notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

July 4, 2010
************************************************** *
THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION
*********************************************
Nations and empires die as surely as individuals.
Scientists tell us the same fate awaits
not only the planet on which we live
but also the universe itself.
I doubt if I or anyone else
can postpone the inevitable final catastrophe
by even a fraction of a second.
Perhaps I write the way I write
not to save anything or anyone or, for that matter, myself
but to kill time.
*
The older I grow the more doubts I have
and the more certain I feel
of the essential meaninglessness and absurdity of life.
The idea itself of saving someone strikes me as an empty illusion.
There are those who identify the Messiah as our Savior.
There are also those who assert He,
or rather His followers,
saved no one and nothing;
if anything they made things worse
by legitimizing intolerance, the persecution and torture of heretics,
and religious wars, among other horrors.
Their intentions may have been good – no one denies that –
but history – including our own -- tells us
“the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
“No one can save another,” the Buddha has said.
Which, if anything, proves that even messianic figures
contradict one another when it comes to
unraveling the mystery of existence
or when they speak in the name of
the Unknowable and the Incomprehensible.
*
I believe true knowledge consists less in what we know
and more in what we don't know;
and what we don't know
exceeds what we know to such a degree
that if we had all the answers
what we now think we know would shrink to nothingness.
Why do I write?
Wrong question.
A better question would be,
why mankind has consistently trusted deceivers
more than honest men?
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

July 5, 2010
************************************************** *
HOW PROPAGANDA WORKS
*********************************************
Propaganda works because it flatters, and flattery is an offer very few people have the strength of character to refuse or reject.
“Fatigue increases suggestibility,” we are told by Pavlov of conditioned-reflex fame. After centuries of subservience and degradation we readily believe in the big lies of our propaganda, among them the illusion that we are smart.
Germans under Hitler behaved like barbarians with the unshakable conviction that they belonged to a superior or master race.
Speaking for myself: in my youth I was so convinced of my high IQ that I refused to learn from those I viewed as my equals or inferiors even when they were far ahead of me in understanding and dealing with reality. Which amounts to saying, those I viewed as my inferiors were in fact my superiors.
Do Yanks trust gold more than God? It depends on whether you are a partisan of fact or fiction. It goes without saying that the average American is convinced Americans are the most religious and idealistic people on earth.
If in crime it's cherchez la femme, in propaganda it's cherchez the truth or fact that it attempts to contradict or cover up.
Propaganda, Aldous Huxley tells us, “cunningly associates the lowest passions with the highest ideals.” It also contradicts the truth with lies.
When Pope Benedict decided to make his anti-Muslim views public, he quoted a Byzantine emperor on Islam's addiction to violence. A bad choice for which he had to apologize, because, to paraphrase a popular American saying, “Violence is as American as cherry pie,” or again as Christian as Western imperialism. A better choice on the part of the Pope would have been Islam's promise of a paradise where sex-starved teenagers are allowed to deflowers a harem of virgins. Christian paradise promises eternal bliss. No mention of sex. This may explain why we have a lower suicide rate in the West. Who in his right mind would kill himself in the name of a poorly defined metaphysical abstraction?
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

July 7, 2010
************************************************** *
GOOD ADVICE
*********************************************
Winston Churchill:
“Never hold discussions with the monkey
when the organ grinder is in the room.”
Which is why I ignore cowardly, loud-mouth idiots
who call me an idiot anonymously and from a safe distance.
They are not my targets.
My real targets are the fascist idiots
who brainwashed them to believe
dissent and free speech are unpatriotic.
*
According to Heidegger,
before we pretend to have the right answers,
we must learn to ask the right questions.
What have we learned from our history so far?
Only this: We are surrounded by ruthless giants,
as opposed to being self-righteous dogmatic midgets
who have learned nothing because they think
they already have all the answers.
*
Which one of our political parties
may be said to be on the right path?
One way to answer that question
is by quoting Samuel Johnson:
“Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency
between a louse and a flea.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

