Sunday, February 17, 2013 ***************************************** US/THEM **************************** As a child I was told many things that as an adult I rejected. As a Catholic I was brought up to believe the only reason Martin Luther had divided the Church was to fornicate with a nun. * More often than not the hidden aim of all categories, differences, and labels is to assert some kind of phony superiority. * Shaw once said that the reason why he was successful in creating believable female characters is that he did not think of women as different from men. When the French say “Vive la difference!” I have every reason to suspect they have in mind only anatomical differences. * An old lady from Kharpert once told me they viewed women from Izmir (Smyrna) as sluts because they (Izmirtsis) used make-up; and a woman from Izmir once told me they view Kharpertsis as Kurds. For every label there will be a counter-label. * Native-born Armenians versus Diasporans (or aghber = white trash). As a non-native Armenian I suspect native-born Armenians to be former Bolsheviks, even Stalinists. * We are all brought up to look down on our fellow men for reasons that on closer inspection reveal themselves to be based on ignorance, prejudice, fear, and fallacies. I feel therefore justified to formulate the following categories of my own: human beings who view their fellow men and women as equals and dupes who suffer from a psychological aberration known as infantilism which consists in clinging to illusions, lies, and prejudices instilled in them when they could not yet think for themselves and whose hidden aim is to make them feel superior or privileged. # Monday, February 18, 2013 ******************************************* FROM MY NOTEBOOKS ******************************* Why is it that people who view abortion as murder don’t see war as murder? * The Enlightenment did not put an end to the Dark Ages; neither did Christianity expose false gods. * Whenever a reader calls me pro-Turkish I know he has run out of arguments. If memory serves, it was Goebbels who said: “Making noise is an effective means of opposition.” * As a pessimist I hate to be right. * Because I make Armenianism (its cheap, loathsome variant) look hateful, I am accused of hating myself. * Be a dupe, join a group. * The contempt of idiots and fanatics is as valuable an asset as the affection of good men. * When Jesus said “The Kingdom of God is within you,” the rabbis thought, there goes my bread and butter. * Among us success is harder to survive than failure. * In real life all stories have an unhappy ending if only because at the end everyone dies. # Tuesday, February 19, 2013 ***************************************** ON PATRIOTISM ************************************* The most patriotic Armenian is neither the devout church-goer nor the dedicated partisan but an honest man. * If you can’t think of me as a critic (someone who exposes contradictions) think of me as the devil’s advocate. As far as I know no one has ever identified a devil’s advocate with the devil. * Where there is money there will be prostitution in one form or another; and where there is patriotism, there will be treason, and more often than not it will the real traitors who will accuse the real patriots of treason. * Armenians who criticize no one and nothing (except perhaps Turks and Kurds) will criticize critics and their favorite mode of criticism will be slinging mud in the hope that some of it may stick. * Our critics – and we have had our share of them – have made no difference in our collective existence probably because our idiots outnumber the rest 99 to 1. I may be wrong in this. The correct ratio may well be 98 to 2. # Wednesday, February 20, 2013 ****************************************** WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING ************************************** “In their place I would have done a better job.” That’s not what I have been saying. What I have been saying is having committed blunders I would not spend the rest of my life trying to cover them up in an effort to project a positive image. Neither would I declare myself to have been a proud member of the Communist Party (as Sylva Kaputikian is said to have done). or any other party, for that matter. Or having divided the community I would not portray myself as a statesman of vision whose number one concern is the welfare of the nation. Neither would I judge a regime or a power structure by the number of privileges and powers it bestows on me and to hell with everyone else. As for brainwashing children into believing we never had it so good because we are in the best of hands: I would consider that adding insult to injury and raising another generation of brainwashed idiots. Now then, go ahead and accuse me of making too many demands on our “betters” who may not be perfect but are doing their best under difficult conditions: and if you believe that you will believe anything! #

Thursday, February 14, 2013 *************************************** WHO LOVES ARMENIANS? **************************************** In his youth Zarian loved Armenians because he saw himself as a messianic figure and his fellow Armenians as a crucified nation. In his old age he saw himself as a victim of intolerance and envy, and he died with the conviction that he had been murdered. * Saroyan loved the whole world including Armenians but he couldn’t stand his own family including his half-Armenian son and daughter. * Michael (GREEN HAT) Arlen loved his fellow Armenians too but he warned his half-Armenian son to stay away from them. The son followed his father’s advice with only one interruption that lasted long enough for him to write PASSAGE TO ARARAT that became a best-seller. * Because I hate myself, some of my critics tell me, I am in no position to love or understand my fellow Armenians, and armed with that conviction they feel justified in calling me “son of a Turkish whore,” among other abusive terms. * I have noticed that Armenians who speak endlessly of love are the least lovable specimens and though I have tried very hard to love them I have failed. But that’s my fault rather than theirs. # Saturday, February 16, 2013 ***************************************** LIES, BIG