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  • Re: elegy

    Thursday, May 12, 2011
    ****************************************
    FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
    ***************************************
    “Be more positive,” means
    “Cover up the negative.”
    *
    We all have doubts except the brainwashed.
    *
    Every boss, bishop, and benefactor is for solidarity
    but only under his own leadership.
    *
    In our environment you can tell how honest a man is
    by the number of crooks that are ganged up against him.
    *
    One man’s arsenic is another’s elixir.
    The absence of financial and institutional support
    may paralyze others but it stimulates me.
    *
    In his novel, A PARTISAN'S DAUGHTER (New York, 2008)
    Louis de Bernieres writes about “an emperor
    who blinded all his prisoners except for one in every hundred,
    who was supposed to lead the others home,
    and when the opposing king saw what had happened to his troops,
    he died of the shock.”
    What he doesn't say is that both the emperor
    (Basil II Bulgaroktonus [Bulgar-slayer])
    and the Bulgarian king (Czar Samuel)
    were of Armenian descent.
    For more details, see my book,
    THE ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY AND CULTURE
    (New York, 1981).
    #
    Friday, May 13, 2011
    ****************************************
    FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
    ***************************************
    Nothing is more alien and incomprehensible to an Armenian
    than his own identity.
    *
    It would have been nothing short of a miracle
    if after long centuries under ruthless tyrants
    we had maintained a single trace of our original identity.
    *
    Our ancestors are as distant from us
    as Zulus and Neanderthals.
    *
    I say things that thirty years ago
    I would have been afraid to think.
    *
    After they make enough money
    they think they can buy immortality
    as if it were a product on the market.
    *
    “I am a very serious man,” Donald trump asserted
    in a recent televised interview.
    I can’t imagine a serious man making such a claim.
    *
    A man with heart problems to his cardiologist:
    “Why do you always insist on speaking about my heart?
    What about my stomach, liver, lungs, and pancreas?
    Why don’t you emphasize the positive for a change?”
    #
    Saturday, May 14, 2011
    ****************************************
    FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
    ***************************************
    Everybody can be brainwashed.
    A high IQ is no defense.
    It is almost as if evolution had instilled in us
    a predisposition for lies.
    *
    The brainwashed are unreachable.
    Their first instinct is to brainwash you – that is to say,
    to re-create you in their own image.
    *
    At the root of all deception is the absurd idea
    that we are the center of the world.
    *
    If no one deceives us,
    we deceive ourselves.
    *
    Am I saying we are as bad as Turks?
    No.
    What I am saying is:
    Let us not confuse military inferiority
    with moral superiority.
    #