July 8, 2010
**********************
PHILOSOPHY
*********************************************
Faith can move mountains?
What nonsense!
God created mountains to be stationary.
Why would anyone want to challenge His will
by moving them?
*
You tell idiots
faith can move mountains
and next thing you know
they raise armies,
go on the warpath
liberating distant lands,
converting infidels,
and engaging in plunder and massacre.
*
If we don't know the meaning of life and death
it may be because God wanted it that way.
Not knowing is not ignorance.
Pretending to know the unknowable:
that's what I call the quintessence of ignorance
compounded by blasphemy
*
Tasting the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge
can be a risky business.
But when it comes to learning from history
or repeating it,
men have exhibited a marked preference
for repeating it.
*
Three of my favorite philosophical statements:
“Of the gods we know nothing” (Socrates).
“We don't know why things exist” (Heidegger).
“We believe that we believe but we don't believe” (Sartre).
*
“I think therefore I am”?
Countless men have ceased to be
exactly because some moron said:
“I think my belief system to be the only truth
and anyone who does not think as I do
doesn't deserve to live.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

July 9, 2010
**********************
POWEER AND TRUTH
*********************************************
Power will listen to truth only if it (truth) can be exploited.
Which amounts to saying,
only in so far as truth may serve a lie.
When I speak of truth, I include God.
And I am not talking in terms of theoretical abstractions here.
I am talking about history; and more particularly
the bloody history of organized religions,
about which Voltaire said:
“Since it was a religious war, there were no survivors.”
*
A true atheist is not one who denies His existence,
but one who exploits the idea of God to serve the Devil.
*
You think I have a suspicious mind?
Read James Joyce who saw deception and charlatanism everywhere,
including Freud and Jung, who, said he,
enjoy some degree of popularity
with the “yung [who are] easily freudened.”
But when his (Joyce's) daughter developed a mental illness,
he sought Jung's help who was of no help.
Which may suggest that even those who warn us against deceivers
are themselves vulnerable to deception.
*
To be taken in by smart operators is bad enough.
What is infinitely worse is to be taken in by idiots.
I speak from experience.
If I ever write an autobiography,
I suspect the longest chapter in it will be
about idiots who deceived me – or rather,
were smart enough to see my vulnerabilities and weaknesses
and I was idiotic enough to make them visible.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

July 10, 2010
**********************
IN THE NAME OF THE ALMIGHTY
*********************************************
Experience, it has been said, is not what happens to us,
but what we do with what happens.
So far we have emphasized the Genocide to the point of obsession,
but we have made no effort to deal with it.
As a result, we have only replaced the “red” massacre
with the “white” (alienation and assimilation).
*
At all times and everywhere, Hegel tells us,
man is given two choices:
to say “Yes, sir!” to his Master,
or to risk his own life (or means of survival) by saying “No!”
To behave either like a sheep or a wolf.
*
After six centuries of playing the sheep,
some of us – a tiny and non-representative group
of self-appointed revolutionaries -- turned into wolves
by risking the survival of the community,
and what was bound to happen happened.
The sheep were slaughtered and the wolves survived.
*
The wolves survived and became our new Masters.
Dissent is out!
Saying no is anathema.
In the same way that once upon a time
we were not allowed to say no to the Sultan
(who spoke in the name of Allah),
today we are not allowed to say no to our bosses
(or neo- or crypto-sultans),
or bishops (who speak in the name of God),
or benefactors (who speak in the name of Capital).
*
Christianity, Hegel tells us, only replaced the human Master
with the Divine Master.
Likewise, Capital (according to Marx
who was greatly influence by Hegel)
replaced the Divine Master with, in modern parlance,
the Almighty Dollar.
*
The ambition of every charlatan
is to speak in the name of the Almighty
(be it Allah, God, or Capital) and the punish or silence those
who dare to disagree with him.
The more things change,
the more they stay the same.
*
The choice is yours.
But be warned:
If you choose to play the sheep,
there is no guarantee that you will survive.
But even if you survive,
you will survive not as a man but as a slave.
Not as an Armenian with your own identity
but as a rootless, traditionless, alienated empty suit.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

