corrected veersion ********************************** ******************************** INTERVIEW **************************************** Q: Raffi writes about bad as well as good Armenians. You write only about the bad. Why? A: Raffi was a great writer and a good man. Obviously I am not qualified to tie his shoes. Q: If propaganda is bad, why so many engage in it? A: So many also engage in adultery, drugs, smoking, war and massacre. You see, like you, I have more questions than answers. Q: Is it true that you love Turks and hate Armenians? A: I hate all liars and dupes regardless of nationality. Q: Why are you against patriotism? A: Because the ultimate aim of all patriotism is slaughter. I therefore say: F*** politicians who motivated by lust for power invent conflicts and brainwash the brainless. # TRYING TO MAKE SENSE ************************************ Leaders are first and foremost moronizing agents. The world is being systematically moronized today by Americans as surely as the Middle East and the Balkans were moronized by the Ottomans and the Soviet republics were sodomized by the Russians. * What we think of ourselves is never the same as what others think of us. In that sense we are not much different from the groupie who once declared: “I am not a groupie! I don’t have sex with the boys. I don’t use my body. I only do blow jobs.” * The secret ambition of all victims is to be a victimizer. This may explain why an Armenian is another Armenian’s Turk. * Where propaganda is over-developed, literature will be under-developed, and in our case, non-existent! # MEMO TO MY CRITICS ******************************************** Please note that I hate neither myself nor my fellow countrymen. What I really hate is the Turk in all of us and when I speak of Turks I don’t mean Turks as they are but as they appear to be in our history and collective experience. * READERS *********************** I don’t write for readers who know better. I write for readers who know as much as I did when I was a dupe. * ON A COMMON FALLACY ************************************** We all share the same illusion: namely, that people will judge us by our propaganda and not by our history. * ON LITERATURE ********************************* There is nothing wrong in admiring great writers provided you remind yourself that even the great ones, like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, had their share of contradictions which they could not resolve. * MORE ON PATRIOTISM *********************************** A patriotic Armenian, like a patriotic Turk, knows very little or almost nothing about the history of his nation and most of what he knows is a lie. * ON INFALLIBILITY ******************************* Arrogance and ignorance are at the root of all infallible assertions. * TO BE NOTED **************************** Compared to non-existence, existence lasts no more than a fraction of a second. # BROTHERS ***************************** Thomas Mann is right. Hitler was not an alien creature but “a brother.” There is a Sultan and a Talaat in all of us. * ON FRIENDSHIP *************************** I have so few friends that if I were to lose one I would be friendless. * SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT ************************************* I have been hired and fired many times but I have never hired and fired anyone. * ON SPEECHIFIERS AND SERMONIZERS ********************************************** There is a natural tendency in all speechifiers and sermonizers to underestimate the value of dialogue, compromise, and consensus. * ON FRIENDSHIP (II) ********************************** Because I write as I do, my patriotic friends pretend we have never met. * ON SURVIVAL ************************ Perhaps to be an Armenian means to be a survivor with a gaping wound. * ON DUPES ****************** One of the hardest things in life is to convince the average idiot that he is not a patriot but a dupe. # ALL BARK AND NO BITE ********************************* It could be said of our Turcocentric ghazetajis that they are all bark and no bite. Something similar could also be said of Armenian literature from the Golden Age to the present. As for our speechifiers and sermonizers: they at least make a more or less comfortable living. * As a child I trusted adults if only because whenever I asked an inconvenient or difficulty question I was told “You’ll find out when you grow up.” * In a recent issue of an Armenian academic periodical I read the reviews of six recently published books, five of them about the Genocide. * What’s being done to arrest or slow down the present rate of assimilation in the Diaspora and exodus from the Homeland? I am grown up and I still don’t have the answer to that question. But if you do, please feel free to share it with us. # MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS *************************************** Is there a single Armenian in a position of power today whom you trust? Someone you would go to for advice? Someone you would vote for if he were running for office? Someone you don’t suspect of being a former KGB, CIA or both? * Three sure ways of improving a writer’s reputation of work: verbal abuse, censorship, starvation. * Why are superstition and propaganda more believable than science and knowledge? * Jews have acquired the reputation of a people that enjoy mutual support. The same cannot be said of Armenians. # FROM ALPHA TO OMEDGA ******************************** If cathedrals are concrete and towering proofs of man’s faith in the existence of God, what are wars and massacres? * As for free will; it may apply to the Napoleons and Hitlers of the world but not to the average soldier who does the killing and dying; and certainly not to the civilian casualties. * The question, the real question, is not whether God exists or not but whether He gives a damn! * Am I shaped by my past or by my projects and hopes for the future? After I answer metaphysical questions I see more merit in their contradictions. * When the weak are led by the ruthless, the result will be a succession of catastrophes, that