ON POWER ************************************** Men in a position of power need flattery as much as a starving man needs bread. Their intolerance and hatred of dissent is rooted in vanity and not in some kind of ideological opposition. They don’t give a damn about ideas and ideologies which they consider a waste of time. To them intellectuals are no better than children and ideas their invisible toys or verbal hallucinations or ghosts and they don’t believe in ghosts. Words are good only when they glorify and flatter their egos. In their own eyes power is a blessing from God. It follows, whatever they do bears God’s seal of approval. Hence degenerate rulers and moronic multimillionaires operating on the assumption they are the uncrowned kings of the community. * History is clear on this point. Power drives men mad. Power is not a blessing but a curse. At the turn of the last century in the Ottoman Empire the sultan had a thousand concubines and as many versifiers, among them Armenians, singing his praises. * Talaat was more enlightened. He counted among his friends several intellectuals among them our own Zohrab. But as soon as he acquired power he had Zohrab assassinated. Napoleon put it best when he said “A man with an idea is my enemy.” # MORE ON TURCOCENTRISM ********************************************* Turcocentrism may also be defined as an ideology that says we are not the architects of our destiny. It follows, the only logical explanation of our misfortunes is: “Shit happens.” * Consider earthquakes as a case in point. What we are not told is that according to experts “Earthquakes don’t kill people; buildings do.” * Nothing comes more naturally to a compulsive and habitual liar than to cover up and to lie. * The priority of all businessmen is profit. The more profit the better. Likewise, the priority of all politicians regardless of race, color and creed is power – the more power the merrier, even if it means the destruction of the nation. * Our dealers in chauvinist crapola expect us to believe what applies to all politicians does not apply to our own who rule and divide by the grace of God. # FOREIGNER *********************** To me, the ultimate odar (foreigner) is the Ottomanized and Sovietized Armenian. * ON SURVIVAL ******************** We have survived – no one denies that – but survived as what? * PARADOX ************************* Armenians who classify themselves as the best, sooner or later expose themselves as the worst. # “We are a people like any other people.” “Don’t flatter yourself.” # ZOHRAB & CHARENTS ********************************** “We are a people like any other people.” “Don’t flatter yourself. Even our greatest intellectuals and poets, like Zohrab and Charents, were dupes of enemy propaganda.” “What would you have done in their place?” “Probably what they did and having done so I would deserve universal ridicule and contempt.” * SAROYAN ********************* I will never forget the angry letter one of our elder statesmen sent me after reading one of my anti-Soviet tirades: “Saroyan loves the regime. You think you are smarter than Saroyan?” * GUILTY AS CHARGED ***************************** You say I simplify complexities? What does propaganda do? What is propaganda if not the mother tongue of self-satisfied idiots and their dupes? * GUILTY AS CHARGED II ************************************* “You repeat yourself.” “Not as often as our propagandists.” #

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS ********************************** Loyalty or subservience to authority is not patriotism but fascism. * My guess is, we produce more speechifiers, sermonizers and pundits per capita than any other nation on earth. * Who speaks today in the name of the people, and when I say people I mean not the dead but the living. * The most important questions in life are destined to remain unanswered. Even belief systems that pretend to have all the answers are willing to acknowledge this fact. There is a well-known story about a theologian who on informing the Pope that he had written a 1000-page treatise explaining the mystery of the Holy Trinity was ordered to “burn it!” # LIVE AND LEARN ********************************** Until very recently I wasn’t aware of the fact that fund-raising is a profitable enterprise and that some chief executive officers of charitable organizations are paid million-dollar salaries. * Wee are more civilized. Our charitable organizations don’t have chief executive officers; even more to the point, they are accountable only to God, which in practice, means no one. * Question: Do CEOs of charitable organizations contribute to charitable organizations? # SCENARIOS ****************************** On the day Azeris open their borders we will bleed from three open wounds: East, West, and North. * At the present rate of exodus, they will not have to fight us to reoccupy their lands, they will just walk in. * I am a comfort to our enemies? What about our dividers? What is their message? Let me guess: “No need to kill us, we plan to commit suicide.” What else? #

