Sunday, May 12, 2013 ************************************* CONFESSIONS ************************** At the beginning was the Word and the Word was a Big Lie. * God created heaven and earth. It was Man who created Hell. * I am an atheist only in the sense that I don’t believe in the God of rabbis, imams, and bishops. * The dead are replaced by the living and worlds are replaced by other worlds. What if, even as I write these lines, in another world Cain is murdering Abel and Nietzsche is announcing the death of God? * I am not an atheist. For thirty-five years I was a church organist, my favorite composer is J.S. Bach, and my favorite quotation is by Santa Teresa of Avila: “Never submit your intelligence to someone who doesn’t have enough of it himself.” * The Catholic priest who hired me as his organist (may the Good Lord have mercy on his soul) once said to him: “Organ music makes people feel holier.” When informed I was an atheist, he said: “God is in everything that is beautiful and you love music…” # WHAT IF… ***************************** What if I am not consistently wrong and you are not consistently right? What if once or twice a year I may be right and you may be wrong? What makes you think you are better than the fellow in the Vatican who thought he was doing God’s work even when he authorized the torture of heretics? * In the eyes of our Turcocentric ghazetajis, academics, and dealers in chauvinist crapola I am only an Armenian Turks love to quote. * Fanatics may be defined as individuals who place prejudice and hatred above understanding. * A tolerant and balanced view is one in which assertions are modified by their contradictions. * It is safe to assume that our enemies may not always be wrong because our friends may not always be right. * The God of fanatics is the Devil. * To say we have the leadership we deserve is like saying countless innocent civilians deserved to be slaughtered when it was only their leaders who should have been hanged (I am now paraphrasing General Antranik as quoted by Mahari in his autobiography). * If the Sultan was replaced by Talaat, the Czar by Lenin and Stalin, The German Monarch by Hitler, the Spanish King by Franco, (I could go on) what makes you think our own revolutionaries were men of integrity and statesmen of vision? I am not making assertions or casting aspersions, just asking a question. # ELEMENTARY ***************************** After saying “We all make mistakes,” we should ask: “How many of them were avoidable?” * After saying “There are divisions everywhere,” we should ask: “How many of them are necessary or justifiable?” * After saying “Armenians are smart,” we should ask: “Why is it that we have been consistently victimized by Mongoloid barbarians, inbred morons, and bloodthirsty savages?” * After bragging about our celebrities, we should ask: “How many of them ever bragged about their Armenian identity? Mamoulian? Gulbenkian? Mikoyan? Jack S. Avanakian?” * You can’t pretend to seek solutions if you don’t acknowledge the existence of the problem. Neither can you have the right answer if you don’t even bother to ask the right question. # SWINE ************************* From IT HAPPENED IN NAPLES, an old Italian film: SOPHIA LOREN (angry): You are not a lawyer. You are a pig! VITTORIO DE SICA (with disbelief): But a man can be a lawyer and a pig at the same time. * You can tell right from wrong? That means you have discovered the recipe for an unhappy life. * I am all for forgiving my enemies, but only after they die. * Everything I write has autobiographical roots. * I have behaved like a pig and I have behaved like a human being: I can tell the difference. * All power structures, belief systems, and regimes depend on a class of highly paid individuals who specialize in deception or the invention of big lies. In other words, people not only need to be deceived but also want to be deceived, so much so that they are more than willing to pay good money to their deceivers. * I have behaved like a deceiver and I have behaved like a dupe. I can tell the difference. #