LIES, AND CONTRADICTIONS ***************************************************** In politics don’t judge the man, judge the men behind the man. * The same Leonardo who said war is “pazzia bestialissima” (the most beastly madness) also designed war machines. * Even Jesus failed to unmask Judas until it was too late. * If Zohrab was Talaat’s dupe, who among us will dare to say he is nobody’s dupe? * One reason I keep coming back to dupes is that I have been one most of my life… with no end in sight. * If I were to make a list of Big Lies we believed in, I would begin with “The Turks would not dare to massacre us,” and end with “Russians are our Big Brothers.” * To preach love and legitimize hatred is a contradiction, and yet most religious leaders appear to be unaware of this fact. * Love of God (religion) and love of homeland (patriotism) have justified more crimes against humanity than hatred of the Devil. # Saturday, February 16, 2013 ****************************************** WHO LOVES ARMENIANS? (II) ************************************** There are systems of ignorance as surely as there are systems of knowledge and we choose both by the degree of flattery they contain. * Christians believe they are worthy of the Crucifixion, Jews believe they are the Chosen, and Muslim believe non-Muslims to be “infidel dogs.” * What about Armenians? To begin with we don’t much care about Turks, Kurds, Azeris, Georgians, “onion-head” Russians, and the so-called “civilized West” which fought its lousy World War I instead of coming to our aid. Neither are we fond of Protestants and Catholics even when they happen to be fellow Armenians. Native-born Armenians look down at Diasporans (“aghber”) -- I have myself been called “a piece of shit” by a fellow Armenian born and raised in the shadow of Mt. Ararat. * Who loves Armenians? Not even Armenians. As the popular refrain has it: “Mart bidi ch’ellank!” Literally: “We will never acquire the status of human beings.” # Thursday, February 14, 2013 *************************************** WHO LOVES ARMENIANS? **************************************** In his youth Zarian loved Armenians because he saw himself as a messianic figure and his fellow Armenians as a crucified nation. In his old age he saw himself as a victim of intolerance and envy, and he died with the conviction that he had been murdered. * Saroyan loved the whole world including Armenians but he couldn’t stand his own family including his half-Armenian son and daughter. * Michael (GREEN HAT) Arlen loved his fellow Armenians too but he warned his half-Armenian son to stay away from them. The son followed his father’s advice with only one interruption that lasted long enough for him to write PASSAGE TO ARARAT that became a best-seller. * Because I hate myself, some of my critics tell me, I am in no position to love or understand my fellow Armenians, and armed with that conviction they feel justified in calling me “son of a Turkish whore,” among other abusive terms. * I have noticed that Armenians who speak endlessly of love are the least lovable specimens and though I have tried very hard to love them I have failed. But that’s my fault rather than theirs. # Saturday, February 16, 2013 ***************************************** LIES, BIG LIES, AND CONTRADICTIONS ***************************************************** In politics don’t judge the man, judge the men behind the man. * The same Leonardo who said war is “pazzia bestialissima” (the most beastly madness) also designed war machines. * Even Jesus failed to unmask Judas until it was too late. * If Zohrab was Talaat’s dupe, who among us will dare to say he is nobody’s dupe? * One reason I keep coming back to dupes is that I have been one most of my life… with no end in sight. * If I were to make a list of Big Lies we believed in, I would begin with “The Turks would not dare to massacre us,” and end with “Russians are our Big Brothers.” * To preach love and legitimize hatred is a contradiction, and yet most religious leaders appear to be unaware of this fact. * Love of God (religion) and love of homeland (patriotism) have justified more crimes against humanity than hatred of the Devil. # Saturday, February 16, 2013 ****************************************** WHO LOVES ARMENIANS? (II) ************************************** There are systems of ignorance as surely as there are systems of knowledge and we choose both by the degree of flattery they contain. * Christians believe they are worthy of the Crucifixion, Jews believe they are the Chosen, and Muslim believe non-Muslims to be “infidel dogs.” * What about Armenians? To begin with we don’t much care about Turks, Kurds, Azeris, Georgians, “onion-head” Russians, and the so-called “civilized West” which fought its lousy World War I instead of coming to our aid. Neither are we fond of Protestants and Catholics even when they happen to be fellow Armenians. Native-born Armenians look down at Diasporans (“aghber”) -- I have myself been called “a piece of shit” by a fellow Armenian born and raised in the shadow of Mt. Ararat. * Who loves Armenians? Not even Armenians. As the popular refrain has it: “Mart bidi ch’ellank!” Literally: “We will never acquire the status of human beings.” #

Sunday, February 10, 2013 ****************************************** HOLY BOOKS ********************** We all have our own. To some it’s the Bible, To others the Koran, to still others the UPANISHAD. In my twenties my holy book was Thomas Mann’s THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN in which there are endless arguments about all the important issues in life. The two fictional characters who engage in these arguments are Naphta (authoritarian, mystical, fascist) and Settembrini (a liberal humanist). The arguments are so convincingly done that at the end you cannot tell who is right and who wrong. * In my thirties my other holy book was Toynbee’s RECONSIDERATIONS (volume xii of his STUDY OF HISTORY) in which ideas about the past, that is to say life, are carefully analyzed and discussed at considerable length. * It is to be noted that Mann’s character of Naphta is based on the famous communist critic and philosopher Lukacz with whom he was personally acquainted (Lukacz was