July 15, 2010
**********************
TRUTH AND OBJECTIVITY
************************************************** **
Those who assert to have truth on their side (lawyers, politicians, theologians) don't like to mention objectivity in the same context, as if truth and objectivity were mutually exclusive concepts.
*
When patriotism meets objectivity, patriotism and those who who speak in its name will invariably emerge the victors.
*
No one cares about us except us, and even we don't care about ourselves – judging by the actions of our leaders -- as opposed to their speeches and sermons.
*
Last Saturday I was exposed to several televised sermons and speeches by Catholicos Aram of Antelias. He spoke of justice, human rights, and of course, genocide, genocide, genocide... He never even came close to admitting that as one of our dividers, he was himself one of the architects of our second (“white”) genocide. I am not implying his counterpart in Etchmiadzin is better. If anything, he is worse.
*
Let them speechify and sermonize on truth all they want. I prefer to speak of objectivity. How much objectivity is there in love, war, faith, and massacre?
*
The most corrupt and incompetent leader will have his loyal supporters, in the same way that the most charismatic and selfless paragon (like Socrates, Jesus, and Gandhi) will have his enemies and killers.
#
July 16, 2010
**********************
OREOS
************************************************** **
An Armenian is an Armenian is an Armenian?
Not quite. Some are oreos: Armenian on the outside, Ottoman on the inside.
All dividers are oreos. They divide knowing full well that a house divided against itself cannot stand. So our history tells us; and so also what the Scriptures assert. And why do they divide?
They divide because their self-righteous Ottoman mindset tells them: “So long as my actions are guided by my principles; so long as I am doing the right thing, why should I care if the nation parishes? So long as my conscience is clear, it means I am doing what must be done.”
Deep inside somewhere, if he is half as smart as he thinks he is, he must know that his conscience is as much an illusion as his so-called principles are phony.
How does he define what it means “doing the right thing?”
The real answer to that question is: “I do the right thing when I defend and protect all my powers and privileges.”
Isn't that what the Turks thought too at the turn of the last century?
“So long as we defend and protect the integrity of the Empire, and with it our God-given powers and privileges, why should we give a damn if a million or more innocent civilians perish? Better them than us!”
*
Moral I:
It is easy to speak in the name of God, much more difficult to act with His wisdom.
*
Moral II:
Only dupes believe in the God of imams, rabbis, and popes.
*
Moral III:
All political principles and religious dogmas whose aim is to legitimize intolerance and divisions must be assumed to be inventions of the Devil.
*
Moral IV:
Any principle or dogma that contradicts the dictum “All men are brothers,” can't be right.
#
July 17, 2010
**********************
TACTICS
************************************************** **
You want to keep them backward and stupid?
Call them progressive and smart.
We make a big mistake when we underestimate
the ruthless cunning of our leadership.
*
Paternalists are never paternal,
and when they preach humility
they mean subservience for the many
and arrogance for themselves.
*
To divide a nation is the same
as separating its soul from its body.
*
All movements generate a lunatic fringe.
In our case, the lunatic fringe has succeeded
and succeeded brilliantly
to paralyze the movement.
*

All Armenians are my brothers –
but only in the sense that all men are my brothers –
but only in the sense that Cain was Abel’s brother.
*
Never judge an Armenian as an Armenian
but as a human being. As a rule,
Armenians who insist on being judged as Armenians
use the flag to hide their true colors.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