ON CRACKPOTS *********************************** In a recent issue of TIME magazine there is an interview with Andre Agassi in which Armenians and massacres are not mentioned. * The best thing Saroyan ever said about the Genocide is that he felt sorry for the Turks. * Now you may understand why I refer to Genocide ghazetajis, Hai Tahd activists and fund-raisers as Turcocentric crackpots. * There is a baloney artist in all politicians and ours are no exception. # THREE MAXIMS *************************** Thinking against oneself is one of the cardinal virtues. * Politicians and honesty are mutually exclusive concepts. * To believe when you are right you have God and Truth on your side is to be a potential assassin and terrorist. # READING BETWEEN THE LINES ******************************************** We all have our share of limitations with one difference: some of us are infatuated with them. Erasmus of Rotterdam was right when he said: “Everyone loves the smell of his own sh*t.” * The need to be understood always exceeds the need to understand. * Where lawyers and politicians enter, injustice and lies are sure to follow. * Never contradict a politician or a lawyer: remember, they are professionals. * To my anti-American friends from the Middle East I say: “I agree with you provided you also agree with me when I say the rest of the world is no better.” * Nobody ever said to be an honest man among crooks comes without a price. * I don’t always like or agree with what I say but once I put down 2+2= I have no choice but to say 4. # READERS ************************* There is a type of reader (and I have my share of them) who is programmed to disagree and reject anything that is not recycled propaganda. Such a reader doesn’t even bother or begin to understand what’s being said. He just hangs a label on you and forever after identifies you as the lowest form of animal life – namely, an Armenian who doesn’t love all Armenians and hate all Turks. Such a reader is convinced anyone who has more power or money must know better. He is Bolshevik in his pragmatism, capitalist in his value system, and Catholic in his dogmatism. # Reply, Reply All or Forward | More    Wine                          ON CRACKPOTS *********************************** In a recent issue of TIME magazine there is an interview with Andre Agassi in which Armenians and massacres are not mentioned. * The best thing Saroyan ever said about the Genocide is that he felt sorry for the Turks. * Now you may understand why I refer to Genocide ghazetajis, Hai Tahd activists and fund-raisers as Turcocentric crackpots. * There is a baloney artist in all politicians and ours are no exception. # THREE MAXIMS *************************** Thinking against oneself is one of the cardinal virtues. * Politicians and honesty are mutually exclusive concepts. * To believe when you are right you have God and Truth on your side is to be a potential assassin and terrorist. # READING BETWEEN THE LINES ******************************************** We all have our share of limitations with one difference: some of us are infatuated with them. Erasmus of Rotterdam was right when he said: “Everyone loves the smell of his own sh*t.” * The need to be understood always exceeds the need to understand. * Where lawyers and politicians enter, injustice and lies are sure to follow. * Never contradict a politician or a lawyer: remember, they are professionals. * To my anti-American friends from the Middle East I say: “I agree with you provided you also agree with me when I say the rest of the world is no better.” * Nobody ever said to be an honest man among crooks comes without a price. * I don’t always like or agree with what I say but once I put down 2+2= I have no choice but to say 4. # READERS ************************* There is a type of reader (and I have my share of them) who is programmed to disagree and reject anything that is not recycled propaganda. Such a reader doesn’t even bother or begin to understand what’s being said. He just hangs a label on you and forever after identifies you as the lowest form of animal life – namely, an Armenian who doesn’t love all Armenians and hate all Turks. Such a reader is convinced anyone who has more power or money must know better. He is Bolshevik in his pragmatism, capitalist in his value system, and Catholic in his dogmatism. #

TO KNOW IS TO REMEMBER ****************************************** To write also means to repeat what has been said and forgotten; to shout that which is whispered; and to expose that which is covered up. As for solutions to our problems: I can only say and repeat: solutions, like the Kingdom of God, are within you. * Be honest with yourself and others even when to be honest means to be outnumbered a thousand to one. * Thou shalt not deceive yourself, especially when the deception is disguised as tradition, the laws of the land, or the word of a king, pope, or some other phony representative of god on earth: in short, propaganda. * If belief systems don’t tell us not to be dupes of propaganda it may be because that would be like digging their own graves. But I maintain being a dupe is one of the most dangerous transgressions. Wars and massacres are perpetrated by dupes whose sole justification has been, “I was following orders,” or I trusted the word of god as spoken by a rabbi, imam, or bishop. # BIG BROTHERS, AMONG OTHER THINGS ******************************** The Russians are our Big Brothers only in the sense that for 600 years Turks were our Big Brothers. So was Cain to Abel. * When you are young you pull up your pants and go wherever you want to go. But when you are old someone else pulls up your pants and takes you where you don’t want to go. I am now paraphrasing the Bible which may suggest it is not the Word of God but of men with a credibility problem. * Lies that flatter are infinitely more dangerous than mad dogs, venomous snakes, and mad elephants. # HOLIER-THAN-THOU ************************************** There is a type of holier-than-thou reader who likes to point out the fact that my criticism of Armenians is nothing but a projection of my own shortcomings. Such a reader is convinced he knows better because he is better. His unspoken aim is not to understand reality but to explain it in such a way as to prove his moral and intellectual superiority; and to prove it to others in order to convince himself. # MEIN KAMPF ********************************* All my efforts are now concentrated on being readable. As for saving the nation: I leave that to our bosses, bishops, benefactors and dime-a-dozen superpatriots with messianic ambitions. * ON SERMONIZERS AND SPEECHIFIERS ********************************************** One way to define them is to say they are men who know what must be said but consistently and unanimously avoid doing what must be done. * RIGHT AND WRONG ************************************ It is not enough to say we did nothing wrong. Did we do anything right? Even more to the point: Can we even tell right from wrong? * OUR SHISH-KEBAB PARTIES ************************************** Members of the Tea Party in America are the offspring of individuals who in the second half of the 19th century fought a bloody civil war – some say the bloodiest in history – in defense of slavery. They remind me of our bosses, bishops, and benefactors who, to save the nation, they divide it. * WORDS OF WISDOM ******************************** There is an old Armenian saying: “He is so smart he even knows where the devil sleeps.” The devil, my friends, sleeps where he resides and he resides in our hearts. * TELL ME ************************ Am I saying anything you don’t already know? #

THE BOTTOM LINE **************************************** Our problems were thrust on us by others. We reject their solutions on our own. * Only the rotten succeed in a corrupt environment. * The greater the political control of schools, libraries, newspapers, community centers and churches, the greater the number of yes-men and dupes. * The challenge is to speak of serious things without taking oneself seriously; to be critical of others and even more critical of ourselves. * In a totalitarian environment to say your ambition is to succeed as a writer is like saying as a virgin it is your ambition to be a bordello madam. * When wolves are in charge, sheep will be useful only as lunch. # ORWELL SPEAKS ******************************** In one of his essays George Orwell speaks of “the corrosive digestive juices of the British imperial leviathan.” You may now have a better understanding of the depths of our own degradation. * Elsewhere he speaks of “the smelly little orthodoxies contending for our souls.” # FROM MY NOTEBOOKS ****************************************** There is an old saying: “When you’re down, the only way is up.” Like all rules this one too has its exceptions: Armenians. * The Greek jury that condemned Socrates to death; the men who crucified Christ; the solitary Hindu who assassinated Gandhi: they all shared one thing in common: they were brainwashed to believe the gods, truth, and historic necessity were on their side. * If you brainwash children to believe in the myth of the Holy Trinity, they will be inclined to believe in many other trinities like liberté, fraternité, egalité; thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis; Marx, Engels, Lenin… * A nation that hates together stays together. * Judge a tree by its fruit and a propaganda line by the number of its victims. * I quote to enhance my credibility. What the hell does an Armenian scribbler know? An odar author, that’s different. Prof. Hamalian on Zarian, after reading my translations: “He writes like one of my bright students.” * Academics: they all proceed from the assumption that they know better. Question: With over a thousand Armenian academics in America alone, why is it that our collective existence is in such a mess? # I COULD BE WRONG *************************************** Certainties are the source of all evil. But I could be wrong… * Has anyone ever said I could be wrong but let’s divide the community anyway? Or, I could be wrong but let’s go to war … * To some a belief system is nothing but a source of income and power. * Where there are idols there are idol-makers. Where there are dupes there are deceivers. I think it was Luther who said: “The God of Christians (meaning Catholics) is an idol.” * What is patriotism? In theory, love of God and Country. In practice, to brainwash children and manipulate adults. * We should teach our children to say “I could be wrong.” * Socrates was condemned to death because he spoke in defense of doubt and uncertainty. “Of the gods,” said he, “we know nothing!” #

