices it.
*
When a transgression enjoys universal approval
it ceases to be a transgression.
*
Anything that places a distance between reality and us
leads to insanity.
*
The real danger in propaganda is not that
it legitimizes prejudice, intolerance, and lies
but that it leads to collective insanity.
*
Germans under Hitler experienced collective insanity
as surely as the Chinese under Mao,
Italians under Mussolini,
Soviets under Stalin…
and in general, all people
under authoritarian or undemocratic rulers.
*
Propaganda and sanity are mutually exclusive concepts.
*
Religious wars in Europe
(one of which lasted a hundred years)
may be seen as eruptions of collective insanity.
*
Moral: If it makes you feel good,
take a second look,
and if you see nothing wrong, take a third look…
and a fourth... until you unmask the deception.
#
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.
*************************************
THE SULTAN IS DEAD
*******************************
People change.
Nations change.
Consider the Chinese:
from communists to capitalists in a single generation.
Consider the Mongols:
who is afraid of them today?
Consider the Yanks:
from happy-go-lucky under Eisenhower and “I Love Lucy”
to the post-Vietnam, Watergate, and “All in the Family” generation.
*
What about us?
We too have changed – but only two words in our national anthem
(from “Tshvar ander" to “azad angakh”).
What else?
I don’t know.
You tell me!
I am all ears.
If our 99% are taken in by our 1%
it may be because they want to be taken in.
They demand to be duped.
They beg to be duped.
They are grateful to their deceivers.
The Sultan is dead.
Long live Putin!
#
Monday, June 18, 2012
****************************************
QUESTION
************************
Reality is a jungle
and we are as backward and naïve as jungle tribes.
Our friends have been our worst enemies
and our flatterers our most dangerous liars.
For every truth we have invented a Big Lie.
*
Zohrab trusted Talaat.
Mikoyan trusted Stalin.
Gulbenkian left only 5% of his wealth to us,
and who can blame him?
*
Raffi is right.
We don’t have an aristocracy.
We don’t have elites.
Even our best and brightest were taken in by riffraff.
If I see the dark side of things
it’s because I have earned the right.
*
Because I refuse to flatter your ego,
am I then your enemy?
#Tuesday, June 19, 2012
**************************************
NAPOLEON
********************
Napoleon Bonaparte:
I suspect at least one of his contemporaries saying:
“With a name like that he will never amount to anything!”
*
No more wars?
Only if you eradicate the Big Lies of the 1%
and the idiocy of the 99%.
*
You can argue against half-truths
but not against Big Lies.
*
I have been exposed to so much Armenian venom
that I have every reason to suspect
among ten Armenians
nine are sure to be Turks.
#
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
***************************************
INSANITY
************************
The aim of all propaganda is to assert superiority:
my god, or king, or nation, or race (blood)
is better than yours.
*
Propaganda cannot be outlawed
because everyone practices it.
*
When a transgression enjoys universal approval
it ceases to be a transgression.
*
Anything that places a distance between reality and us
leads to insanity.
*
The real danger in propaganda is not that
it legitimizes prejudice, intolerance, and lies
but that it leads to collective insanity.
*
Germans under Hitler experienced collective insanity
as surely as the Chinese under Mao,
Italians under Mussolini,
Soviets under Stalin…
and in general, all people
under authoritarian or undemocratic rulers.
*
Propaganda and sanity are mutually exclusive concepts.
*
Religious wars in Europe
(one of which lasted a hundred years)
may be seen as eruptions of collective insanity.
*
Moral: If it makes you feel good,
take a second look,
and if you see nothing wrong, take a third look…
and a fourth... until you unmask the deception.
#
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, June 16, 2012
memos
Thursday, June 14, 2012
*******************************************
MEMORANDA
************************
Historians are first and foremost
propagandists of state-sponsored lies.
With them presumption of guilt or innocence comes first,
selection of evidence after.
*
Writing is easy.
Deleting – that’s where creativity and originality move in.
*
To know when to shut up:
birthplace of all masterpieces.
*
All organized religions have failed.
If they continue to have followers
it's because any meaning,
even when meaningless,
is better than no meaning.
