insanity

Saturday, April 14, 2012
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DUPES
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“Idol-makers don’t believe in idols,”
says a Chinese proverb.
Something similar could be said of politicians.
Do politicians believe in their own propaganda?
I doubt it.
Did Hitler really believe Jews to belong to an inferior race?
Whenever it was pointed out to him
that one of his aides had Jewish blood, he would reply:
“If true, he will try twice as hard to prove his loyalty,”
or words to that effect.
Goering had a similar reaction: he would say,
“I decide who is and is not a Jew.”
A dupe, by contrast, is one who believes what he is told
even when what he is told is propaganda.
*
A politician’s primary concern is power,
not truth and ideas. He will say and do anything
that will legitimize and enhance his power.
The Pope may doubt his faith seven times a day,
but a dupe never.
A dupe is brainwashed to believe
“Mussolini ha sempre ragione”
(Mussolini is always right);
in the same way that a good Catholic
is brought up to believe the Pope is infallible,
and a patriotic Armenian is brainwashed to believe
a nationalist historian’s version of the past
is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
and anyone who does not share his convictions
is a pro-Turkish traitor.
There you have the roots of our
disagreements, divisions, decline, and degeneration.
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Saturday, April 14, 2012
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HISTORIANS
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One of the best books on Armenian history
that I remember to have read many years ago
was by Armenian historian who was also
a Tashnak leader.
*
When asked what history’s verdict would be on him,
Churchill is said to have replied:
“That’s doesn’t worry me because I plan to write it.”
And he did.
And it was a best-seller.
And he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
*
Had Hitler won World War II,
MEIN KAMPF would have been one of the most widely translated
and used textbooks in schools.
*
Once when I published an interview with a Tashnak leader
(may the Good Lord have mercy on his soul),
a Ramgavar leader (ditto) wrote an angry letter to the editor
in which he exposed me as a dupe
and the Tashnak leader as a charlatan.
Whereupon the Tashnak leader,
in another letter to the editor,
dismissed the Ramgavar as a Stalinist stooge.
*
For an Armenian to believe an Armenian historian
is as bad as for a Turk to believe a Turkish historian.
*
Textbooks written by nationalist historians
might as well be conspiracies of liars.
*
Who takes nationalist historians seriously?
“All professions are conspiracies against the laity” (G.B. Shaw).
“There is a sucker born every day,” or is it every minute?
Writing textbooks is a racket like any other,
and having written one myself, I plead guilty as charged.
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Saturday, April 14, 2012
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INSANITY
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What’s a plea of insanity to murderers,
patriotism is to political leaders.
Greed for power, never!
Love of God, Country or King, always!
*
In a democratic environment,
political leaders are classified as public servants.
In an authoritarian or anti-democratic regime
the men at the top behave as masters
and as if that weren’t preposterous enough,
they also claim to be infallible
for the simple reason that
they represent God on earth.
Dictators don’t claim to represent God because,
like Roman emperors, they classify themselves as gods.
You may now guess to which category
our own leaders belong.
*
Ajarian, the foremost expert on the Armenian language
used to say, “Who among us can claim to know
the Armenian language?”
The same could be said of Armenian history.
*
Even in a democracy our political leaders behave
like our masters who can do no wrong.
They can do no wrong even when they divide the community,
which amounts to saying,
even as they plot the destruction of the nation.
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