    Comment


    • Re: elegy

      Sunday, May 15, 2011
      ****************************************
      NOBODY’S xxxxx
      ***************************************
      A writer is nobody’s xxxxx.
      *
      It could be said of us that
      the best stay away
      and the worst stick around;
      and if I stick around
      it’s because we deserve it.
      *
      People who say “I don’t read fiction,”
      fail to realize that the greatest fiction of all
      is their conception of reality.
      *
      Democracy is not just a political system
      or power structure;
      democracy is a way of life.
      *
      To spend a lifetime serving an arrogant and cruel master
      means to assume that both arrogance and cruelty
      are not only an integral part of the human condition
      but also desirable qualities in a man of authority.
      *
      It is a writer’s duty to remind those
      who speak in the name of God and capital
      (make it, Capital and god)
      that they are first and foremost
      public servants.
      #
      Monday, May 16, 2011
      ****************************************
      THE PROSTITUTION OF THE PRESS
      ************************************************
      If an Armenian is dumb enough to think
      he can survive as a writer,
      he must be in need of advice,
      or so I have been given to understand
      by concerned “friends” and elder statesmen
      on more than one occasion.
      What kind of advice?
      Elementary, my dear Watson.
      Instead of kicking ass,
      he should learn to kiss it.
      The penalty for refusing to do so
      is alienation and unemployment.
      *
      Once upon a time
      our vodanavorjis wrote odes to the Sultan.
      It is an illusion to think that the Sultan is dead.
      *
      A hundred years ago Krikor Zohrab spoke
      of the prostitution of our press.
      Our bosses and benefactors rely on the press
      to publicize their good deeds
      but are too dumb to see that by prostituting it
      they foul their own nest.
      *
      We may think we live in America
      but in reality we continue to be subjects
      of the Ottoman Empire.
      Have I said this before?
      Never mind.
      If anything is worth saying
      it’s worth repeating.
      Besides, I happen to be an addict of reiteration
      and habits are easier to keep than to give up.
      #
      Tuesday, May 17, 2011
      ****************************************
      THE SCUM OF THE EARTH
      ************************************************
      It is not the best who seek power, privilege and prestige
      but the worst.
      Elites are the scum of the earth.
      *
      My targets are not Armenians
      but dupes of all nations.
      *
      There is no business like the brainwashing business
      compared to which organized crime
      is an amateur enterprise in addition to being
      a risky proposition.
      *
      One reason why Turks are a popular subject in our press
      is that they can be discussed without reference
      to our bosses, bishops, and benefactors.
      But discussing Armenians without mentioning
      bosses, bishops, and benefactors
      is like discussing the Napoleonic wars without Napoleon.
      *
      Only people who say nothing don’t repeat themselves –
      but then, one would be justified in asserting that
      nothing is what they repeat.
      *
      Make no mistake about it:
      there is a Ben Ali, Mubarak, Assad, and Gadhafi
      in all undemocratic leaders,
      including our own.
      #
      Wednesday, May 18, 2011
      ****************************************
      A DANGEROUS ILLUSION
      ************************************************
      To cover up a crime is a crime.
      To repeat a lie is a lie.
      To be afraid of free speech is cowardice.
      *
      During the televised Watergate hearings
      I remember the following exchange with a Soviet citizen:
      “What’s Watergate about?”
      “The president lied.”
      “So what? They lie to us all the time.”
      *
      Some of my most devastating lines –
      lines like “There is a Turk in all of us.”
      “Some of our leaders are Turks.”
      “Subservience is in our blood.” –
      are not mine but verbatim quotations
      from our elder statesmen.
      *
      Secrecy is totalitarian.
      The concentration camps under Hitler
      and the Gulag under Stalin were exposed
      long after the damage was done.
      And when I say damage I have in mind
      both the suffering inflicted on the victims
      and the disintegration of the regime.
      *
      It’s a dangerous illusion to think
      we can solve our problems
      by brainwashing the next generation
      and suppressing dissent.
      *
      Sometimes I am accused of hating Armenians and myself,
      when in fact I hate only cowards
      who are afraid of free speech;
      I loathe only fools who pretend to know better;
      and I have nothing but contempt for dupes
      who believe everything they are told.
      #

      Comment


      • Re: elegy

        xxxx=b*itch

        Comment


        • Re: elegy

          Thursday, May 19, 2011
          ****************************************
          ANSWERS
          ************************************************
          The only way to make progress in one’s thinking is
          by constantly questioning one’s most fundamental assumptions.
          It’s because most Muslims, Hindus, xxxs, and Christians
          assume their belief system to be the only true one
          that they feel morally justified in massacring the competition.
          *
          Reality has countless layers of meaning.
          By carefully selecting a handful of them
          one can prove anything.
          *
          After we die we shall have all the answers,
          provided we consider the total absence of answers
          also an answer.
          #
          Friday, May 20, 2011
          ****************************************
          NOTES AND COMMENTS
          ************************************************
          A fatally flawed assumption:
          If God knows everything, it follows,
          those who speak in His name know better.
          *
          All men of authority lie when they pretend to know
          that which is unknowable.
          If believers outnumber non-believers
          it's be because crooks outnumber honest men.
          *
          Those who disagree with us are not always wrong.
          *
          To be powerless is an open invitation to abuse.
          *
          The more ignorant the people
          the more authoritarian and blind the leadership.
          *
          The longer I live the more truth I see in the saying:
          “Once upon a time we were slaves.
          We are now slaves of former slaves.”
          *
          Even the Turks are ahead of us
          if only because they have internationally recognized dissidents
          and all we have are Turcocentric ghazetajis by the dozen
          who know how to break eggs
          but so far have failed to serve a single decent omelet.
          #
          Saturday, May 21, 2011
          ****************************************
          FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
          ************************************************
          The Arab Spring must be a source of dread to our leaders.
          It can’t be pleasant to contemplate one's own demise.
          You can’t fool all the people all the time.
          No banquet under heaven is endless.
          *
          Speaking of funerals:
          My favorite funeral marches are
          the slow movement of Beethoven’s Eroica,
          the first movement of Mahler’s 5th Symphony,
          and Siegfried’s funeral in the final act of Wagner’s RING
          (which was also Hitler’s favorite) besides which
          the orgasmic crescendo in TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
          is sentimental hogwash.
          *
          One of the most unforgettable lines in Italian poetry
          is Ungaretti’s “Ed a subito sera”
          (And suddenly it’s evening)
          meaning, old age and death.
          *
          It has been observed that
          what holds us together is the Genocide.
          Does that mean on the day the Genocide is recognized
          the glue that holds us together will dry up?
          #