*
Strong convictions are the surest symptoms
of weak minds.
#
Friday, June 15, 2012
*********************************
IDIOTS
********************
Canadians and Americans appear to be obsessed
with their unemployment rates,
not to say corruption and incompetence in high places.
I have been watching Armenian news on TV
for more than ten years now
and I don’t remember a single mention
of unemployment, corruption, and incompetence.
All I see is a bunch of bureaucrats or “suits”
(also identified as “kheyars,” meaning cucumbers)
in official ceremonies,
children and teenagers singing and dancing,
and the rich variety of delicacies served at banquets.
Idiots!
*
Turks are so busy being proud of their Turkishness
that they pretend to be offended
when massacres are mentioned.
And we are so proud of our Armenishness
that we consider unemployment, corruption, and incompetence
alien concept not worth mentioning.
Idiots!
*
We are not so much a divided nation
as a broken one – a broken one, moreover,
that refuses to mend itself
though it has all the means to do so.
Idiots!
#
Saturday, June 16, 2012
*********************************
DZOUR NESDINK,
SHIDAG KHOSSINK
**************************************************
Burma has its San Suu Kyi,
Tibet its Dalai Lama,
Tunisia its Buazizi,
Egypt its Muslim Brotherhood,
and once upon a time we had Khrimian Hairik
who dared to say No to the Czar.
Whom do we have today?
Only empty suits, brown-nosing wheeler-dealers,
and gutless nonentities whose #1 concern is #1.
This is true not only of the Homeland
but also the Diaspora.
That’s what a thousand years of subservience has done to us.
We lament our million-and-half every year on April 24.
We should lament our loss of manhood every day.
#
*******************************************
MEMORANDA
************************
Historians are first and foremost
propagandists of state-sponsored lies.
With them presumption of guilt or innocence comes first,
selection of evidence after.
*
Writing is easy.
Deleting – that’s where creativity and originality move in.
*
To know when to shut up:
birthplace of all masterpieces.
*
All organized religions have failed.
If they continue to have followers
it's because any meaning,
even when meaningless,
is better than no meaning.
*
Strong convictions are the surest symptoms
of weak minds.
#
Friday, June 15, 2012
*********************************
IDIOTS
********************
Canadians and Americans appear to be obsessed
with their unemployment rates,
not to say corruption and incompetence in high places.
I have been watching Armenian news on TV
for more than ten years now
and I don’t remember a single mention
of unemployment, corruption, and incompetence.
All I see is a bunch of bureaucrats or “suits”
(also identified as “kheyars,” meaning cucumbers)
in official ceremonies,
children and teenagers singing and dancing,
and the rich variety of delicacies served at banquets.
Idiots!
*
Turks are so busy being proud of their Turkishness
that they pretend to be offended
when massacres are mentioned.
And we are so proud of our Armenishness
that we consider unemployment, corruption, and incompetence
alien concept not worth mentioning.
Idiots!
*
We are not so much a divided nation
as a broken one – a broken one, moreover,
that refuses to mend itself
though it has all the means to do so.
Idiots!
#
Saturday, June 16, 2012
*********************************
DZOUR NESDINK,
SHIDAG KHOSSINK
**************************************************
Burma has its San Suu Kyi,
Tibet its Dalai Lama,
Tunisia its Buazizi,
Egypt its Muslim Brotherhood,
and once upon a time we had Khrimian Hairik
who dared to say No to the Czar.
Whom do we have today?
Only empty suits, brown-nosing wheeler-dealers,
and gutless nonentities whose #1 concern is #1.
This is true not only of the Homeland
but also the Diaspora.
That’s what a thousand years of subservience has done to us.
We lament our million-and-half every year on April 24.
We should lament our loss of manhood every day.
#
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
observations
Sunday, June 10, 2012
*************************************
OBSERVATIONS
*****************************
A man who kills in the name of God
worships the Devil.
*
You are not brainwashed for your own good;
you are brainwashed to better serve their interests.
*
Failure is the key to success,
and success on one level
may spell ruin in another.
