enemies

Thursday, October 18, 2012*************************************** A CONTRADICTION**************************** “The Kingdom of God is within you.”*“Our Father Who art in Heaven.”#EITHER/OR*********************** Someday everything will make sense. Either that or we will be beyond caring.#HOW TO RECOGNIZE A CHARLATAN******************************************** Two ways:(One) A charlatan has more answers than questions; and he has answers even to questions that have no answer.(Two) If the facts are not on his side he will invent some that are.#ANOTHER EITHER/OR************************************** We either believe the testimony of our writers or our ruling classes whose every word is contaminated by propaganda, that is to say a Big Lie.#IF…**************** If you lose an argument it doesn’t necessarily mean you were wrong. It only means your opponent had a better lawyer.#SIZE MATTERS************************** Among sharks, a barracuda has a better chance to survive than a sardine.#Saturday, October 20, 2012************************************ SOLUTIONS**************************** Solutions don’t fall from heaven like manna. Solutions are hard work. But when we speak of solutions we think of the abracadabra variant whereby you deliver the right verbal formula and the problem vanishes like a puff of smoke. *For 1700 years our religion has been teaching us to love our enemies; and for 1500 years our writers, beginning with Khorenatsi and Yeghishe (two historians of the Golden Age) have been emphasizing the central role that solidarity plays in the life of a nation. I therefore feel justified in concluding that anyone who says “We don’t need critics, we need solutions!” should be classified as a habitual and compulsive liar who is out to deceive not only others but also and above all himself. *Solutions? As a nation we are like the proverbial peasant who seated on his jackass searches for his jackass. And if you say, you can’t teach love of Turks to Armenians who hate Armenians, all I can say is: “You can say that again, brother!”#ENEMIES*************************** The question we should ask is not “Why do they hate us?” but “What have we done to deserve so many of them?” *If might is right, it follows, absence of might is wrong, and if not a crime against humanity, an invitation to it.*Today I know something I didn’t know yesterday: It is not our enemies who divide us (in order to rule us); it is we who divide ourselves to be closer to the sultan and commissar, and in the Diaspora, to our bosses, bishops, and benefactors.There is only one way to make it in our environment: to be a brown-noser. *I will never forget the contempt and anger in the voice of one of our elder statesmen (who was also the hireling of a benefactor), when he said to me: “Just who the hell do you think you are?”*An old lady once said to me: “When I write to the President of the United States, I get a reply. But when I write to an Armenian, I am ignored.” It was this same old lady who, after reading one of my comments against the dangers of assimilation, asked me: “What’s wrong with assimilation?” I don’t remember my exact answer then, but my answer today would be: “For some Armenians, assimilation would be a step in the right direction.”#