          Comment


          • Re: elegy

            Sunday, May 22, 2011
            ****************************************
            DIARY
            ************************************************
            Last night I started watching THE LARK FARM by the Taviani brothers, based on the novel by Antonia Arslan, but could not finish it. Gave up after the first beheading. Too violent. Too close to home. Violence in American films doesn’t bother me in the least. I have even enjoyed Tarantino’s KILL BILL. But the violence in THE LARK FARM I found unbearable.
            Now I know why some well-meaning and decent Turks deny the reality of the Genocide. Too painful to admit it.
            The Holocaust was a much more impersonal, almost bureaucratic operation. By contrast those who carried out the Genocide were personally acquainted with their victims in the same way that Talaat knew Zohrab who at one point even risked his own life to save him from the secret police of the Sultan.
            There is another point effectively captured by the Taviani brothers. The extermination of the Armenians must be thorough and include the children; otherwise they will come back for revenge.
            The fear of Armenian terrorism is present today in every Turk who ventures abroad.
            They scattered us to the four corners of the world and now they are faced with the possibility of sudden death without warning.
            I will never forget my first encounter with a Turk who identified himself as a Cypriote but did so with so much hesitation that he left no doubt as to his real identity.
            #
            Monday, May 23, 2011
            ****************************************
            WHAT MUST BE DONE
            ************************************************
            The solutions to our problems are not hidden from us.
            To state a problem clearly means to have its solution
            staring back at us.
            *
            We are divided:
            Solidarity is the solution.
            We are weak:
            There is strength in unity.
            Our divisions are rooted in ancient dogmas and prejudices:
            Teaching tolerance should be a priority in our schools.
            We are at the mercy of corrupt and incompetent leaders:
            It is our duty to hold them accountable
            and to question their competence and integrity
            in letters to the editor,
            phone calls to their secretaries, hirelings,
            assorted brown-nosers and hangers on;
            and most important of all,
            to withhold our support
            by returning all letters that end
            with Panchoonie’s punch line:
            “Mi kich pogh oughargetsek”
            (Send us a little money).
            *
            Turning the other cheek to someone who is morally irresponsible
            is a waste of time.
            *
            To say God is great and to do the Devil’s work
            is to blaspheme.
            God is great exactly because He has endowed us
            with a brain with which to think for ourselves.
            *
            The Decalogue of a contemporary Moses would repeat ten times
            the commandment:
            “Thou shall not be a dupe.”
            #
            Translations from
            JULES RENARD’S JOURNALS: 1887-1910
            (Paris: NRF, 1965, 1424 pages)
            **********************************
            Why should I give a damn about a thinker
            who can’t explain the universe to me?
            *
            A talented honest man is as rare
            as a man of genius.
            *
            What happens to all the tears that we don’t shed?
            *
            A fat man parading his belly
            as if it were a wind instrument.
            *
            "This will be enough to pay for your cigarettes."
            "Yes, but only because I don’t smoke."
            *
            I hesitate to walk behind a woman
            afraid she may think I am following her.
            *
            In the garden I lower my eyes
            not to scare the bird in the nest.
            *
            Migraine: this must be what Christ meant
            when he spoke of his crown of thorns.
            *
            It’s so very easy for a woman
            to make herself desirable.
            No need to be attractive or very young.
            All she has to do is extend her palm in a certain manner
            and a man will be more than happy to place his heart there.
            *
            "How are you today?"
            "Much better, thank you."
            "You weren’t feeling well?"
            There I was, pretending to be concerned
            about the health of a fellow whose obituary
            would have barely registered on my consciousness.
            *
            My sister is proud of the fact that
            unlike her brother she is a believer.
            *
            He is for freedom but he happens to be such a nonentity
            that I for one would prefer to share my life with slaves.
            *
            To write is almost always to lie.
            *
            I don’t disturb the cat sleeping on my desk.
            Instead, I go out for a walk.
            *
            If I acquired everything I ever wanted,
            immediately I would feel as though I had nothing.
            *
            Patriotism: The bull from one village
            refuses to look in the direction of a petite cow
            from another village.
            *
            "That fellow over there is sure tough."
            "Oh! Why?"
            "He never says a thing."
            *
            I can’t imagine living in a world in which
            there are no mysteries and surprises.
            If God exists, he must be very bored.
            #