*
Tell me what is it that you want more than anything else
and I will tell you, if you get it, you will be disappointed.
*
Too big to fail or too insignificant to survive? – like kings…
#
Monday, June 11, 2012
************************************
MORE OBSERVATIONS
********************************
If I were a wealthy man
I would be surrounded by brown-nosers.
Ah! the privileges of poverty!
*
“If you don’t like the message, shoot the messenger!”
That indeed is the philosophy of all authoritarian rulers.
Did I say philosophy?
Make it philomoronism.
*
The destiny of all organizations
is to become a mafia.
*
Where there is power
the devil is sure to be in charge.
*
It took mankind many centuries to conclude that
kings don’t rule by the will of God.
It may take many more centuries for mankind to realize that
men who speak in the name of God
engage in charlatanism.
*
Believers have doubts as surely as
skeptics thirst for certainties.
Is there life after death?
Nobody knows.
Speaking for myself,
I think the universe is too complex and magnificent
piece of machinery
to end with a whimper.
But that may well be wishful thinking on my part.
#
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
***********************************
THEORIES & FACTS
******************************
If you define patriotism as love of homeland,
how do you define homeland?
Speaking for myself I would define it
as anywhere I am allowed to work and make a living.
If thousands of Armenians have emigrated to Turkey,
does that mean Turkey is now their homeland?
A good question for which I don’t have an easy answer.
I only know that when
facts contradict theories,
you discard the theories and keep the facts.
Next question:
Is Armenia our homeland
if it’s at the mercy of former KGB agents
and Bolshevik mafias?
Another good question.
Speaking for myself,
I would have a better chance to survive in Turkey.
#
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
************************************
EMPTY VERBIAGE
*****************************
To speak of Turks and Armenians
is to engage in fiction.
There are no Turks and Armenians.
There are only mongrelized Mongols
and bastardized Armenians.
The rest is nationalist propaganda
and all talk of “pure blood” is fascist nonsense.
#
*************************************
OBSERVATIONS
*****************************
A man who kills in the name of God
worships the Devil.
*
You are not brainwashed for your own good;
you are brainwashed to better serve their interests.
*
Failure is the key to success,
and success on one level
may spell ruin in another.
*
Tell me what is it that you want more than anything else
and I will tell you, if you get it, you will be disappointed.
*
Too big to fail or too insignificant to survive? – like kings…
#
Monday, June 11, 2012
************************************
MORE OBSERVATIONS
********************************
If I were a wealthy man
I would be surrounded by brown-nosers.
Ah! the privileges of poverty!
*
“If you don’t like the message, shoot the messenger!”
That indeed is the philosophy of all authoritarian rulers.
Did I say philosophy?
Make it philomoronism.
*
The destiny of all organizations
is to become a mafia.
*
Where there is power
the devil is sure to be in charge.
*
It took mankind many centuries to conclude that
kings don’t rule by the will of God.
It may take many more centuries for mankind to realize that
men who speak in the name of God
engage in charlatanism.
*
Believers have doubts as surely as
skeptics thirst for certainties.
Is there life after death?
Nobody knows.
Speaking for myself,
I think the universe is too complex and magnificent
piece of machinery
to end with a whimper.
But that may well be wishful thinking on my part.
#
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
***********************************
THEORIES & FACTS
******************************
If you define patriotism as love of homeland,
how do you define homeland?
Speaking for myself I would define it
as anywhere I am allowed to work and make a living.
If thousands of Armenians have emigrated to Turkey,
does that mean Turkey is now their homeland?
A good question for which I don’t have an easy answer.
I only know that when
facts contradict theories,
you discard the theories and keep the facts.
Next question:
Is Armenia our homeland
if it’s at the mercy of former KGB agents
and Bolshevik mafias?
Another good question.
Speaking for myself,
I would have a better chance to survive in Turkey.
#
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
************************************
EMPTY VERBIAGE
*****************************
To speak of Turks and Armenians
is to engage in fiction.
There are no Turks and Armenians.
There are only mongrelized Mongols
and bastardized Armenians.
The rest is nationalist propaganda
and all talk of “pure blood” is fascist nonsense.
