politics

LITERATURE AND POLITICS ************************************** There are several giants in our literature; only midgets in politics. As for Byzantine emperors of Armenian descent one of whom achieved “Napoleonic” stature (according to Edward Gibbon in his DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE) they served exclusively Greek interests even when it meant adopting and implementing an anti-Armenian foreign policy. * And if you were to drop names like Gulbenkian, Saroyan, Mamoulian, Khachatourian and Mikoyan: I will say that all these gentlemen were born, raised, and operated in non-Armenian environments. * If so far this aspect of our collective existence has been carefully covered up it may be because we continue to be at the mercy of unprincipled and ruthless mediocrities whose greatest enemy is excellence. # A QUESTION IN THE SEARCH OF AN ANSWER ******************************************** What have we learned from our millennial history? To say or imply that our history, including our genocide (both “red” and “white”), is a result of conditions and forces beyond our control is nothing but a transparent effort to place ourselves outside history; to say in effect: we had nothing to do with our blunders and misfortunes. It was all someone else’s fault. * Who profits by this line of reasoning? Who else but our own leadership whose sole aim in life is to cover up the fact that far from being our "betters," they are our worst. * To say or imply that we have no control over our destiny as a nation is to advocate a passive stance, and worse, much worse: it is to say that the only way to survive in the kind of world we live in is to say “Yes, sir!” to those in power even when they happen to be the lowest scum on earth. Isn’t that what we did for 600 years in the Ottoman Empire and for more than 60 years in the Soviet Union – two of the worst criminal power structures in the history of mankind? * The real horror is not in men like Talaat and Stalin; the real horror is in the millions who trusted them. Zohrab, one of the smartest Armenians that ever lived, trusting his life into the hands of his future murderers. Mikoyan carrying out all orders faithfully always in fear of his own life, sleeping with a revolver under his pillow. * I ask again: What have we learned from history except to assume a passive stance not only to alien tyrants but also our own scumbags. # IF I WERE A DICTATOR ***************************************** If I were a dictator (which will never happen because I don’t have a single politically ambitious bone in my body) I would begin by saying the days of “1001 churches” in the same city are over as surely as horses and sabers in modern warfare. * I am all for a single community center (make it, shish-kebab and pilaf joint) instead of two, if only because our different religious, political and cultural factions would have a better chance to discover that they are not much different from one another and Armenian solidarity may not be as utopian a concept as it is generally thought to be by our dividers (make it, diggers of our collective grave). * Why two archbishops and two cathedrals in New York City if one will save us millions in salaries alone (one of these cathedrals, I am told by an insider, employs as many as 83 individuals). * A church is called "a house of God” and as far as I know God has at no time demanded that we provide Him with four of them (Anteliassagan, Etchmiadznagan, Catholic, and Protestant) in the same city . * Something similar could be said of our press. Instead of a dozen trashy weeklies, we could have a single professionally managed and edited publication. * Instead of a hundred charitable institutions we could have one supervised by a non-partisan and preferably odar auditing firm… * But why go on with this exercise in futility if none of these reforms will ever be implemented by our partisans and panchoonies? # THE RICH & THE SUPER-RICH ******************************************* OBAMA & ROMNEY ******************************** HONEST MEN & CROOKS **************************************** Honest men will employ only honest means to get rich. By contrast, crooks will employ both honest as well as dishonest means. That is why, Plato tells us, crooks will always be richer than honest men. # ON BEING POSITIVE ********************************** When not urged to be positive I am accused of being consistently negative. How do we define positive and negative? Is speaking the truth positive or negative? Is being objective negative? Is flattering the ego of contemptible men with money or power positive? Is saying “Yes, sir!” out of fear positive? These are not easy questions to answer for individuals whose collective existence has been at the mercy of bloodthirsty and ruthless tyrants for more than a thousand years. * When Zarian said “Our political parties have been of no political use to us,” was he being negative? When speaking of one of our national benefactors an archbishop once said to me: “The only reason he likes building schools and community centers is to see his name on walls,” was he being negative? * Our history, the history I was taught as a child and the history we teach our children today is more fiction than fact. As recently as yesterday when I said “Our greatest writers from Abovian to Zarian were shabbily treated and silenced by our own wheeler-dealers,” a reader pointed out to me that times have changed and we now have more freedom than at any other time in history. If true, the question we must ask is, what the hell happened to our literature? Why is it that we no longer have writers of Abovian’s and Zarian’s stature and character? Why is it that today even the Turks are ahead of us in literature? Have we finally come to realize that no one in his right mind would adopt Armenian literature as a career? A final question: Is exposing stupidity, ignorance, and filth positive or negative? #