            Comment


            • Re: elegy

              Thursday, May 26, 2011
              *****************************
              FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
              ***************************************
              I am predictable?
              So is our propaganda.
              On the day our propagandists become unpredictable,
              so will I.
              However, if your aim is to silence me,
              I suggest you come up with a less predictable line.
              *
              Shahnour was a photographer,
              Hamasdegh a shoemaker,
              Oshagan a schoolteacher,
              Nartuni a doctor…
              and they were the lucky ones.
              Many others were betrayed to the authorities and slaughtered.
              By contrast, our academics make a comfortable living
              and our imams are millionaires.
              Who says crime doesn’t pay?
              *
              All that talk about cultural, political, and economic factors
              beyond our control is hogwash.
              We are control freaks
              and we have been brainwashed to dig our own grave.
              *
              We are told “Earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings do.”
              Question: How many of our masterbuilders
              were charged with manslaughter?
              *
              We are told “Treason and ebtrayal are in our blood” (Raffi).
              If so far none of our traitors
              has been arrested, tried, found guilty, and hanged,
              it may be because they continue to be in charge of our institutions,
              including our justice system.
              #
              Friday, May 27, 2011
              *****************************
              WHAT MOTIVATES REVOLUTIONS
              ******************************************
              To understand history
              one must deal not only with the visible
              but also with the invisible world –
              that is, what goes on inside the human mind,
              which is the source of all conflict and violence.
              Historians now know that to understand history
              It is not enough to know what happened.
              It is also important to know “the unstated
              (and sometimes unrecognized) reasons why
              people do the things that they do.”
              (HISTORY: A BRIEF INSIGHT by John H. Arnold, page 132.)
              *
              What did Armenians want at the turn of the last century
              in th Ottoman Empire?
              Respect for their fundamental human rights,
              which the Turks took for treason – a crime punishable by death.
              To say that Armenians were punished
              because they made territorial demands is nonsense.
              Revolutions are not fought out of greed for more acreage
              but for human rights – case in point: the Arab Spring today.
              *
              And speaking of territorial integrity and Homeland:
              Today even Turks are more than willing
              to abandon their birthplace
              and live abroad where they are allowed to work
              and make a living
              (which is also a fundamental human right);
              in the same way that many Armenians
              are more than willing to emigrate (some even to Turkey)
              for the same reason.
              #
              Saturday, May 28, 2011
              *****************************
              FANATICS
              ******************************************
              Call me a human rights fanatic.
              I’d rather live in hell where my human rights are respected
              than in a fascist paradise.
              *
              There are three kinds of writers:
              pro-establishment,
              anti-establishment,
              and academics who write about subjects like
              grammar, village life in the 18th-century, and the Middle Ages.
              In that sense they may be classified as
              the mules of our ecology.
              *
              One of our most dangerous misconceptions:
              the idea that divisions in the name of tribal loyalty
              are motivated by patriotism.
              *
              To those who say I have been silenced
              because my ideas are subversive and dangerous, I say:
              So were the ideas of our revolutionaries a hundred years ago;
              so much so that they claimed 1,5 million victims.
              *
              Only in an Ottomanized and Sovietized environment
              talk of human rights is seen as unpatriotic or subversive.
              *
              Tell them what they want to hear and they will agree with you.
              Prove them wrong and they will tear you to shreds.
              *
              How easy it is to deceive millions.
              How hard it is to reason with a dupe.
              #
              MEMO TO A DENIALIST TURK
              ************************************************** ******
              like all brainwashed chauvinist dupes
              you like to believe in the infallibility of your leadership.
              which is a belief not shared by your own leaders.
              that's why the Young Turks overthrew the Sultan;
              that's why Kemal overthrew the Young Turks;
              that's why Kurds hate you today;
              that's why many Turks have left Turkey and survive as garbage collectors in Europe; and
              and that's why you don't qualify as members of the EU.