#
observations
Sunday, June 10, 2012
*************************************
OBSERVATIONS
*****************************
A man who kills in the name of God
worships the Devil.
*
You are not brainwashed for your own good;
you are brainwashed to better serve their interests.
*
Failure is the key to success,
and success on one level
may spell ruin in another.
*
Tell me what is it that you want more than anything else
and I will tell you, if you get it, you will be disappointed.
*
Too big to fail or too insignificant to survive? – like kings…
#
Monday, June 11, 2012
************************************
MORE OBSERVATIONS
********************************
If I were a wealthy man
I would be surrounded by brown-nosers.
Ah! the privileges of poverty!
*
“If you don’t like the message, shoot the messenger!”
That indeed is the philosophy of all authoritarian rulers.
Did I say philosophy?
Make it philomoronism.
*
The destiny of all organizations
is to become a mafia.
*
Where there is power
the devil is sure to be in charge.
*
It took mankind many centuries to conclude that
kings don’t rule by the will of God.
It may take many more centuries for mankind to realize that
men who speak in the name of God
engage in charlatanism.
*
Believers have doubts as surely as
skeptics thirst for certainties.
Is there life after death?
Nobody knows.
Speaking for myself,
I think the universe is too complex and magnificent
piece of machinery
to end with a whimper.
But that may well be wishful thinking on my part.
#
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
***********************************
THEORIES & FACTS
******************************
If you define patriotism as love of homeland,
how do you define homeland?
Speaking for myself I would define it
as anywhere I am allowed to work and make a living.
If thousands of Armenians have emigrated to Turkey,
does that mean Turkey is now their homeland?
A good question for which I don’t have an easy answer.
I only know that when
facts contradict theories,
you discard the theories and keep the facts.
Next question:
Is Armenia our homeland
if it’s at the mercy of former KGB agents
and Bolshevik mafias?
Another good question.
Speaking for myself,
I would have a better chance to survive in Turkey.
#
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
************************************
EMPTY VERBIAGE
*****************************
To speak of Turks and Armenians
is to engage in fiction.
There are no Turks and Armenians.
There are only mongrelized Mongols
and bastardized Armenians.
The rest is nationalist propaganda
and all talk of “pure blood” is fascist nonsense.
#
*************************************
OBSERVATIONS
*****************************
A man who kills in the name of God
worships the Devil.
*
You are not brainwashed for your own good;
you are brainwashed to better serve their interests.
*
Failure is the key to success,
and success on one level
may spell ruin in another.
*
Tell me what is it that you want more than anything else
and I will tell you, if you get it, you will be disappointed.
*
Too big to fail or too insignificant to survive? – like kings…
#
Monday, June 11, 2012
************************************
MORE OBSERVATIONS
********************************
If I were a wealthy man
I would be surrounded by brown-nosers.
Ah! the privileges of poverty!
*
“If you don’t like the message, shoot the messenger!”
That indeed is the philosophy of all authoritarian rulers.
Did I say philosophy?
Make it philomoronism.
*
The destiny of all organizations
is to become a mafia.
*
Where there is power
the devil is sure to be in charge.
*
It took mankind many centuries to conclude that
kings don’t rule by the will of God.
It may take many more centuries for mankind to realize that
men who speak in the name of God
engage in charlatanism.
*
Believers have doubts as surely as
skeptics thirst for certainties.
Is there life after death?
Nobody knows.
Speaking for myself,
I think the universe is too complex and magnificent
piece of machinery
to end with a whimper.
But that may well be wishful thinking on my part.
#
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
***********************************
THEORIES & FACTS
******************************
If you define patriotism as love of homeland,
how do you define homeland?
Speaking for myself I would define it
as anywhere I am allowed to work and make a living.
If thousands of Armenians have emigrated to Turkey,
does that mean Turkey is now their homeland?
A good question for which I don’t have an easy answer.
I only know that when
facts contradict theories,
you discard the theories and keep the facts.
Next question:
Is Armenia our homeland
if it’s at the mercy of former KGB agents
and Bolshevik mafias?
Another good question.
Speaking for myself,
I would have a better chance to survive in Turkey.