July 18, 2010
**********************
SULTANISM
************************************************** **
Whenever I understand something I didn't understand before, I am seized by an irresistible urge to share it. I can see why this peculiarity of mine can irritate the hell out of some readers who understand everything.
*
No one can be as ignorant as the man who is convinced he knows all he needs to know, and what he doesn't know is either irrelevant or not worth knowing.
*
"I don't trust him.”
"Why not?”
"He is a bad man.”
"Why is he bad?”
"He thinks he is a good Armenian.”
"Can't a good Armenian be a good man?”
"Not if he feels the need to advertise it. A truly honest man does not advertise himself as such even when he is accused of dishonesty. Besides, goodness and honesty are universal concepts. They don't need a national label. To identify someone as a “good German” or a “good Turk” is to imply the rest of them are bad.”
*
Great nations need big lies; small nations need bigger lies.
*
In Herman Melville I come across a new word: “sultanism,” meaning the exercise of power with a touch of sadistic pleasure.
*
A mediocrity will be subservient to any regime or power structure that gives him a regular salary, or a title, or a uniform, or the license to persecute better men than himself. There it is: the root of our sultanism.
#
July 19, 2010
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CONFESSIONS OF AN ALIENATED ARMENIAN
************************************************** **
Racism consists in ascribing the crimes of the few on the entire nation or race. And because I am critical of Armenians (not all of them but a small fraction – see below) I am called a racist by functional illiterates who equate criticism with racism and dissent with treason. It follows, Stalin was right when he silenced dissenters. What's next? Heil Hitler?
*
Armenians may be divided into three distinct groups: the assimilated (who no longer identify themselves as Armenian), the alienated (who stay away from Armenian affairs, community centers, churches, schools, and demonstrations -- I count myself among them), and the dupes who believe everything they are told because they are brought up to believe thinking for oneself is a capital offense bordering on treason.
*
The Armenian version of the xxxish incantation “Next year in Jerusalem!” -- “Next year in Los Angeles!”
*
A reasonable man does not give matches to children with the warning not to start a fire. Likewise, a reasonable God does not give free will to man with the warning not to taste the fruit from the tree of knowledge. It follows, an Almighty and All-knowing God cannot be said to be reasonable; either that or His reason is our unreason.
*
When two adversaries negotiate, it is advisable that neither side engage in verbal abuse. That's one reason why I am all for friendly relations with Turks.
*
If an Armenian cannot negotiate with a fellow Armenian or be reasonable with those he disagrees with, what are his chances of reaching a consensus with the Turks?
*
I have a Turkish friends who believes the Armenian Genocide is a fiction of our collective imagination. And I believe Turks are dupes of their own state propaganda. That doesn't stop us from being friends. There is no rule that says friends must be carbon copies of each other. Neither is there a rule that says today's friend cannot be tomorrow's enemy and vice versa – yesterday's enemy cannot be today's friend. But there is a rule that says you can get more out of a friend than out of an enemy.
#
July 20, 2010
**********************
READING
************************************************** **
In an interview with Vasily Grossman's daughter, when asked, “Which of your father's works do you most admire and why?”
She replies: “GOOD WISHES – his account of the two months he spent in Armenia in late 1961. This is his kindest, most good-natured work.”
Further down we are informed that GOOD WISHES will be translated and published next year. (NEW STATESMAN. London, 21 June 2010, page 49.)
*
In LE POINT (Paris: 24 June 2010, page 85), I read a glowing review of a crime novel by Nairi Nahapetian (identified as an Iranian writer) titled QUI A TUE L'AYATOLLAH KANUNI? [Who Killed Ayatollah Kanuni?]
*
Here is a good subtitle for a book on the history of Armenian literature:
"From Casting Pearls Before Swine to Sticking Pins into Sacred Cows."
*
Hugh Trevor-Roper in THE LAST DAYS OF HITLER:
“The competitive servility of a court is always odious;
combined with eloquent humbug, it is nauseating.”
We will grow up as a nation on the day we produce writers capable of writing such a sentence.
*
“MENDOZA: I am a brigand: I live by robbing the rich.
TANNER: I am a gentleman: I live by robbing the poor.”
Shaw, MAN AND SUPERMAN (1903)
*
“He knows nothing, and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.”
Shaw, MAJOR BARBARA (1907)
#
July 21, 2010
**********************
COMMENTS
************************************************** **
Think of the human brain as a musical instrument that is perpetually out of tune with reality; and think of faith as an illusion whose aim is to convince us it is in tune.
Hence the popularity of belief systems.
All men of faith will agree with me with only one proviso:
they will say, all faiths are indeed illusions except mine.
*
In Colette I read the following exchange:
“She pays for things: she doesn't give.”
“American style?”
*
Since God is incomprehensible (“His ways are not ours”) whatever you say about Him, especially if it makes perfect sense to you, is bound to be wrong.
*
There must be a special place in hell for people who deceive, exploit, mislead, and sometimes even molest innocent dupes who look up to them for guidance.
*
It is said that a little learning is a dangerous thing; but having met several Armenian academics, I tend to think a lot of learning can be lethal.
*
I have heard some Armenians say we should forgive the Turks, but I have never heard an Armenian say we should forgive our fellow Armenians.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

July 22, 2010
**********************
MEDITATIONS
************************************************** **
In a text on political philosophy I read today of “the inalienable right to resist tyranny and all

illegitimate authority.”
No matter how hard I try I cannot think of a single Armenian authority figure that may be said to have

been democratically elected, and therefore legitimate.
Raffi tells us “treason and betrayal are in our blood.” After long centuries of conditioning, so, it

seems, are tyranny and subservience to tyrants.
Who even dares to speak today of tyranny, subservience, and democracy? We prefer to speak

instead of Turks and massacres, that is to say of past aberrations about which there is little or

nothing we can do, and ignore the present violations of human rights which are within our power to

arrest.
*
Dostoevsky: “Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained in us than lying to others.”
This may suggest there is a pathological liar in all of us.
*
“I paint with my prick,” Renoir is quoted as having said.
Some of my readers think with theirs.
*
Always be civil to a writer, especially if he happens to be an Armenian. You never know when he may

choose to get even. I for one never read an Armenian I have insulted. An insulted Armenian is like a

sword of Damocles and I already have a forest of yataghans hanging over me.
*
When confronted with a difficult problem, ostriches bury their heads in the sand, or so we are told.