later to write a book on Mann); and in RECONSIDERATIONS Toynbee quotes many of his critics except Hugh Trevor-Roper whose attack on him was so ruthless and rude that its intent was not to question Toynbee’s ideas but to destroy him personally. * Also to be noted, both Mann and Toynbee were great readers of the Bible. Mann even wrote his longest book, the tetralogy JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS, based on an episode in GENESIS. * When told the Bible was written by the Holy Ghost, Shaw is said to have replied, “All books are written by the Holy Ghost.” What about LOLITA, one is tempted to ask. LOLITA too, Shaw would have replied (the book was published after his death) because THE SONG OF SONGS in the Old Testament fully qualifies as an erotic rhapsody in which, Hebrew scholars tell us, there is even talk of oral sex – obviously lost in translation. # Monday, February 11, 2013 ************************************* SOUND BITES *************************** * COMMON KNOWLEDGE ********************************* “The small state, racked by internal dissension, invites the foreign conqueror.” This is a line that occurs in a short story by Mary McCarthy. I quote it to point out the fact that far from being the best and the brightest, we are a cliché known by all except us. That’s how cunningly and thoroughly we have been brainwashed. * SUICIDE **************** Instead of blabbering endlessly about murder, we should speak of suicide by a thousand self-inflicted cuts. * THE ENEMY *********************** He who is his own worst enemy does not need an enemy. * THE WAY OF THE COMMISSAR **************************************** You don’t like what he says? Shoot him. You can't shoot him? Silence him. You can’t silence him? Call him “son of a Turkish whore.” * TRANSLATION *********************** “A government by the people for the people.” Translation: “A government by the mafia for the mafia.” * WORDS ******************** Instead of analyzing my words teach yourself to analyze your actions. Unawareness, according to Freud and Jung, is the source of all evil * PROPAGANDA ************************** The real aim of propaganda is not to misrepresent lies as truths but to moronize the people, and the most effective way to moronize the people is to call them seven times smarter than Greeks and Jews. # Tuesday, February 12, 2013 *************************************** CONTROL FREAKS **************************** The Pope telling Galileo what to think and imams telling women how to dress spring from the same source: ignorance, arrogance, and greed for power. * Unmask religion and expose the primitive in man. * If you cannot deal with reality, invent your own fiction. * A man of faith believes his faith to be infallible and with God on his side he can do no wrong. This fallacy has claimed more innocent lives than any other. * There are as many paths to God or Truth as there are human beings. To say otherwise is to legitimize intolerance and ultimately war and massacre. This is not theory but reality, that is to say, history. * The same applies to patriotism. There are as many variants of patriotism as there are patriots. To say, suggest, or imply that your kind of patriotism is better than mine or anyone else’s is to justify all kinds of aberrations, including crimes against humanity. * To say my faith, my God, my Truth and no other is to be on a path that leads not to God but to the Devil. # Wednesday, February 13, 2013 ******************************************* NOTES & COMMENTS ********************************* The phoniest Armenians are those who never miss an opportunity to assert their superior brand of patriotism. * As children we are taught big lies and forbidden to speak little ones. * Because I expose contradictions I am told I hate myself. * The biggest lies are fractions of the truth. * In a trial by jury, the function of the jury is not to separate the guilty from the innocent but to decide which side has the more competent lawyer. * Nationalist historians are not liars; they only emphasize the positive and cover up the negative. I know how that’s done because I have done it myself. See my ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY & CULTURE. #

Sunday, February 10, 2013 ****************************************** HOLY BOOKS ********************** We all have our own. To some it’s the Bible, To others the Koran, to still others the UPANISHAD. In my twenties my holy book was Thomas Mann’s THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN in which there are endless arguments about all the important issues in life. The two fictional characters who engage in these arguments are Naphta (authoritarian, mystical, fascist) and Settembrini (a liberal humanist). The arguments are so convincingly done that at the end you cannot tell who is right and who wrong. * In my thirties my other holy book was Toynbee’s RECONSIDERATIONS (volume xii of his STUDY OF HISTORY) in which ideas about the past, that is to say life, are carefully analyzed and discussed at considerable length. * It is to be noted that Mann’s character of Naphta is based on the famous communist critic and philosopher Lukacz with whom he was personally acquainted (Lukacz was later to write a book on Mann); and in RECONSIDERATIONS Toynbee quotes many of his critics except Hugh Trevor-Roper whose attack on him was so ruthless and rude that its intent was not to question Toynbee’s ideas but to destroy him personally. * Also to be noted, both Mann and Toynbee were great readers of the Bible. Mann even wrote his longest book, the tetralogy JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS, based on an episode in GENESIS. * When told the Bible was written by the Holy Ghost, Shaw is said to have replied, “All books are written by the Holy Ghost.” What about LOLITA, one is tempted to ask. LOLITA too, Shaw would have replied (the book was published after his death) because THE SONG OF SONGS in the Old Testament fully qualifies as an erotic rhapsody in which, Hebrew scholars tell us, there is even talk of oral sex – obviously lost in translation. # Monday, February 11, 2013 ************************************* SOUND BITES *************************** * COMMON KNOWLEDGE ********************************* “The small state, racked by internal dissension, invites the foreign conqueror.” This is a line that occurs in a short story by Mary McCarthy. I quote it to point out the fact that far from being the best and the brightest, we are a cliché known by all except us. That’s how cunningly and thoroughly we have been brainwashed. * SUICIDE **************** Instead of blabbering endlessly about murder, we should speak of suicide by a thousand self-inflicted cuts. * THE ENEMY *********************** He who is his own worst enemy does not need an enemy. * THE WAY OF THE COMMISSAR **************************************** You don’t like what he says? Shoot him. You can't shoot him? Silence him. You can’t silence him? Call him “son of a Turkish whore.” * TRANSLATION *********************** “A government by the people for the people.” Translation: “A government by the mafia for the mafia.” * WORDS ******************** Instead of analyzing my words teach yourself to analyze your actions. Unawareness, according to Freud and Jung, is the source of all evil * PROPAGANDA ************************** The real aim of propaganda is not to misrepresent lies as truths but to moronize the people, and the most effective way to moronize the people is to call them seven times smarter than Greeks and Jews. # Tuesday, February 12, 2013 *************************************** CONTROL FREAKS **************************** The Pope telling Galileo what to think and imams telling women how to dress spring from the same source: ignorance, arrogance, and greed for power. * Unmask religion and expose the primitive in man. * If you cannot deal with reality, invent your own fiction. * A man of faith believes his faith to be infallible and with God on his side he can do no wrong. This fallacy has claimed more innocent lives than any other. * There are as many paths to God or Truth as there are human beings. To say otherwise is to legitimize intolerance and ultimately war and massacre. This is not theory but reality, that is to say, history. * The same applies to patriotism. There are as many variants of patriotism as there are patriots. To say, suggest, or imply that your kind of patriotism is better than mine or anyone else’s is to justify all kinds of aberrations, including crimes against humanity. * To say my faith, my God, my Truth and no other is to be on a path that leads not to God but to the Devil. # Wednesday, February 13, 2013 ******************************************* NOTES & COMMENTS ********************************* The phoniest Armenians are those who never miss an opportunity to assert their superior brand of patriotism. * As children we are taught big lies and forbidden to speak little ones. * Because I expose contradictions I am told I hate myself. * The biggest lies are fractions of the truth. * In a trial by jury, the function of the jury is not to separate the guilty from the innocent but to decide which side has the more competent lawyer. * Nationalist historians are not liars; they only emphasize the positive and cover up the negative. I know how that’s done because I have done it myself. See my ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY & CULTURE. #

Sunday, February 10, 2013 ****************************************** HOLY BOOKS ********************** We all have our own. To some it’s the Bible, To others the Koran, to still others the UPANISHAD. In my twenties my holy book was Thomas Mann’s THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN in which there are endless arguments about all the important issues in life. The two fictional characters who engage in these arguments are Naphta (authoritarian, mystical, fascist) and Settembrini (a liberal humanist). The arguments are so convincingly done that at the end you cannot tell who is right and who wrong. * In my thirties my other holy book was Toynbee’s RECONSIDERATIONS (volume xii of his STUDY OF HISTORY) in which ideas about the past, that is to say life, are carefully analyzed and discussed at considerable length. * It is to be noted that Mann’s character of Naphta is based on the famous communist critic and philosopher Lukacz with whom he was personally acquainted (Lukacz was later to write a book on Mann); and in RECONSIDERATIONS Toynbee quotes many of his critics except Hugh Trevor-Roper whose attack on him was so ruthless and rude that its intent was not to question Toynbee’s ideas but to destroy him personally. * Also to be noted, both Mann and Toynbee were great readers of the Bible. Mann even wrote his longest book, the tetralogy JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS, based on an episode in GENESIS. * When told the Bible was written by the Holy Ghost, Shaw is said to have replied, “All books are written by the Holy Ghost.” What about LOLITA, one is tempted to ask. LOLITA too, Shaw would have replied (the book was published after his death) because THE SONG OF SONGS in the Old Testament fully qualifies as an erotic rhapsody in which, Hebrew scholars tell us, there is even talk of oral sex – obviously lost in translation. # Monday, February 11, 2013 ************************************* SOUND BITES *************************** * COMMON KNOWLEDGE ********************************* “The small state, racked by internal dissension, invites the foreign conqueror.” This is a line that occurs in a short story by Mary McCarthy. I quote it to point out the fact that far from being the best and the brightest, we are a cliché known by all except us. That’s how cunningly and thoroughly we have been brainwashed. * SUICIDE **************** Instead of blabbering endlessly about murder, we should speak of suicide by a thousand self-inflicted cuts. * THE ENEMY *********************** He who is his own worst enemy does not need an enemy. * THE WAY OF THE COMMISSAR **************************************** You don’t like what he says? Shoot him. You can't shoot him? Silence him. You can’t silence him? Call him “son of a Turkish whore.” * TRANSLATION *********************** “A government by the people for the people.” Translation: “A government by the mafia for the mafia.” * WORDS ******************** Instead of analyzing my words teach yourself to analyze your actions. Unawareness, according