#
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
************************************
EMPTY VERBIAGE
*****************************
To speak of Turks and Armenians
is to engage in fiction.
There are no Turks and Armenians.
There are only mongrelized Mongols
and bastardized Armenians.
The rest is nationalist propaganda
and all talk of “pure blood” is fascist nonsense.
#
Saturday, June 9, 2012
1%
Thursday, June 07, 2012
****************************************
ASSETS & LIABILITIES
**************************************
A failed nation is defined as one
... that has not been successful in reconciling
its internal factions.
It follows, notwithstanding our many assets
(high IQ, progressive, adaptable, first nation this, first nation that)
we are a failed nation
very much like Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, and Syria.
*
What’s the use of being smart
if we are too stupid to reach a consensus?
What the hell is the use of doing a thousand things
if we cannot do that which must be done?
And when I say “we” I mean not only our leaders
but also those who support them.
If our leaders divide us
it’s because we allow them to do so.
We are as responsible as they are.
*
Sooner or later all internal divisions
lead to massacre – both “red” and “white.”
And speaking of massacre,
you may have noticed that
when I made a short list of our assets,
I included our genocide
(“first nation to experience genocide in the 20th century"),
which of course is not an asset but a liability
and the worst failure that a nation can experience.
# Friday, June 08, 2012
********************************************************
COMMENTS
***************************
To say philosophy is useless is to imply
philomoronism is a superior discipline.
*
The only reason the number of my blunders
has been going down steadily is that
so is the variety and frequency of my activities.
The dead don’t make mistakes.
As for the frequency and variety of my written comments:
more often than not what I do is speak in defense of Socrates
and against the jury that condemned him to death.
*
If you want to get ahead in our environment
study the art of kissing ass.
You need no other qualifications.
*
The greatest source of error is self-assessed infallibility.
#
Saturday, June 09, 2012
**************************************
ON THE 1%
*************************
We are told the 1% create jobs.
What we are not told is where would the 1% be
without the blood and sweat of the 99%?
And even important:
who would wipe their asses
when they are too young and too old?
*
ON BEING PREDICTABLE
***************************************
If I am predictable
it’s because I am consistently against
recycling propaganda,
promoting subservience,
and legitimizing prejudice.
If being unpredictable means
adopting the opposite disposition,
I solemnly swear here and now
never to be unpredictable.
*
ON WOMEN
**************************
The worst thing I can say about women is that
they are like men.
#
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.
****************************************
ASSETS & LIABILITIES
**************************************
A failed nation is defined as one
... that has not been successful in reconciling
its internal factions.
It follows, notwithstanding our many assets
(high IQ, progressive, adaptable, first nation this, first nation that)
we are a failed nation
very much like Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, and Syria.
*
What’s the use of being smart
if we are too stupid to reach a consensus?
What the hell is the use of doing a thousand things
if we cannot do that which must be done?
And when I say “we” I mean not only our leaders
but also those who support them.
If our leaders divide us
it’s because we allow them to do so.
We are as responsible as they are.
*
Sooner or later all internal divisions
lead to massacre – both “red” and “white.”
And speaking of massacre,
you may have noticed that
when I made a short list of our assets,
I included our genocide
(“first nation to experience genocide in the 20th century"),
which of course is not an asset but a liability
and the worst failure that a nation can experience.
# Friday, June 08, 2012
********************************************************
COMMENTS
***************************
To say philosophy is useless is to imply
philomoronism is a superior discipline.
*
The only reason the number of my blunders
has been going down steadily is that
so is the variety and frequency of my activities.
The dead don’t make mistakes.
As for the frequency and variety of my written comments:
more often than not what I do is speak in defense of Socrates
and against the jury that condemned him to death.
*
If you want to get ahead in our environment
study the art of kissing ass.
You need no other qualifications.
*
The greatest source of error is self-assessed infallibility.
#
Saturday, June 09, 2012
**************************************
ON THE 1%
*************************
We are told the 1% create jobs.
What we are not told is where would the 1% be
without the blood and sweat of the 99%?
And even important:
who would wipe their asses
when they are too young and too old?
