labels

Thursday, February 09, 2012
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LABELS
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Please don’t call me an Armenian writer. Call me anything you want but that. I can’t imagine a worst insult. Being identified as an Armenian writer is as bad as being called a lawyer (“Please don’t tell my mother I am a lawyer; she thinks I am a pimp.”) When asked to identify my racket, I say I am a retired church organist. More prestige in that, if you know what I am saying. Armenian writers are a dime a dozen and Armenian poets a nickel a gross. I have at no time thought of myself as a member of the club. As for being Armenian: I assure you I had nothing to do with it. It was an accident of birth. First and foremost I consider myself a human being. As for the writer part: I plead not guilty. I just say what I think. Everybody does that without running the risk of being insulted. If you think I am being eccentric in my demands, consider the case of Arab dictators. Does any one of them identify himself as a dictator, let alone a corrupt, megalomaniacal, bloodthirsty s.o.b.? I assert the same right of rejecting all offensive labels, and I thank you in advance for your cooperation. May the Good Lord (if He exists) have mercy on your soul (if you have one).
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Friday, February 10, 2012
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SUMMING UP
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Where there are divisions, the blind shall lead the blind. This is as true of us and the U.S. (Civil War, the 1% versus the 99%) as it is of the rest of mankind (judging by the number of wars, revolutions, and related atrocities). Therefore, never say we are like everyone else. If we want to survive we must do better, much better!
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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
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In a world where everyone, including the shits -- especially the shits – are proud to be who they are, I loathe pride and find humility to the point of reducing myself to nothingness preferable.
To say I am a proud Armenian is to imply we never had it so good because we are in the best of hands. When I think of our present situation (make it, shituation) pride is the last word that comes to mind. Loathing? Much better!
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ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM
IN ARMENIAN LIFE
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Armenian anti-intellectualism has such deep roots in our collective psyche that even our academics are anti-intellectual. What makes me say that? Elementary, my dear Watson. Our academics are subservient to our bosses, bishops, and benefactors (the commissars of the Diaspora). That’s why none of them dares to say anything against God and capital (make it, Capital and god).
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Saturday, February 11, 2012
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DECEPTION
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“Every shut eye ain’t asleep.”
Not everyone who pleads insanity is insane.
Even cold-blooded murderers may plead self-defense.
Nothing is what it seems.
For every truth there are ten thousand lies.
Imagine a history of mankind without deceivers and dupes.
To enslave in the name of freedom
and to go to war in the name of peace:
these are not rare but routine occurrences.
When no one deceives us we deceive ourselves.
Even as I write I deceive myself into thinking
what I write may make a difference.
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