to Freud and Jung, is the source of all evil * PROPAGANDA ************************** The real aim of propaganda is not to misrepresent lies as truths but to moronize the people, and the most effective way to moronize the people is to call them seven times smarter than Greeks and Jews. # Tuesday, February 12, 2013 *************************************** CONTROL FREAKS **************************** The Pope telling Galileo what to think and imams telling women how to dress spring from the same source: ignorance, arrogance, and greed for power. * Unmask religion and expose the primitive in man. * If you cannot deal with reality, invent your own fiction. * A man of faith believes his faith to be infallible and with God on his side he can do no wrong. This fallacy has claimed more innocent lives than any other. * There are as many paths to God or Truth as there are human beings. To say otherwise is to legitimize intolerance and ultimately war and massacre. This is not theory but reality, that is to say, history. * The same applies to patriotism. There are as many variants of patriotism as there are patriots. To say, suggest, or imply that your kind of patriotism is better than mine or anyone else’s is to justify all kinds of aberrations, including crimes against humanity. * To say my faith, my God, my Truth and no other is to be on a path that leads not to God but to the Devil. # Wednesday, February 13, 2013 ******************************************* NOTES & COMMENTS ********************************* The phoniest Armenians are those who never miss an opportunity to assert their superior brand of patriotism. * As children we are taught big lies and forbidden to speak little ones. * Because I expose contradictions I am told I hate myself. * The biggest lies are fractions of the truth. * In a trial by jury, the function of the jury is not to separate the guilty from the innocent but to decide which side has the more competent lawyer. * Nationalist historians are not liars; they only emphasize the positive and cover up the negative. I know how that’s done because I have done it myself. See my ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY & CULTURE. #

Sunday, February 10, 2013 ****************************************** HOLY BOOKS ********************** We all have our own. To some it’s the Bible, To others the Koran, to still others the UPANISHAD. In my twenties my holy book was Thomas Mann’s THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN in which there are endless arguments about all the important issues in life. The two fictional characters who engage in these arguments are Naphta (authoritarian, mystical, fascist) and Settembrini (a liberal humanist). The arguments are so convincingly done that at the end you cannot tell who is right and who wrong. * In my thirties my other holy book was Toynbee’s RECONSIDERATIONS (volume xii of his STUDY OF HISTORY) in which ideas about the past, that is to say life, are carefully analyzed and discussed at considerable length. * It is to be noted that Mann’s character of Naphta is based on the famous communist critic and philosopher Lukacz with whom he was personally acquainted (Lukacz was later to write a book on Mann); and in RECONSIDERATIONS Toynbee quotes many of his critics except Hugh Trevor-Roper whose attack on him was so ruthless and rude that its intent was not to question Toynbee’s ideas but to destroy him personally. * Also to be noted, both Mann and Toynbee were great readers of the Bible. Mann even wrote his longest book, the tetralogy JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS, based on an episode in GENESIS. * When told the Bible was written by the Holy Ghost, Shaw is said to have replied, “All books are written by the Holy Ghost.” What about LOLITA, one is tempted to ask. LOLITA too, Shaw would have replied (the book was published after his death) because THE SONG OF SONGS in the Old Testament fully qualifies as an erotic rhapsody in which, Hebrew scholars tell us, there is even talk of oral sex – obviously lost in translation. # Monday, February 11, 2013 ************************************* SOUND BITES *************************** * COMMON KNOWLEDGE ********************************* “The small state, racked by internal dissension, invites the foreign conqueror.” This is a line that occurs in a short story by Mary McCarthy. I quote it to point out the fact that far from being the best and the brightest, we are a cliché known by all except us. That’s how cunningly and thoroughly we have been brainwashed. * SUICIDE **************** Instead of blabbering endlessly about murder, we should speak of suicide by a thousand self-inflicted cuts. * THE ENEMY *********************** He who is his own worst enemy does not need an enemy. * THE WAY OF THE COMMISSAR **************************************** You don’t like what he says? Shoot him. You can't shoot him? Silence him. You can’t silence him? Call him “son of a Turkish whore.” * TRANSLATION *********************** “A government by the people for the people.” Translation: “A government by the mafia for the mafia.” * WORDS ******************** Instead of analyzing my words teach yourself to analyze your actions. Unawareness, according to Freud and Jung, is the source of all evil * PROPAGANDA ************************** The real aim of propaganda is not to misrepresent lies as truths but to moronize the people, and the most effective way to moronize the people is to call them seven times smarter than Greeks and Jews. # Tuesday, February 12, 2013 *************************************** CONTROL FREAKS **************************** The Pope telling Galileo what to think and imams telling women how to dress spring from the same source: ignorance, arrogance, and greed for power. * Unmask religion and expose the primitive in man. * If you cannot deal with reality, invent your own fiction. * A man of faith believes his faith to be infallible and with God on his side he can do no wrong. This fallacy has claimed more innocent lives than any other. * There are as many paths to God or Truth as there are human beings. To say otherwise is to legitimize intolerance and ultimately war and massacre. This is not theory but reality, that is to say, history. * The