THE STORY OF MY LIFE ********************************************** One way to get acquainted with life and with one’s fellow men is to work for minimum wage under individuals you would do your utmost to avoid if given the choice. * WE ARE TOLD ****************************** There will come a time when the lion will lie down with the lamb and the Armenian with the Armenian, but I doubt if I will live long enough to see it. * We are also told our political parties play an essential role in the preservation of our identity as Armenians in the Diaspora; the implication being our partisans are dedicated and selfless servants of the community and men of honor. * “MEN OF HONOR” ******************************* That’s how members of the mafia identify themselves, as “men of honor.” What did you expect them to say? – that they are a gang of blackmailers, thieves, and murderers? # ON SUBSERVIENCE ******************************** It is said of Goethe and Beethoven that they were once taking a walk in a park when they ran into a family of aristocrats. Whereas Goethe bowed down deeply as a sign of respect, Beethoven plowed on with the comment: “There are so many of them, and so few of us!” * My question: If subservience can penetrate the mighty brain of an intellectual giant like Goethe, what chance do the rest of us have after long centuries of systematic indoctrination, and brutal intimidation by the likes of Sultans and Stalin? # HABEMUS PAPAM! *********************************** “Everything you have been saying about Armenians is wrong,” a reader tells me, and goes onto inform me he has discovered the root of all our problems. * OBSERVATION **************************** Our bosses, bishops and benefactors tend to behave as though they were not part of history, they live outside space and time, the law of gravity does not apply to them, and their actions don’t have consequences; and armed with that conviction they continue to bankrupt the nation with a clear conscience. * COMMENT ****************** You can’t adopt a propaganda line and pretend to be an honest man. * REFLECTION ************************* If only I could solve my own problems as easily as I solve the world’s problems! #

FREEDOM ************************* Everyone speaks of freedom of religion as if it were a good thing, a mark of progress and civilization. What if what will civilize the world is not freedom of religion but freedom of dissent and heresy? But as long as rabbis, bishops and imams are allowed the freedom to poison the minds of children we will have wars and massacres. * Why is this so difficult to understand? Empires decline and fall not when its prostitutes, pimps, thieves and degenerates prosper but when its spiritually superior individuals (self-assessed of course) assume leadership positions. * Moral I: Freedom of religion is freedom to enslave. * Moral II: Freedom to brainwash children is a crime against humanity. # JAGADAKIR ************************************** We have a school of thought that says Christianity was a bad choice for us. We should have converted to Islam. The unmistakable implication being, since we cannot change the past, we cannot change our present and future. What’s done is done and it cannot be undone. It is our jagadakir (destiny) therefore to remain perennial losers. Let us therefore, in legal parlance, drop our pants and bend over to whoever is on top – be he a shah, pasha, padishah, sultan or commissar. * But I maintain our problem is not our choice of religion. Our problem is ignorance of the world, divisiveness, corruption, incompetence, treason, and intolerance of any idea that may shatter our image as la crème de la crème and expose us as la crème de la scum. # IN BRIEF ************************ On our present situation: Losers at the mercy of other losers. * SWINE ****************** The 1% are cold-blooded swine who think they will not burn in hell because hell is their own invention. * KNOWN UNKNOWNS ************************************ We know that Sultan Abdulhamid II’s mother was Armenian. We also know that Talaat himself was probably part-Armenian. What we don’t know is how many of our own present leaders are Turks. * INTERNET *************************** Is the Internet making us smarter or dumber? I don’t know. All I know is that if an ape uses it he will not be born-again as a human being. * ON ASSAD ********************** Tina Brown on Bashar-al-Assad: “A creepy, lisping, giraffe-necked liar.” * LOLITA ********************** I don’t read and reread LOLITA to be enlightened or instructed. I read it because it is compulsively readable – from the first (“fire of my loins”) to the last sentence. # NOTES & COMMENTS ************************************** There is a general in every solider (according to Napoleon), a pope in every seminarian, a master in every slave, a capitalist in every proletarian, and (according to a schoolteacher) a Turk in every Armenian. * Nothing disarms a man with a highly developed spirit of contradiction than agreement. * We read so many obituaries and hear of so many deaths when we are alive that we end up thinking of ourselves almost as immortal. #