*
ON BEING PREDICTABLE
***************************************
If I am predictable
it’s because I am consistently against
recycling propaganda,
promoting subservience,
and legitimizing prejudice.
If being unpredictable means
adopting the opposite disposition,
I solemnly swear here and now
never to be unpredictable.
*
ON WOMEN
**************************
The worst thing I can say about women is that
they are like men.
#
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.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
wrong?
Sunday, June 3, 2012
***************************************
IF I AM WRONG…
*********************************
If I am wrong,
why so many are with me?
And if I am right,
why so many are against me?
*
The brainwashed will never be with me
for the simple reason that they believe – as I did –
everything they are told by priests, schoolteachers, and scoutmasters.
I remember as a teenager
when I first met someone who spoke as I do today
I dismissed him as a megalomaniacal eccentric
on the verge of insanity.
*
The politically ambitious will never agree with me either
because in an authoritarian environment
they know instinctively there is no future in dissent
which they equate with treason.
They believe to be – or rather, they are brainwashed to believe
they stand for God and Country
and anyone who is against them
must be on the side of the Devil and the enemy.
*
In politics instinct speaks louder than reason.
That’s the only way to explain the success of dictators like Hitler,
or for that matter, our own speechifiers and charlatans
who pretend to be right
even when they are criminally and catastrophically wrong.
#Monday, June 04, 2012
***********************************
LAMENTATION VII
***********************************
“Where many other nations perished, we survived!’ – implying,
we must be doing something right.
What exactly did we do right?
We allowed them to legally rape our daughters and kidnap our sons.
We survived, yes, but at what cost?
That’s a question we don’t like to ask
perhaps because the answer is too depressing.
*
We survived – if that’s what you want to call it –
only to die by the million –
and I am not just talking about massacres now.
What’s done is done.
Let bygones be bygones.
The question we must ask at this point is:
In what way the conditions of our survival
radically altered our character as a nation?
What if we survived only to be subservient to alien commissars
and our own agha babas?
*
We praise freedom even as we bury it.
We speak of independence even as we go down on our knees
in fear of our own executioners.
If that’s survival, I want not part of it.
*
No need to lament our dead
when it is the living that are in need of our tears.
#
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
***************************************
ON GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
**************************************
The Turks refuse to recognize the Genocide
for a number of reasons, beginning with the fact that
they are brainwashed to believe
they belong to a great and noble race of men
known as the Turanic race
(known only to them and no one else
and invented by Kemal, who like all dictators ,
felt fully qualified to rewrite not only history
and the laws of the land but also biology).
It follows, the descendants of such a noble race
are “incapable of committing atrocities” (Erdogan).
*
Turks know that the dead cannot testify
and the survivors are living proof of the fact
there was no extermination or a plan to exterminate
(which is how genocide is defined).
*
They also know if they plead guilty as charged
they stand to lose not only face
but also billions in reparations
as well as vast tracts of land.
*
Last but not least, they know that truth may be on our side
but the world is on theirs because all imperial powers
as well as nations with imperial ambitions,
including the most civilized and progressive,
have at one time or another committed
unspeakable crimes against defenseless civilians.
*
All this is known not only to the Turkish leadership
but also our own Turcocentric academics and ghazetajis
whose central concern is neither justice
nor documenting crimes against humanity
but covering up the incompetence and blunders
of our own leadership.
#
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
****************************************
CONTRADICTIONS
*****************************
You cannot reason with the brainwashed.
Neither can you reason with an imam, rabbi, or bishop.
What does that mean in practical terms?
Simply this:
if you are accused of murder one
(cold-blooded and premeditated)
and you are innocent,
at the end you will be found guilty.
*
Where others see men of God,
I see cold-blooded killers.
*
Instead of brainwashing children,
religious leaders should engage with one another
and reach a consensus
beginning with the following three assertions:
(i) all dogmas are inherently wrong;
(ii) the will of God is an unknown quantity; and
(iii) to doubt is more human than to be certain.
*
At the root of all wars and massacres
you will find certainties that are not only false
but also criminally and catastrophically absurd.
