Wednesday, June 19, 2013 ************************************* QUESTIONS WE NEVER ASK *************************************** Baronian and Odian: were they patriotic Armenians? What about Baruir Massikian when he saw more merit in a Cairo bordello than in our own institutions? What about Zarian when he said our political parties have been of no political use to us? Why is it that politicians, even when they are pathological liars and mass murderers like Hitler and Stalin identify themselves as great patriots? Why is it that we equate patriotism with blindness? A final question: What is the most frequently misunderstood and abused word in the world? * Moral: Next time you hear one of our speechifiers use that word, start counting your spoons. # POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ************************************* “To emphasize the positive is better,” I am reminded once in a while by concerned readers. To identify those who poison the well: if there is a positive way of doing that I am all ears. * ACADEMICS ********************* Where there are academics there will be two schools of thought. Case in point: “Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it’s the other way around.” * Trust an academic’s judgment as much as you would trust the judgment of a religion or political leader who speaks in defense of his belief system or ideology – that is to say, his power, prestige, and source of income, not necessarily in that order. * SPEAKING FOR MYSELF ********************************* To paraphrase Socrates again: No one will ever accuse me of speaking in defense of my source of income for the simple reason that it has never exceeded minimum wage. None of our national benefactors has ever said to me what one of them is quoted as having said to one of our distinguished educators and poets: “I hire and fire people like you every day.” # THEN AND NOW **************************** As a child I thought words meant what they said. I now suspect they mean the opposite. * What is justice? It depends on who is in charge of dispensing it. * I write as I do not because I know better but because I got tired of saying “Yes, sir!” to idiots. * To make a comfortable living by exploiting someone else’s crucifixion or massacre: What a racket! * There are two kinds of people: Armenians and odars and I feel alien in the company of both. # GUILTY ************************** Unlike Turks we are not guilty of committing and covering up genocide. We are, however, guilty of placing our trust in a leadership so incompetent that, in the words of a friend, “cannot even lead a dog to the nearest fire hydrant or catch a flu bug in an epidemic.” * If incompetence were a crime against humanity how many of our leaders would escape hanging? #