is to say, history as we know it. # ******************************** INTERVIEW **************************************** Q: Raffi writes about bad as well as good Armenians. You write only about the bad. Why? A: Raffi was a great writer and a good man. Obviously I am not qualified to tie his shoes. Q: If propaganda is bad, why so many engage in it? A: So many also engage in adultery, drugs, smoking, war and massacre. You see, like you, I have more questions than answers. Q: Is it true that you love Turks and hate Armenians? A: I hate all liars and dupes regardless of nationality. Q: Why are you against patriotism? A: Because the ultimate aim of all patriotism is slaughter. I therefore say: F*** politicians who motivated by lust for power invent conflicts and brainwash the brainless. # TRYING TO MAKE SENSE ************************************ Leaders are first and foremost moronizing agents. The world is being systematically moronized today by Americans as surely as the Middle East and the Balkans were moronized by the Ottomans and the Soviet republics were sodomized by the Russians. * What we think of ourselves is never the same as what others think of us. In that sense we are not much different from the groupie who once declared: “I am not a groupie! I don’t have sex with the boys. I don’t use my body. I only do blow jobs.” * The secret ambition of all victims is to be a victimizer. This may explain why an Armenian is another Armenian’s Turk. * Where propaganda is over-developed, literature will be under-developed, and in our case, non-existent! # MEMO TO MY CRITICS ******************************************** Please note that I hate neither myself nor my fellow countrymen. What I really hate is the Turk in all of us and when I speak of Turks I don’t mean Turks as they are but as they appear to be in our history and collective experience. * READERS *********************** I don’t write for readers who know better. I write for readers who know as much as I did when I was a dupe. * ON A COMMON FALLACY ************************************** We all share the same illusion: namely, that people will judge us by our propaganda and not by our history. * ON LITERATURE ********************************* There is nothing wrong in admiring great writers provided you remind yourself that even the great ones, like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, had their share of contradictions which they could not resolve. * MORE ON PATRIOTISM *********************************** A patriotic Armenian, like a patriotic Turk, knows very little or almost nothing about the history of his nation and most of what he knows is a lie. * ON INFALLIBILITY ******************************* Arrogance and ignorance are at the root of all infallible assertions. * TO BE NOTED **************************** Compared to non-existence, existence lasts no more than a fraction of a second. # BROTHERS ***************************** Thomas Mann is right. Hitler was not an alien creature but “a brother.” There is a Sultan and a Talaat in all of us. * ON FRIENDSHIP *************************** I have so few friends that if I were to lose one I would be friendless. * SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT ************************************* I have been hired and fired many times but I have never hired and fired anyone. * ON SPEECHIFIERS AND SERMONIZERS ********************************************** There is a natural tendency in all speechifiers and sermonizers to underestimate the value of dialogue, compromise, and consensus. * ON FRIENDSHIP (II) ********************************** Because I write as I do, my patriotic friends pretend we have never met. * ON SURVIVAL ************************ Perhaps to be an Armenian means to be a survivor with a gaping wound. * ON DUPES ****************** One of the hardest things in life is to convince the average idiot that he is not a patriot but a dupe. # ALL BARK AND NO BITE ********************************* It could be said of our Turcocentric ghazetajis that they are all bark and no bite. Something similar could also be said of Armenian literature from the Golden Age to the present. As for our speechifiers and sermonizers: they at least make a more or less comfortable living. * As a child I trusted adults if only because whenever I asked an inconvenient or difficulty question I was told “You’ll find out when you grow up.” * In a recent issue of an Armenian academic periodical I read the reviews of six recently published books, five of them about the Genocide. * What’s being done to arrest or slow down the present rate of assimilation in the Diaspora and exodus from the Homeland? I am grown up and I still don’t have the answer to that question. But if you do, please feel free to share it with us. # MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS *************************************** Is there a single Armenian in a position of power today whom you trust? Someone you would go to for advice? Someone you would vote for if he were running for office? Someone you don’t suspect of being a former KGB, CIA or both? * Three sure ways of improving a writer’s reputation of work: verbal abuse, censorship, starvation. * Why are superstition and propaganda more believable than science and knowledge? * Jews have acquired the reputation of a people that enjoy mutual support. The same cannot be said of Armenians. # FROM ALPHA TO OMEDGA ******************************** If cathedrals are concrete and towering proofs of man’s faith in the existence of God, what are wars and massacres? * As for free will; it may apply to the Napoleons and Hitlers of the world but not to the average soldier who does the killing and dying; and certainly not to the civilian casualties. * The question, the real question, is not whether God exists or not but whether He gives a damn! * Am I shaped by my past or by my projects and hopes for the future? After I answer metaphysical questions I see more merit in their contradictions. * When the weak are led by the ruthless, the result will be a succession of catastrophes, that