*
After asserting all men are brothers,
they choose to behave like Cain.
Contradictions?
What contradictions?
#
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.
***************************************
IF I AM WRONG…
*********************************
If I am wrong,
why so many are with me?
And if I am right,
why so many are against me?
*
The brainwashed will never be with me
for the simple reason that they believe – as I did –
everything they are told by priests, schoolteachers, and scoutmasters.
I remember as a teenager
when I first met someone who spoke as I do today
I dismissed him as a megalomaniacal eccentric
on the verge of insanity.
*
The politically ambitious will never agree with me either
because in an authoritarian environment
they know instinctively there is no future in dissent
which they equate with treason.
They believe to be – or rather, they are brainwashed to believe
they stand for God and Country
and anyone who is against them
must be on the side of the Devil and the enemy.
*
In politics instinct speaks louder than reason.
That’s the only way to explain the success of dictators like Hitler,
or for that matter, our own speechifiers and charlatans
who pretend to be right
even when they are criminally and catastrophically wrong.
#Monday, June 04, 2012
***********************************
LAMENTATION VII
***********************************
“Where many other nations perished, we survived!’ – implying,
we must be doing something right.
What exactly did we do right?
We allowed them to legally rape our daughters and kidnap our sons.
We survived, yes, but at what cost?
That’s a question we don’t like to ask
perhaps because the answer is too depressing.
*
We survived – if that’s what you want to call it –
only to die by the million –
and I am not just talking about massacres now.
What’s done is done.
Let bygones be bygones.
The question we must ask at this point is:
In what way the conditions of our survival
radically altered our character as a nation?
What if we survived only to be subservient to alien commissars
and our own agha babas?
*
We praise freedom even as we bury it.
We speak of independence even as we go down on our knees
in fear of our own executioners.
If that’s survival, I want not part of it.
*
No need to lament our dead
when it is the living that are in need of our tears.
#
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
***************************************
ON GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
**************************************
The Turks refuse to recognize the Genocide
for a number of reasons, beginning with the fact that
they are brainwashed to believe
they belong to a great and noble race of men
known as the Turanic race
(known only to them and no one else
and invented by Kemal, who like all dictators ,
felt fully qualified to rewrite not only history
and the laws of the land but also biology).
It follows, the descendants of such a noble race
are “incapable of committing atrocities” (Erdogan).
*
Turks know that the dead cannot testify
and the survivors are living proof of the fact
there was no extermination or a plan to exterminate
(which is how genocide is defined).
*
They also know if they plead guilty as charged
they stand to lose not only face
but also billions in reparations
as well as vast tracts of land.
*
Last but not least, they know that truth may be on our side
but the world is on theirs because all imperial powers
as well as nations with imperial ambitions,
including the most civilized and progressive,
have at one time or another committed
unspeakable crimes against defenseless civilians.
*
All this is known not only to the Turkish leadership
but also our own Turcocentric academics and ghazetajis
whose central concern is neither justice
nor documenting crimes against humanity
but covering up the incompetence and blunders
of our own leadership.
#
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
****************************************
CONTRADICTIONS
*****************************
You cannot reason with the brainwashed.
Neither can you reason with an imam, rabbi, or bishop.
What does that mean in practical terms?
Simply this:
if you are accused of murder one
(cold-blooded and premeditated)
and you are innocent,
at the end you will be found guilty.
*
Where others see men of God,
I see cold-blooded killers.
*
Instead of brainwashing children,
religious leaders should engage with one another
and reach a consensus
beginning with the following three assertions:
(i) all dogmas are inherently wrong;
(ii) the will of God is an unknown quantity; and
(iii) to doubt is more human than to be certain.
*
At the root of all wars and massacres
you will find certainties that are not only false
but also criminally and catastrophically absurd.
*
After asserting all men are brothers,
they choose to behave like Cain.
Contradictions?
What contradictions?
#
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, June 2, 2012
notes
Thursday, May 31, 2012
*************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**********************************
Our eyes are not equipped to see everything.
Our brain perceives only a fraction reality.
Comprehension deals with fractions, not wholes.
*
If only we could doubt when we are sure!
