questions

Monday, April 01, 2013 ************************************* TWO QUESTIONS *********************** Even after successive waves of Hamidian massacres in the Ottoman Empire and Stalinist purges in the USSR, Armenian writers like Siamanto and Totovents couldn’t stand life in America and returned to Istanbul and Yerevan respectively. Now then, my question is: How many of our writers now living in exile have returned to their homeland after Independence? Is it conceivable that there was more tolerance and freedom under the bloody Sultan and the iron rule of Stalin than under our own oligarchs? * I am personally acquainted with an Armenian writer in exile who is not allowed to visit his dying father in Yerevan. My second question is: Is it conceivable that our oligarchs are more commissars and less Armenian? Or more robots and less human beings? # Wednesday, April 03, 2013 ******************************************* ON LIFE, AFTERLIFE, AND RELATED ATROCITIES ************************************************ On life after death: the chances are we will return to wherever it was that we came from before we were born. But that may not be the end of the story… * Nationalism teaches us to have 20/20 vision when it comes to our assets and pretend to be deaf, blind and stupid when it comes to our liabilities. * There is a natural tendency in all of us to subscribe to dogmas whose sole intent is to divide the community and to reject what common sense, decency, logic, and self-interest dictate. * To contradict is a temptation an Armenian cannot resist. * When we rely too much on our understanding we tend to forget or ignore the fact that, that which is incomprehensible may well be closer to the truth. # Tuesday, April 02, 2013 ************************************ CRIME AND PUNISHMENT *************************************** We owe our dogmas and divisions to individuals whose ultimate aim is the destruction of the nation; and if they are not aware of this it’s because they have allowed themselves to be moronized by their own propaganda. * We have bosses, bishops, and benefactors by the dozen and dupes by the thousand but not a single consensus seeker. * Nationalism also means to believe nothing you are told except flattery. * It took Turks 600 years to realize sultans were up to no good. It may take them a little longer to realize Kemalism is a morally and politically bankrupt ideology. * If there is a god, garbage collectors will go to heaven and politicians to hell. * Where there is subservience there will also be intimidation -- or bullies and cowards. # Wednesday, April 03, 2013 ***************************************** UNDERSTANDING THE ENEMY ****************************************** We may understand why we hate our enemies but we don’t always understand why they hate us. * If we have trouble understanding our enemies it may be because we have been brainwashed to believe we are lovable; and we are lovable even when we behave like repulsive apes; and we are smart even when we speak like inbred morons. * We like to believe if our enemies hate us it’s because there must be something fundamentally wrong with them. Turks are bloodthirsty savages. In the eyes of Americans, Muslim terrorists are ignorant fanatics. * Instead of examining our conscience we blame others. We use the lies of our propaganda to reach a truth which is a bigger lie. * We forget that we are not as cute as we think we are. No one is. To take propaganda seriously means to moronize oneself. * Instead of wondering why Americans hate Muslims, Muslims should ask themselves why do Sunnis butcher Shias and vice versa? Instead of wondering why Turks hate Armenians, we should ask ourselves why does Armenian hate Armenian? * Why Muslim terrorists hate Americans unto death? Why did Americans hate one another unto death in their Civil War (in cosmic time, yesterday)? # Saturday, April 06, 2013 *************************************** ON CHARM ****************************** “Charm is shit!” I hate the man who said that. I should have said it first. * Death may be the end of the road for us but the road itself is without end. * Robert Frost: “And nothing to look backward to with pride And nothing to look forward to with hope.” Our history in two lines. * I am what my critics made me. * The 1% may be replaced but not toppled. * Beware of the man who is humble only before God. * Divide the enemy and the battle is half won. Let the enemy divide us and the war is lost. # Saturday, April 06, 2013 ***************************************** MEMOIRS OF A SURVIVOR ************************************** Unmask an Armenian and expose a celebrity without recognition, a king without a crown, and a tyrant without power. * I remember once when I tried to arrange an interview with a minor Armenian celebrity, I was treated with such contempt that I cancelled the interview without notice and decided never to interview another Armenian again. * Success has this in common with power – it corrupts. * The offspring of survivors I am myself a survivor: my parents survived Turks; I survived Armenians. * In the official version of our recent story, the operation was a success but the patient died. * Recycled propaganda is verbal vomit. # Saturday, April 06, 2013 ********************************** WAR CRIMINALS ****************************** Who is crazier – the Second Amendment gun nut or the unbalanced teenager or adult who kills defenceless children? Speaking for myself: I don’t know. Hard to say. * I suggest there is a mass murderer in all of us waiting for the right combination of circumstances to make an appearance. * Consider the frequency with which law-abiding patriotic citizens that have committed or cooperated in the commission of atrocities, massacres, and genocide in the past. How many of them surrendered and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity? What about political, military, and religious leaders who legitimize and promote intolerance, hatred, and war or mass murder? Last but far from least: How many popes, imams, and rabbis have been identified as war criminals? I am not casting aspersions, just asking questions. #