              Comment


              • Re: elegy

                Sunday, May 29, 2011
                *****************************
                LET US REASON TOGETHER
                ******************************************
                Nations and empires need dupes more
                than they need dissidents.
                *
                If “the Kingdom of God is within you,”
                it follows loyalty to a power structure or regime or authority figure
                is treason.
                *
                To “give unto Caesar” does not mean
                to trust or to believe in Caesar.
                *
                If to expose our contradictions is negative,
                does that mean to speak of massacres is positive?
                #
                Monday, May 30, 2011
                *****************************
                LIES AND LIARS
                ******************************************
                Until he was ousted by the Young Turks,
                the Sultan was the supreme religious leader
                of the Muslim world as well as
                the political leader of the Ottoman Empire.
                He thus combined the power of the Pope
                and that of the President of the United States.
                Now then, imagine if you can,
                a pope or a president saying
                he needs a harem of a thousand concubines
                to better serve God and the people.
                Why should we be surprised if Turkish denialists believe
                all politicians lie except their own,
                all academics are for hire except their own,
                and all propagandists deceive the people except their own?
                *
                Turkish children are brought up to believe in lies
                for the simple reason that if they admit the facts,
                Turkey stands to lose
                several Armenian provinces,
                billions of dollars in repratations,
                and their mask as a civilized and progressive nation.
                The threat of even one of these three prospects
                would make a compulsive and a habitual liar
                out of an honest man.
                *
                Because the Serbians arrested Ratko Mladic,
                a war criminal who massacred 8000 Muslims,
                “the European prospects of Serbia are now brighter than ever,”
                according to a WASHINGTON POST editorial.
                To my Turkish readers I say:
                Let that be a lesson to you.
                #
                Tuesday, May 31, 2011
                *****************************
                HOW TO REASON WITH A TURK
                ******************************************
                It can't be done.
                Don't even try!
                It's a waste of time.
                *
                A Turk believes he can defeat
                reason, common sense, reality itself
                with the same daring that his ancestors
                defeated their adversaries.
                He chooses to ignore the fact that
                the Ottoman Empire is dead, buried,
                and cannot be resurrected.
                *
                There are two easy ways to win an argument alla Turca:
                by ignoring the arguments of the opposition,
                and by repeating the same argument
                even after it has been exposed as
                untenable, outgrageous irrational, and absurd.
                *
                It is a mistake to think that Armenians were punished
                because they revolted against the Turks.
                The undeniable fact is,
                the central authority was so rotten
                that everyone within the Empire,
                including Turks themselves,
                revolted against it.
                *
                Armenians were selected for speciasl treatment
                simply because they were there
                and they made themselves an easy and convenient target.
                *
                To disagree with a Turk
                is to understand where Armenian fanatics come from.
                *
                Kemal’s fallacy:
                The idea that by eliminating the fez and the shalvar
                The Turk could be de-Ottomanized.
                Which amounts to saying,
                what goes on inside a man’s mind
                is an extension of his wardrobe.
                No psychologist has ever dared to advance
                such an insane theory.
                If he did, he would be exposed as a charlatan and
                his licence would be immediately revoked.
                #
                Wednesday, June 01, 2011
                *****************************
                NOTES AND COMMENTS
                ******************************************
                We befriended the Turks under Talaat
                and we called the Russians our big brothers under Stalin.
                Now then, go ahead and say something positive
                about our leadership.
                *
                If you have the majority on your side,
                it makes no difference whether you are right or wrong.
                This indeed is the rock on which stand
                both democracy and fascism.
                *
                Nothing can be more fragile and unpredictable than life.
                And yet, we take its permanence for granted.
                Something similar could be said of the infallibility
                of authority figures who are more prone to error
                than the rest of us; and I don’t means errors
                like marrying the wrong partner
                or making a bad investment.
                I mean errors in which thousands and millions die.
                *
                They massacred the Indians,
                they enslaved millions of Africans,
                they murdered one another
                in one of the bloodiest civil wars in the history of mankind,
                they allowed the rich to exploit the poor mercilessly,
                they went to war and killed countless natives
                in all four corners of the world,
                and now they educate their children to be proud Americans.
                *
                I have been deceived so many times
                that I no longer trust even my own judgment.
                #