*
Perhaps sanity consists in coming to terms
with your own brand of insanity.
*
The source of all self-inflicted misery:
the need to love and be loved.
#
Friday, June 01, 2012
*********************************
SMART ARMENIANS
*********************************
There is no limit to how dumb a smart Armenian can be.
Because I was brainwashed to believe Armenians are smart,
I thought I was being smart even I behaved like an inbred moron.
*
“A good man is hard to find,”
reads the title of a famous American short story.
What about a good Armenian?
In case you didn’t know, they exist;
I have met one or two of them myself.
*
In a commentary in this morning’s paper
I read that American intellectuals
have been seduced by big money
(Wall Street, lobbyists, Obama).
My first thought as an Armenian:
So what else is new?
*
I would like to read a history of philosophy
that is as accessible to laymen as
“There is nothing new under the sun,”
“My poverty is proof of my honesty,”
“I think therefore I am,”
“Workers of the world unite,
you have nothing to lose but your chains,”
“Hell is other people.”
#
Saturday, June 02, 2012
************************************
REFLECTIONS
***************************
Take yourself seriously and no one else will.
*
If a billion people believe in one thing
and another billion in another,
the chances are neither side is right.
*
Prejudice speaks louder than reason
even when it whispers.
*
Tip O’Neill on Clinton: “Women go wet.”
*
Carl Sandburg: “The past is a bucket of ashes.”
*
I QUOTE FROM MEMORY
****************************************
“The function of a jury is to decide
which side has the better lawyer.”
*
“Science is our only source of knowledge.
Metaphysics is empty verbiage.”
*
“Metaphysical systems are more vulnerable to boredom
than to disproof.”
*
“…as desirable as someone else’s wife.”
*
“He is such a nobody that
when he goes out of a room
it feels as though someone came in.”
*
“When you are young,
you pull up your own pants
and go wherever you want to go.
But when you are old
someone else pulls up your pants
and takes you where you don’t want to go.”
#
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.
*************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**********************************
Our eyes are not equipped to see everything.
Our brain perceives only a fraction reality.
Comprehension deals with fractions, not wholes.
*
If only we could doubt when we are sure!
*
Perhaps sanity consists in coming to terms
with your own brand of insanity.
*
The source of all self-inflicted misery:
the need to love and be loved.
#
Friday, June 01, 2012
*********************************
SMART ARMENIANS
*********************************
There is no limit to how dumb a smart Armenian can be.
Because I was brainwashed to believe Armenians are smart,
I thought I was being smart even I behaved like an inbred moron.
*
“A good man is hard to find,”
reads the title of a famous American short story.
What about a good Armenian?
In case you didn’t know, they exist;
I have met one or two of them myself.
*
In a commentary in this morning’s paper
I read that American intellectuals
have been seduced by big money
(Wall Street, lobbyists, Obama).
My first thought as an Armenian:
So what else is new?
*
I would like to read a history of philosophy
that is as accessible to laymen as
“There is nothing new under the sun,”
“My poverty is proof of my honesty,”
“I think therefore I am,”
“Workers of the world unite,
you have nothing to lose but your chains,”
“Hell is other people.”
#
Saturday, June 02, 2012
************************************
REFLECTIONS
***************************
Take yourself seriously and no one else will.
*
If a billion people believe in one thing
and another billion in another,
the chances are neither side is right.
*
Prejudice speaks louder than reason
even when it whispers.
*
Tip O’Neill on Clinton: “Women go wet.”
*
Carl Sandburg: “The past is a bucket of ashes.”
*
I QUOTE FROM MEMORY
****************************************
“The function of a jury is to decide
which side has the better lawyer.”
*
“Science is our only source of knowledge.
Metaphysics is empty verbiage.”
*
“Metaphysical systems are more vulnerable to boredom
than to disproof.”
*
“…as desirable as someone else’s wife.”
*
“He is such a nobody that
when he goes out of a room
it feels as though someone came in.”
*
“When you are young,
you pull up your own pants
and go wherever you want to go.
But when you are old
someone else pulls up your pants
and takes you where you don’t want to go.”
#
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.
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