same applies to patriotism. There are as many variants of patriotism as there are patriots. To say, suggest, or imply that your kind of patriotism is better than mine or anyone else’s is to justify all kinds of aberrations, including crimes against humanity. * To say my faith, my God, my Truth and no other is to be on a path that leads not to God but to the Devil. # Wednesday, February 13, 2013 ******************************************* NOTES & COMMENTS ********************************* The phoniest Armenians are those who never miss an opportunity to assert their superior brand of patriotism. * As children we are taught big lies and forbidden to speak little ones. * Because I expose contradictions I am told I hate myself. * The biggest lies are fractions of the truth. * In a trial by jury, the function of the jury is not to separate the guilty from the innocent but to decide which side has the more competent lawyer. * Nationalist historians are not liars; they only emphasize the positive and cover up the negative. I know how that’s done because I have done it myself. See my ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY & CULTURE. #

Thursday, February 07, 2013 *************************************** NAMING NAMES ***************************** Q: You never name names. Why? A: In our environment naming names doesn’t work. Q: What do you mean it doesn’t work? A: Last time someone named names he was taken to court, his sources evaporated, he was found guilty, he suffered a stroke, and shortly thereafter he died. Q: His sources evaporated, how? A: They refused to testify in court. Q: Why? A: Obviously they didn’t want to lose their only source of financial support. Q: I see. A: That’s the way it has always been in our environment: those in power and the establishment in general have been invulnerable. This was true even in the Ottoman Empire and the Soviet Union. Even on the eve of the Genocide there were Armenians – and I don’t mean dupes -- who worked for the Ottoman and Soviet administrations, which means they supported the Sultan and the Young Turks. Krikor Zohrab, an eminent lawyer, diplomat, and intellectual leader was one of them – he was a close friend and supporter of Talaat who had him murdered in cold blood. I am myself personally acquainted with writers who make a comfortable living as secretaries of bishops. Do you think they will even consider testifying against their only source of income and start looking for another job? Who would hire them? Armenian writers are not exactly in great demand in today’s marketplace. But all that is theory. In reality it has never happened. We don’t have a system or cultural environment that supports individuals who place truth or principle above self-interest. And we have always had ruthless manipulators willing to take advantage of this situation. # Friday, February 08, 2013 *************************************** ON READING ************************** Q: What are some of the books you have reread more than twice? A: Lesley Blanch’s SABRES OF PARADISE, Toynbee’s RECONSIDERATIONS (volume xii of his STUDY OF HISTORY), and Sartre’s WORDS. Q: A strange trio. A: I forgot Nabokov’s LOLITA, and of course Zarian whom I have translated into English, and to translate a book is equivalent to rereading it ten times if not more. There may be others but these are the ones that come readily to mind at the moment. Q: What is it about Zarian that fascinates you? A: His daring and uncanny ability to say what you almost think…and his unique grasp of reality. Q: What about books that have changed your worldview? A: Dostoevsky’s IDIOT, Turgenev’s FATHERS AND SONS, and Suzuki’s INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM, all of which I read as a teenager -- and Plato’s DIALOGUES. Also Shaw’s plays, or rather their prefaces which are longer than the plays themselves. And Thomas Mann’s MAGIC MOUNTAIN. Q: Do you have a favorite genre? A: All of them – fiction, essays, biographies, memoirs, diaries, conversations, crime novels, encyclopedias… everything but poetry. I don’t remember to have ever read a collection of verse from beginning to end. Isolated poems now and then, here and there, but Milton, Dante, and T.S. Eliot, no! As for Pushkin: I might as well be deaf, dumb, and blind. I have always suspected that in poetry manner is more important than substance. Q: Do you think Armenians read enough? A: Somewhere Zarian says that what Armenians preferred to read at the turn of the century in Istanbul were best-sellers like Zevaco and Eugene Sue – whom no one reads these days. I know Armenians who love books for purely cosmetic reasons, to make an impression on visitors. I am beginning to suspect an Armenians’ greatest enemy is neither the Turk nor his fellow Armenian but the written word. # Saturday, February 09, 2013 ************************************** FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE ********************************** Gandhi once said you can evaluate a civilization by the manner in which it treats its animals – and, I would add, its writers. If you make a list of our writers you will be astonished to discover an astonishing number of them were either silenced, ignored and exiled or betrayed to the authorities, murdered and committed suicide. * Armenia has been called “the cradle of civilization” by an Irish academic who enjoyed the financial support of the Gulbenkian Foundation, the wealthiest foundation in the world, it has been said. But it would be even more accurate to call it its grave. * And speaking of Gulbenkian: Why did he leave only 7% of his wealth to Armenians? Did he know something we don’t know? Did he guess that if he were to leave all his wealth to Armenians, 93% of it would end up in the wrong pockets? I am not casting aspersions, just asking question and searching for answers. #