                Comment


                • Re: elegy

                  Thursday, June 02, 2011
                  *****************************
                  MEMO TO MY TURKISH READERS
                  ******************************************
                  It doesn’t take much courage
                  to massacre defenseless old men, women, and children.
                  But it take courage to admit it.
                  Not only Turks have failed on that score
                  for nearly a century
                  but they could also qualify as just about
                  the most cowardly people on earth.
                  *
                  At all times and everywhere dupes outnumber those
                  who can think for themselves.
                  That’s because as children
                  we are brought up to believe
                  what our elders and betters tell us.
                  But you are no longer children.
                  That extenuating circumstance
                  is no longer available to you.
                  *
                  The aim of all slogans is to simplify complexities
                  in order to convince the simple-minded.
                  The slogan “Turkey for Turks”
                  immediately raises the questions:
                  Who is a Turk?
                  Does he exist?
                  Take a good look at yourself in the mirror:
                  if you don’t look like a Mongol you don’t qualify.

                  You don’t have to be a historian or a genealogist
                  to know that your family tree
                  has representatives of as many races, nations, and tribes
                  as your ancestors vanquished and raped.
                  You are probably more Kurd, Arab, Greek,
                  Serbian, Albanian, Egyptian, Hungarian,
                  Assyrian, and Armenian than Turk.
                  No need to take my word for it.
                  Have your DNA checked.
                  *
                  If Europe were to adopt the slogan
                  “Europe for Europeans,”
                  Turkey would be saddled with many more garbage collectors
                  than it needs; and providing for them
                  would probably bankrupt your economy,
                  assuming it is not already bankrupt.
                  *
                  All is not lost however.
                  You have a choice between being an authentic human being
                  or a bastardized phony Turk
                  and a dupe who believes what he is told
                  by politicians, nationalist historians, and propagandists,
                  that is to say professional charlatans
                  whose first and more important priority is their own power.
                  #
                  Friday, June 03, 2011
                  *****************************
                  A CITY SET ON A HILL
                  ******************************************
                  These days no one pleads guilty to murder one.
                  Instead they plead “not guilty” by reason of insanity,
                  or even self-defense and
                  a myriad other extenuating circumstances.
                  Faced with a charge of genocide,
                  Turks go one better by accusing their accusers
                  of the very same crime
                  on the grounds that they may succeed
                  in raising a reasonable doubt in the mind
                  of a single member of the jury
                  who may well be a Turcophile
                  or even a murderer.
                  So far this tactic has worked.
                  The question is: can it work forever?
                  At this point three apposite quotations come to mind:
                  “No banquet under heaven is endless;”
                  “You can’t fool all the people all the time;” and
                  “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
                  #
                  Saturday, June 04, 2011
                  *****************************
                  THE MORE THINGS CHANGE…
                  ******************************************
                  When I posted comments critical of Armenians
                  I acquired several Turkish readers and friends.
                  When I gave the Turks the same treatment
                  I lost all of them.
                  Easy come, easy go.
                  *
                  When we served Turkish interests,
                  we were their “most loyal subjects.”
                  When we asserted our human rights,
                  we became their mortal enemies
                  and were targeted for extermination.
                  *
                  Today they abuse the human rights not only of Kurds
                  but also Turks -- among them
                  Pamuk (a Nobel-Prizer winner)
                  and Akcam (an internationally respected historian),
                  all in the name of Kemal Ataturk,
                  thus exposing him for what he really was –
                  a typical product of his time
                  and a fascist no different from Mussolini and Hitler.
                  But whereas Italy and Germany have renounced their past
                  and are now democracies,
                  Turkey continues to cling to its moreally bankrupt
                  and criminal values, principles, ideology, and methods.
                  The fez and shalvar have been outlawed
                  but Ottomanism continues to rule.
                  The Sultan is dead.
                  Long live Sultanism.
                  Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme sh*t.
                  #

