deception

Sunday, September 23, 2012 *************************************** DECEPTION (IV) ************************ For 600 years we hated the Turks and we had every right to do so for what they did and kept doing to us, but we deceived them into thinking we loved them and we did such a good job of it that they named us their most loyal millet (ethnic minority). * For 60 years we also hated the “onion-head” Russians but again we pretended to love them by calling them our “big brothers.” We went further. Much further. We betrayed and surrendered our ablest men to their murderers. * And now that we have no one to deceive we deceive one another and we do such an excellent job of it that most Armenians in the Diaspora believe when native Armenians call them “aghber” they don’t mean “white trash,” but “brother.” * We have become such habitual and expert liars that we believe in our own lies. Now you know why our 1% divides the 99% and gets away with it. They say they divide us because they are men of principle and gentlemen do not compromise on principles. The fact is they divide us out of fear. Fear of what we might do to them when we uncover the truth. After all, far more civilized and progressive nations than us have beheaded, executed, and assassinated their kings. The only reason we have done nothing of the kind so far is that we have been duped into thinking our leaders are not our enemies but our heroes and saviors. * Armenians of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your dividers and gravediggers.. # Monday, September 24, 2012 ************************************* CHEZOKS ********************** One of our elder statesmen (may God have mercy on his soul, if there is a God and he had a soul) once wrote a book in which he blamed all our problems on chezoks (non-partisan Armenians). “They are neither hot nor cold,” said he. “They are neither for nor against anything. They don’t care. They are useless, aimless, and purposeless. They exist but they do not live… they are a dead weight…” and so on and so forth. You may have noticed that when our speechifiers get going, nothing can stopping them. Zarian knew what he was talking about when he said “An Armenian’s tongue is sharper than a Turk’s yataghan.” * In my review of the book I said something to the effect that our dividers were the real source of all our problems, not chezoks. In his angry telephone call our statesman said, among other things: “I thought you were on our side.” “I am on nobody’s side,” was my answer, “if only because I have done no harm.” * My father was a chezok not because he didn’t care but because he lost everything twice and I mean that literally: first time in 1915 during World War I in Turkey, second time in 1941 during World War II in Greece. As a result he spent all his time trying to make a living and provide for his family in alien and hostile environments. He died in his fifties and he looked ninety. He may not have been a great Armenian but he was an honest man. I wish I could say the same of our Ottomanized, Levantinized, Americanized, and Sovietized fellow countrymen who parade as first-class Armenians and expect the rest of us to look up to them as role models. # Tuesday, September 25, 2012 ******************************************** BROTHERS ************************ There are truth-seekers and there are propagandists. The aim of propagandists is power. The aim of truth-seekers is exposing lies. * Propaganda has produced such monsters as the Nazi who believed to belong to a superior race; the Jew who believed to be God’s Chosen; the English sahib who saw himself as a civilizing agent; the child-molesting Catholic priest; and closer to home, the Armenian patriot with “Ararat in his heart” who views a fraction of his fellow Armenians as “white trash.” In America propaganda has produced the KKK and legitimized racism; in Russia the Big Brother (in the Orwellian sense of the words) and the commissar. By contrast truth-seekers have been solitary underdogs and victims of propagandists. Gandhi in India, Martin Luther King in America (both assassinated), Solzhenitsyn in Russia, Socrates in 5th-century BC Greece and Jesus in 1st-century Palestine. * How to identify a propagandist? Easy! A propagandist is a member of an organized group with a clearly defined agenda which pretends to be on the side of truth but on closer inspection reveals itself to be Big Lie. If you are a member of such a group, look out brother, you may well be on your way to the Devil. * I read the following quotation in my morning paper today: “He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.” Lao Tzu. # Wednesday, September 26, 2012 ********************************************* WHY I WRITE THE WAY I WRITE ******************************************** Do you really want to know why I write the way I write? I will tell you. I write the way I write in defense of all Armenians who were insulted and abused in the name of this or that brand of patriotism of which there are as many as there are Armenians. * A Bolshevik’s patriotism, for instance, means not only love of homeland but also loyalty to the memory of Stalin. A nationalist’s patriotism bears all the earmarks of racism and fascism. * I write in defense of all writers who were betrayed, silenced, exiled, butchered, or shot. I write to remind our Turcocentric ghazetajis and their dupes that it is wrong to gauge an Armenian’s patriotism by the degree of hatred he harbors against Turks. I write to say that I have nothing but contempt for the kind of Armenian who after perpetuating our problems tells me, “We need solutions, not critics.” My message to them is: “If you really need solutions, hang yourself!” * I have no illusions about myself and my fellow Armenians. I am fully aware of the fact that I have as much influence on Armenian affairs as a grain of sand on the Saharan desert. But I write to set the record straight. #