Sunday, February 03, 2013 ****************************************** DEAD END ********************* If I criticize the 1% it’s because I am on the side of the 99%. If I don’t enjoy the support of the 99% it may be because the secret ambition of most of them is to join the 1%. * Freedom of religion also means the freedom to brainwash children. If we don’t see the harm in that it’s because we live in a world in which subservience is valued more than freedom, intolerance more than tolerance, revenge more than justice, and ultimately war and massacre more than peace and coexistence. * On the day we learn to think for ourselves we may have a better chance to achieve solidarity not only with our brothers but also with our enemies. * Always treat today’s enemy as if he were tomorrow’s friend. * If I am different it’s only because I rely more on my own thinking than on the thinking of empty suits and bearded charlatans who make a comfortable living by deceiving the defenceless and the ignorant. # Monday, February 04, 2013 ***************************************** SOUND BITES ******************************** If Christianity has legitimized intolerance, persecution, torture, war and massacre, can we really say “There are good religions?” * I don’t believe in optimism. Hell, I don’t even believe in pessimism. In pessimism we construct a narrative that makes sense. But evil is incomprehensible. So is reality. That’s why every historian creates his own version of the past. * Does it make sense to say what’s theirs is bad and what’s ours is good when that’s exactly what they say too? * If you make a list of writers who preferred exile to life in their own homeland, you may end up with a who’s who is contemporary literature. * Our reality is so unbearable that my objectivity is sometimes confused with self-hatred. * “When we kill them it’s good; when they kills us it’s bad.” What’s the difference between this mindset and the one expressed by an African tribal chieftain quoted by C.G. Jung in his memoirs: “When my enemy steals my wives, it’s bad; when I steal his it’s good.” * To those who say “I don’t agree with you. Human beings are better than that; so is life.” All I can say is: “Enjoy your innocence (or is it ignorance?) while you can. It won’t last.” * How often do I find myself saying: “I would have agreed with you thirty years ago.” # Tuesday, February 05, 2013 ************************************** COMMISSARS OF CULTURE *************************************** Q: Who are they? Could we have a definition? A: They are Armenians who know what must be said and done but who want someone else to do it for them. Q: Why? A: The obvious answer is, they don’t know. They only pretend to know. They are bluffing. Just like their role models in the USSR who trusted Stalin more than Solzhenitsyn. Our commissars today trust more our bosses, bishops, and benefactors than our writers. Q: Why do they? A: My guess is they believe literature to be a dead end. No money in it. No power. No future. Our history is clear on this point: To write for Armenians is a waste of time. Q: Knowing this you go on writing, why? A: A good question, but I have a better one for you: Why do Armenians who are brought up to believe they are smart, progressive and civilized choose to behave like inbred morons when it comes to politics and collective action? More precisely, why do they support our dividers and grave-diggers? Q: You must have an answer to that question. A: I don’t! Unless of course we say they behave like morons because they are in fact morons. Q: I wouldn’t describe that as a diplomatic explanation. A: Literature is not diplomacy. Neither is it a profitable enterprise unless of course you decide to write about the Middle Ages and the massacres. But that’s a subject for another conversation. # Wednesday, February 06, 2013 ******************************************* ON BEING AN ARMENIAN WRITER ******************************************** Q: What are some of the positives and negatives in being an Armenian writer? A: Positives? None! Negatives? To begin with you work for nothing; you are treated like an unemployed and unemployable misfit, a mental masturbator; morons take it upon themselves to tell you what to write and how to write it; and worst of all, you are dependent on the charity of swine. A: Aren’t you afraid that by using angry words you may run the risk of undermining your own objectivity? A: I am more than willing to take that chance. Those who are against me will be against me even if I were to speak like an angel. And I have every reason to suspect if so far Armenian writers have been ignored it’s because they were afraid to go down into the gutter where our self-appointed “betters” and their dupes live. Some day if these gentlemen are unmasked, they will be exposed as bottom-of-the-barrel egomaniacal sociopaths and bullies who operate on the assumption that they know better and our only option is to say “Yes sir!” Q: "The Sultan is dead, long live the Sultan?" A: That’s true for Ottomanized Armenians. For Sovietized Armenians it’s “Stalin is dead, long live our commissars!” Q: Do you see a light at the end of the tunnel? A: For me, no! For those who may follow me, maybe. You never know…anything is possible. And they say I am a pessimist. What the hell do they know? #

Thursday, January 31, 2013 ********** …AND SO IT GOES ********** The aim of politics is power. The aim of literature is understanding reality. When the two meet, literature loses. And when literature loses, murder, war, and massacre become inevitable. * Writers are dreamers? Yes, but only in so far as they think they can survive in a fascist environment. * The attitude of the average dupe towards literature? “He is a writer? An Armenian writer? He must be a daydreamer. Let’s have some fun with him.” * Armenians are different from Turks? In their treatment of dissent they might as well be identical twins. * Dupes rate the lies of propaganda above the truths of literature. * One reason why our dividers are more popular than our dissidents is that the IQ of the average Armenian is a negative digit; which is why he is constantly reminded he is smart. * One of my most dedicated readers is a Second-Amendment gun nut and racist who thinks he fully qualifies as a commissar culture and based on that assumption he issues daily memoranda reminding me that unless I follow instructions I will never amount to anything. * When reason meets prejudice, reason is bound to lose. So what else is new? Mart bidi ch’ellank. # Friday, February 01, 2013 ********** AS I SEE IT ********** Some lies are so transparent that they might as well be confessions. * There are no more deep truths, only platitudes in fancy uniforms. * There are Armenians today who are pro-Assad. I have met some of them myself. What’s next?