is to say, history as we know it. # ******************************** INTERVIEW **************************************** Q: Raffi writes about bad as well as good Armenians. You write only about the bad. Why? A: Raffi was a great writer and a good man. Obviously I am not qualified to tie his shoes. Q: If propaganda is bad, why so many engage in it? A: So many also engage in adultery, drugs, smoking, war and massacre. You see, like you, I have more questions than answers. Q: Is it true that you love Turks and hate Armenians? A: I hate all liars and dupes regardless of nationality. Q: Why are you against patriotism? A: Because the ultimate aim of all patriotism is slaughter. I therefore say: F*** politicians who motivated by lust for power invent conflicts and brainwash the brainless. # TRYING TO MAKE SENSE ************************************ Leaders are first and foremost moronizing agents. The world is being systematically moronized today by Americans as surely as the Middle East and the Balkans were moronized by the Ottomans and the Soviet republics were sodomized by the Russians. * What we think of ourselves is never the same as what others think of us. In that sense we are not much different from the groupie who once declared: “I am not a groupie! I don’t have sex with the boys. I don’t use my body. I only do blow jobs.” * The secret ambition of all victims is to be a victimizer. This may explain why an Armenian is another Armenian’s Turk. * Where propaganda is over-developed, literature will be under-developed, and in our case, non-existent! # MEMO TO MY CRITICS ******************************************** Please note that I hate neither myself nor my fellow countrymen. What I really hate is the Turk in all of us and when I speak of Turks I don’t mean Turks as they are but as they appear to be in our history and collective experience. * READERS *********************** I don’t write for readers who know better. I write for readers who know as much as I did when I was a dupe. * ON A COMMON FALLACY ************************************** We all share the same illusion: namely, that people will judge us by our propaganda and not by our history. * ON LITERATURE ********************************* There is nothing wrong in admiring great writers provided you remind yourself that even the great ones, like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, had their share of contradictions which they could not resolve. * MORE ON PATRIOTISM *********************************** A patriotic Armenian, like a patriotic Turk, knows very little or almost nothing about the history of his nation and most of what he knows is a lie. * ON INFALLIBILITY ******************************* Arrogance and ignorance are at the root of all infallible assertions. * TO BE NOTED **************************** Compared to non-existence, existence lasts no more than a fraction of a second. # BROTHERS ***************************** Thomas Mann is right. Hitler was not an alien creature but “a brother.” There is a Sultan and a Talaat in all of us. * ON FRIENDSHIP *************************** I have so few friends that if I were to lose one I would be friendless. * SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT ************************************* I have been hired and fired many times but I have never hired and fired anyone. * ON SPEECHIFIERS AND SERMONIZERS ********************************************** There is a natural tendency in all speechifiers and sermonizers to underestimate the value of dialogue, compromise, and consensus. * ON FRIENDSHIP (II) ********************************** Because I write as I do, my patriotic friends pretend we have never met. * ON SURVIVAL ************************ Perhaps to be an Armenian means to be a survivor with a gaping wound. * ON DUPES ****************** One of the hardest things in life is to convince the average idiot that he is not a patriot but a dupe. # ALL BARK AND NO BITE ********************************* It could be said of our Turcocentric ghazetajis that they are all bark and no bite. Something similar could also be said of Armenian literature from the Golden Age to the present. As for our speechifiers and sermonizers: they at least make a more or less comfortable living. * As a child I trusted adults if only because whenever I asked an inconvenient or difficulty question I was told “You’ll find out when you grow up.” * In a recent issue of an Armenian academic periodical I read the reviews of six recently published books, five of them about the Genocide. * What’s being done to arrest or slow down the present rate of assimilation in the Diaspora and exodus from the Homeland? I am grown up and I still don’t have the answer to that question. But if you do, please feel free to share it with us. # MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS *************************************** Is there a single Armenian in a position of power today whom you trust? Someone you would go to for advice? Someone you would vote for if he were running for office? Someone you don’t suspect of being a former KGB, CIA or both? * Three sure ways of improving a writer’s reputation of work: verbal abuse, censorship, starvation. * Why are superstition and propaganda more believable than science and knowledge? * Jews have acquired the reputation of a people that enjoy mutual support. The same cannot be said of Armenians. # FROM ALPHA TO OMEDGA ******************************** If cathedrals are concrete and towering proofs of man’s faith in the existence of God, what are wars and massacres? * As for free will; it may apply to the Napoleons and Hitlers of the world but not to the average soldier who does the killing and dying; and certainly not to the civilian casualties. * The question, the real question, is not whether God exists or not but whether He gives a damn! * Am I shaped by my past or by my projects and hopes for the future? After I answer metaphysical questions I see more merit in their contradictions. * When the weak are led by the ruthless, the result will be a succession of catastrophes, that is to