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Sunday, March 06, 2011
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PHOBIAS...AMONG OTHER THINGS
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Is Islamophobia -- that is, fear of Islam -- as irrational as say
agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) or homophobia (fear of gays)?
What about fear of child molesters, fear of organized crime,
or fear of serial killers?
Why is it that they do not qualify as phobias
in need of psychiatric treatment?
Who in his right mind would befriend
a serial killer, a mafioso, or a child molester
in the name of tolerance or political correctness?
Now then, if Muslims have killed many more innocent civilians
than serial killers,
why should Islamophobia be thought of as
neurotic, irrational, unjustified, or, for that matter, politically incorrect?
I look forward to the day when political correctness
will be seen as semantic fascism.
*
Everyone has a book in him, we are told.
What we are not told is that
most books remain unpublished,
and if published unread,
and if read forgotten.
*
Men who don't understand themselves call women incomprehensible.
*
More and more frequently now i find myself saying,
"I don't remember."
If it's the onset of Alzheimer's, it is more than welcome
because my unpleasant memories far outnumber the pleasant ones,
and nothing would give me more pleasure than to erase them.
Whoever defined happiness as a "bad memory"
knew what he was talking about.
#
Monday, March 07, 2011
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REFERENCES
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In eveything I read I see direct or hidden references to Armenians.
The situation in Lybia, for instances, reminds me of the fact that
no matter how corrupt and incompetent a leader,
he will have loyal supporters willing to kill and die for him.
I am also reminded of the fact that Sylva Kaputikian,
winner of the Stalin Prize,
even after the collapse of the USSR
openly declared pride in having been a member of the Communist Party.
*
While reading a review of Alan Riding's
AND THE SHOW WENT ON: CULTURAL LIFE IN NAZI-OCCUPIED PARIS,
dealing with French collaboration with Nazis
and the purges that followed under De Gaulle,
I reflect that we were at no time de-Ottomanized or de-Stalinized.
As a result there are still Armenians today who believe
Russians to be our Big Brothers notwithstanding the fact that as a nation
we could be their grand-grandfathers.
*
In the latest issue of the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
I read a review of Carol Edgarian's THREE STAGES OF AMAZEMENT
and another of David Livingstone Smith's
LESS THAN HUMAN: WHY WE DEMEAN, ENSLAVE, AND EXTERMINATE OTHERS,
whose subtitle reads:
"A philosopher argues that dehumanization is necessary
for genocide, slavery and slaughter to take hold."
According to Smith,
"dehumanization is rooted in human nature, not culture."
Which simply means, Turks massacred us
not because they are bloodthirsty Asiatic barbarians,
but because they are human beings, like the rest of us.
Toynbee would agree.
In one of his many references to Turks and Armenians
he writes that under certain conditions
even the most civilized people on earth
will behave like Turks -- that is,
if they follow their instinbct and ignore their reason.
*
In the review of Carol Edgarian's novel,
we are reminded that her first book, published 17 years ago,
is titled RISE THE EUPHRATES.
#
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
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ON IDENTITY
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David Hume on history:
"Its chief use is only to discover the constant and universal principles of human natur."
It follows, to identify Turks as bloodthirsty Asiatic barbarians
and ourselves as progressive, Christian, Westernized, civilized, and so on...
is as valid as to speak of superior and inferior races,
or Germans and Jews as defined by the Nazis.
*
In a review of ERNEST GELLNER: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY
by John A. Hall, I read:
"Gellner seems to have regarded his Jewish identity
as an obstacle to be overcome rather than an inheritance to be cherished."
Something similar could be said of our identity.
*
Gellner on tradition:
"...bullsh*t, servility, vested interests, arbitrariness, empty ritual" --
in short: mumbo jumbo.
*
What we need more than anything today
is an objective assessment of our reality and not
more Turcocentrism, lamentation, and blame-game.
We don't need bosses, bishops, and benefactors to tell us
who we are and what to think.
As long as we look up to them for guidance
we are no better than dogs who know their master
but not their master's master.
*
Our identity is not a set of assets handed down to us by our ancestors
(who may have been more confused than we are)
but a garbage dump of liabilities.
Now then, go right ahead and think I am wrong
because I refuse to flatter your vanity.
*
There is a misprint in "In God We Trust."
The letter "l" in "God" has been inadvertently deleted.
#
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
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THEM AND US
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When accused of sleeping with German soldiers during World War II,
a French actress is reported to have declared:
"My soul is French but my ass is international."
My answer to those of my readers who accuse me
of being anti-Armenian and even pro-Turkish, I say:
"My soul is Armenian but i write
(please note, i am not saying "my pen is")
... but I write as a human being.
I refuse to apply for membership
in a club, cabal, party, or organization
for the simple reason that i refuse to be coerced into writing
what someone else wants me to write.
Anyone is free to disagre with me on the grounds that
he is a better Armenian
and some of the most thoroughly Ottomanized and Sovietized Armenians have done so.
*
I have yet to see an Armenian willing to concede to another Armenian
that he is not a superior specimen who knows better.
*
It has been said that ideologies attract the best as well as the worst.
In our case, the worst far outnumber the best, alas!
*
Our men at the top know their business.
They choose their hirelings carefully.
They take a nobody, brainwash him,
give him a regular salary and a title,
and watch him turn into a parrot
who will repeat what he is told.
*
Speaking of World War II and Germans:
Hitler began his political career by blaming Germany's problems on Jews,
and he ended it by blaming the Germans.
That's the way it is with fascists:
they will blame everyone but themselves.
They are never wrong because they are infallible.
I will never forget the elder statesman
who blamed all our problems on "non-partisan Armenians."
When informed I was, like my father before me, a non-partisan, he said:
"I thought you were one of us."
And that was the end of our friendship.
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