– being pro-Talaat? * To those who demand that I explain my explanations, I say: I have already done so in the past and I will again in the future. * Toynbee:“Comprehension sometimes consists in just a correct understanding of questions that are unanswerable." # Saturday, February 02, 2013 ********** ON OUR 1% ********** Why did Raffi say “we are sheep without a shepherd”? Why did Avedik Issahakian call our leaders “brainless”? And why did Zarian call them “useless”? Were all three wrong or dupes of enemy propaganda? * Baruir Massikian, a successful lawyer in Egypt in addition to being a brilliant writer: as he lay dying in hospital he was approached by a delegation community leaders who suggested he leave his considerable wealth (he was a bachelor) to an Armenian educational foundation. His reply:“I’d much rather leave it to a Cairo bordello.” Was he anti-Armenian or pro-Turkish?– two charges that are leveled against anyone who dares to refuse being a dupe. * Why do our academics prefer to write about the Middle Ages and the Genocide? And why is it that whenever someone tries to expose the corruption and incompetence of our 1% he is insulted by our superpatriots and experts on any given subject? * Please note that I am only asking questions. I am not making dogmatic assertions whose sole intent is to divide the community into members of the club and alienated degenerates. * I repeat myself and the 1% does not? * In the opinion page of my local morning paper a pundit begins his commentary with the following words: “We live, breathe and exist in an age of apocalyptic uncertainty.” If you were to ask one of our pro-establishment propagandists, my guess is he would say: “We never had it so good because we are in the best of hands.” #

Wednesday, January 30, 2013 ***************************************** SMART ARMENIANS ********************************** A smart Armenian is first and foremost a self-assessed Armenian and in all self-assessments propaganda speaks louder than reality. * Whenever I speak of reality I am accused of being pro-Turkish probably because for 600 years our reality was not ours but theirs. When it came to the most important decisions in life, it was they who made them. We had no choice but to say “Yes, sir!” They dished it out and we took it. And when our revolutionaries decided to change that, we all know what happened next: reality turned against us. * How long before we create our own reality? My only tentative answer: I may not live long enough to see it. * I have dealt with many self-assessed smart Armenians and they were all idiots. So was I for most of my life. Everything I say about Armenians is based on self-analysis. * Gentle reader: If you think what I say does not apply to you because you are different, I am more than willing to apologize. Every rule has its exceptions. I have even heard it said that it is exceptions that certify the legitimacy of a rule. My hope is that really smart Armenians will decide to step forward and get involved in our community affairs instead of conducting an underground existence. * Did I say really smart Armenians? Strike that. Make it honest Armenians. Because it doesn’t take a high IQ to see that we are on the wrong path and on our way to the devil. * A warning: If you are an honest Armenian and decide to be pro-active, don’t be surprised if accusations of pro-Turkish sympathies are hurled against you by moronized self-assessed Armenians. # Monday, January 28, 2013 **************************************** FROM MY NOTEBOOKS ************************************** Propaganda is as addictive as nicotine, alcohol, and opium. * The hidden message in all propaganda is, what you think is right and anyone who dares to disagree with you is an enemy agent. * Now Barabbas was a publisher and Cain a fascist. * Speechifiers and sermonizers end up believing in their own speeches and sermons. Arguing with them is like trying to enlighten a source of light. * There are times when I get so depressed by my fellow countrymen that the thought of death cheers me up. * Dissent means questioning the integrity of individuals who believe in their own infallibility. * Propaganda sticks to children like crazy glue. # Tuesday, January 29, 2013 ************************************ IRRELEVANCE ******************************** Even in a land of the brave and the free there will be cowards and slaves; and if not slaves to human masters than slaves to ignorance, prejudice, and lies. * Our men at the top know that the best way to avoid international scrutiny is by achieving irrelevance, and irrelevance is thrust on some as greatness is thrust on others. * Who after all gives a damn about Armenia? Not even Armenians. Who gives a damn about our 1,500,000? Not even Obama. Who gives a damn about our ongoing “white genocide” (exodus from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora)? Not even our superpatriots who prefer to speechify about the eternal snows of Mt. Ararat. * God’s existence is as great a mystery to me as the Devil’s? # Wednesday, January 30, 2013 ***************************************** JESUS, MARX, FREUD ******************************** All of Freud may be said to be an expansion of the Biblical dictum: “The Kingdom of God is within you.” Or, the resolution of all your inner conflicts and contradictions are in your unconscious. * When Marx said “I am not a Marxist,” he was in a way questioning the legitimacy of all ideologies or closed systems of thought. * Einstein proved that all our fundamental assumptions about time and space are wrong; nothing is what it seems; a great deal of reality may be comprehensible but not everything. There are things we may never understand and explain. * What has been the most important contribution America has made to the world? Double-talk. To assert “All men are created equal,” and with the full cooperation of the Church to legitimize slavery. * What about Armenian contributions? Inbred morons pretending to be smart. * If the Kingdom of God is within you, so is the Empire of the Devil. #