say, history as we know it. # IMAGINARY INTERVIEW (II) ******************************************* Q: Raffi writes about bad as well as good Armenians. You write only about the bad. Why? A: Raffi was a great writer and a good man. Obviously I am not qualified to tie his shoes. Q: If propaganda is bad, why so many engage in it? A: So many also engage in adultery, drugs, smoking, war and massacre. You see, like you, I have more questions than answers. Q: Is it true that you love Turks and hate Armenians? A: I hate all liars and dupes regardless of nationality. Q: Why are you against patriotism? A: Because the ultimate aim of all patriotism is slaughter. I therefore say: F*** politicians who motivated by lust for power invent conflicts and brainwash the brainless. # TRYING TO MAKE SENSE ************************************ Leaders are first and foremost moronizing agents. The world is being systematically moronized today by Americans as surely as the Middle East and the Balkans were moronized by the Ottomans and the Soviet republics were sodomized by the Russians. * What we think of ourselves is never the same as what others think of us. In that sense we are not much different from the groupie who once declared: “I am not a groupie! I don’t have sex with the boys. I don’t use my body. I only do blow jobs.” * The secret ambition of all victims is to be a victimizer. This may explain why an Armenian is another Armenian’s Turk. * Where propaganda is over-developed, literature will be under-developed, and in our case, non-existent! # MEMO TO MY CRITICS ******************************************** Please note that I hate neither myself nor my fellow countrymen. What I really hate is the Turk in all of us and when I speak of Turks I don’t mean Turks as they are but as they appear to be in our history and collective experience. * READERS *********************** I don’t write for readers who know better. I write for readers who know as much as I did when I was a dupe. * ON A COMMON FALLACY ************************************** We all share the same illusion: namely, that people will judge us by our propaganda and not by our history. * ON LITERATURE ********************************* There is nothing wrong in admiring great writers provided you remind yourself that even the great ones, like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, had their share of contradictions which they could not resolve. * MORE ON PATRIOTISM *********************************** A patriotic Armenian, like a patriotic Turk, knows very little or almost nothing about the history of his nation and most of what he knows is a lie. * ON INFALLIBILITY ******************************* Arrogance and ignorance are at the root of all infallible assertions. * TO BE NOTED **************************** Compared to non-existence, existence lasts no more than a fraction of a second. # BROTHERS ***************************** Thomas Mann is right. Hitler was not an alien creature but “a brother.” There is a Sultan and a Talaat in all of us. * ON FRIENDSHIP *************************** I have so few friends that if I were to lose one I would be friendless. * SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT ************************************* I have been hired and fired many times but I have never hired and fired anyone. * ON SPEECHIFIERS AND SERMONIZERS ********************************************** There is a natural tendency in all speechifiers and sermonizers to underestimate the value of dialogue, compromise, and consensus. * ON FRIENDSHIP (II) ********************************** Because I write as I do, my patriotic friends pretend we have never met. * ON SURVIVAL ************************ Perhaps to be an Armenian means to be a survivor with a gaping wound. * ON DUPES ****************** One of the hardest things in life is to convince the average idiot that he is not a patriot but a dupe. # ALL BARK AND NO BITE ********************************* It could be said of our Turcocentric ghazetajis that they are all bark and no bite. Something similar could also be said of Armenian literature from the Golden Age to the present. As for our speechifiers and sermonizers: they at least make a more or less comfortable living. * As a child I trusted adults if only because whenever I asked an inconvenient or difficulty question I was told “You’ll find out when you grow up.” * In a recent issue of an Armenian academic periodical I read the reviews of six recently published books, five of them about the Genocide. * What’s being done to arrest or slow down the present rate of assimilation in the Diaspora and exodus from the Homeland? I am grown up and I still don’t have the answer to that question. But if you do, please feel free to share it with us. # MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS *************************************** Is there a single Armenian in a position of power today whom you trust? Someone you would go to for advice? Someone you would vote for if he were running for office? Someone you don’t suspect of being a former KGB, CIA or both? * Three sure ways of improving a writer’s reputation of work: verbal abuse, censorship, starvation. * Why are superstition and propaganda more believable than science and knowledge? * Jews have acquired the reputation of a people that enjoy mutual support. The same cannot be said of Armenians. # FROM ALPHA TO OMEDGA ******************************** If cathedrals are concrete and towering proofs of man’s faith in the existence of God, what are wars and massacres? * As for free will; it may apply to the Napoleons and Hitlers of the world but not to the average soldier who does the killing and dying; and certainly not to the civilian casualties. * The question, the real question, is not whether God exists or not but whether He gives a damn! * Am I shaped by my past or by my projects and hopes for the future? After I answer metaphysical questions I see more merit in their contradictions. * When the weak are led by the ruthless, the result will be a succession of catastrophes, that is to say, history as we know it. #