Men are smarter: they don’t bury their heads, they bury the problem…even if it means burying

themselves in the process.
#
July 23, 2010
**********************
ONE-LINERS
************************************************** **
Truth is an invention of liars.
*
Truth is a work in progress, not a finished product.
*
The consensus of a million people guarantees nothing. A billion smart men may be taken in as easily

as a single dumb dupe.
*
Truth may be one but those who speak in its name are many.
*
Lying comes as naturally to men of power as swimming to fish, flying to birds, and slithering to

serpents.
*
I am not here to solve problems but to show their hiding places.
*
Educating children and brainwashing them might as well be synonymous operations.
*
To explain the incomprehensible is to lie.
*
The aim of a religion or an ideology is to assert a monopoly on truth.
*
Monopoly favors the producer, not the consumer.
*
The most dangerous liars are those who speak in the name of truth.
*
Faith allows us to believe in a lie with a clear conscience.
*
There are as many versions of the past as there are historians.
*
Subservience to God also means subservience to those who speak in His name.
*
Subservience is hell.
#
July 24, 2010
**********************
THREE SCANDALS
************************************************** **
Dead men don't testify.
Permanently silenced voices cannot sing.
No witnesses, no murder.
All career criminals know this.
Turks know it too.
After eliminating a million potential witnesses
and deporting and scattering another million
to the four corners of the world,
they now say, for every Armenian survivor
there are two or more Turkish survivors
willing and eager to testify that
the Genocide is a fiction of our collective imagination
and that it was the Armenians who tried to exterminate Turks.
But that's not the scandal.
The real scandal is that they are believed
by some members of the jury,
and they need only one
for the judge to issue a verdict of not guilty
or to declare a mistrial.
You think Armenians are smart and Turks dumb?
Think again.
We may have truth on our side
but they have the law on theirs.
*
Who cares about Armenians?
Not even Armenians.
As for our Turcocentric ghazetajis:
they are no better than hirelings
who are paid to vociferate endlessly
about genocide, genocide, genocide
in order to cover up
the incompetence, corruption, and violations of human rights
of their own bosses and paymasters.
The brainwashed may not see this clearly
but those who have retained the ability to think for themselves do.
It is this second scandal
that is at the root of our self-inflicted “white” massacre.
Armenians are smart?
Don't make me laugh!
*
When Jerry Falwell died,
Christopher Hitchens called him
a “vulgar fraud and crook.”
We too have our share of Falwells
but not a single Hitchens, alas!
What we have instead are gutless brown-nosers
by the dozen and by the hundred.
And that, my friends, is our third scandal!
#

[levon]

Re: elegy

Attention can be a double edged sword. When positive attention is given, it is often sought further and as a result works that follow usually reflect a positive view of the attention givers. But what happens when positive attention is no longer given, but it is still desired? If the desire for attention is great enough the humble ones may work to better themselves, yet the arrogant ones will try for sometime and come the the conclusion that those around him should better themselves as they have yet to think for themselves and need to do so. How can one possibly arrive at such a conclusion? And does arriving at such a conclusion necessarily imply arrogance. Well, not always, but there are ways one can arrive at a proper answer. Its simple, really. If his entire argument is based on the assumption that no one shall criticize him, and all those who critique him are dupes who fail to think for themselves, then maybe the conclusion is "arrogance." Furthermore, if he continuously claims to be alienated from the very same people from whom he wants attention, then perhaps the marking on his head should read "arrogant." If a man wants and claims to alienate himself from a group, what would be the reason to continuously belittle that group and imply with arrogance, through carefully crafted prose that appears at first sight to show nothing but humble critique, that the group in question is full of brainwashed sheep? One may be tempted to conclude arrogance, but it is enough to just change the label to read "disillusioned."

There are those who truly want the best for their country, and then, there are those who claim nothing can be done, do nothing, then boast about how well they can predict things to come.

When choosing between failure and inaction, failure is always better as it inevitably increases the chances of success, but inaction arrives one to the starting point every time.

Those who look at themselves and see nothing they like sometimes attribute their dislikes to their apparent inclusion in a group. As a result they always crave alienation from that group so someday they can claim to look at the said group from the outside and openly call them all idiots, as if doing so will affirm the fact that they no longer belong to that group; and thus, all the negative things should no longer apply to them. I say, save yourself the trouble, keep quite and just leave.