                  Comment


                  • Re: elegy

                    Sunday, June 05, 2011
                    *****************************
                    FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
                    ******************************************
                    To a sensitive person
                    life is a traumatic experience.
                    *
                    A line from a film
                    (I no longer remember which):
                    “Mortal wounds don’t hurt.”
                    *
                    Three arguments against nationalism:
                    (1)“I only know the skin of the earth /
                    And that it has no name” (Pablo Neruda).
                    (2) If God is our Father,
                    all men are brothers.
                    (3)The alternative to nationalism is war
                    and the massacre of defenseless civilians.
                    *
                    Because I refuse to say “Yes, sir!”
                    they call me arrogant.
                    It never even occurs to them
                    to consider the possibility that
                    arrogance may also be defined as a need
                    to hear the words “Yes, sir!”
                    when the more appropriate response would be
                    “No, sir!”
                    *
                    Just remembered the source of the line
                    about mortal wounds: Otto Preminger’s EXODUS.
                    #
                    Monday, June 06, 2011
                    *****************************
                    ON LEADERSHIP
                    *****************************
                    Where others say “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition,”
                    we say “Lord have mercy and drop your pants.”
                    *
                    If the majority rules and the majority is dumb –
                    I will let you draw your own conclusions.
                    *
                    The regime in Yerevan cannot be toppled
                    because it has Russian support.
                    The regime in the Diaspora is so diffuse and fragmented
                    that it survives as a shadow – visible but untouchable.
                    *
                    Like all authoritarian structures,
                    both regimes share one important feature in common:
                    they are intolerant of dissent.
                    They have systematically alienated and silenced
                    the intellectual class to such a degree that
                    even the Turks are ahead of us in literary achievements.
                    *
                    Even the Turks!
                    I can’t imagine a worse insult to our diginity as a nation.
                    As for our foreign policy:
                    it can be summed up in three monosyllables:
                    Turks, Turks, and Turks.
                    *
                    Speaking of leadership:
                    The stupidity of Turkish leadership
                    is surpassed only by its cruelty.
                    *
                    Turks deny the reality of the Genocide
                    even as they violate the human rightrs of the Kurds.
                    And having done so
                    they expect the European Union to believe
                    they are a democracy.
                    Which may suggest either their IQ is negative
                    or they don’t know the meaning of the word.
                    #
                    Tuesday, June 07, 2011
                    *****************************
                    THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION
                    *********************************************
                    In the Old Testament, God orders the xxxs
                    to exterminate not only their enemies
                    but also the cattle that belongs to them.
                    (For more on this subject,
                    see Bertrand Russell’s WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN.)
                    *
                    After agreeing that God is our Father,
                    “people of the Book”
                    (xxxs, Christians, and Muslims)
                    proceed to massacre one another
                    in the name of God.
                    Explain that to me, if you can.
                    *
                    Peguy was a devout Catholic
                    and Sartre a dogmatic atheist.
                    I love both for their honesty.
                    Honest men can also disagree
                    and even contradict one another.
                    *
                    Chekhov said he did not know the answer
                    to the most important question,
                    and if he said he did
                    he would be fooling his readers.
                    *
                    Talk of God or gods has been around
                    for much longer than organized religions,
                    all of which assert a monopoly on the subject.
                    *
                    Nietzsce said organized religions are based on myths
                    very similar to those of ancient civilizations.
                    *
                    “Men cannot create a single worm,
                    yet he has created ten thousand gods.”
                    I no longer remember the source of this quotation
                    which I consider to be one of the most insightful observations
                    on the subject.
                    *
                    A thousand Gothic cathedrals
                    and as many golden-domed mosques or temples
                    do not and cannot prove the existence of God,
                    only the powerful hold that myths have
                    on the minds of men, and the overwhelming need
                    to unbderstand and explain
                    that which is destined to remain incomprehensible
                    *
                    Myths are neither lies nor truths.
                    At best they may be said to be half-lies or half-truths;
                    and in that sense they are an expression
                    of man’s insatiable hunger
                    and blind acceptance of propaganda.
                    #
                    Wednesday, June 08, 2011
                    *****************************
                    ON MIRACLES
                    *********************************************
                    As children we are brought up to rate
                    tribal loyalty above honesty,
                    and bias above objectivity.
                    Who believes what a Turk says about Turks?
                    Only another Turk.
                    Who believes what an Armenian says about Armenians?
                    Only another Armenian.
                    To an Armenian,
                    a Turk appears as the offspring
                    of bloodthirsty Asiatic barbarians.
                    To a Turk,
                    an Armenian appears
                    as the lowest form of animal life.
                    To expect or hope that some day
                    Turks and Armenians will come to terms with one another
                    is to believe in miracles.
                    I write as I do because I believe in miracles.
                    I believe both Turks and Armenians
                    are capable of rating truth over lies,
                    honesty above dishonesty,
                    loyalty to the human race above loyalty to the tribe,
                    and justice over injustice.
                    It may take a thousand years
                    but it will happen.
                    It will happen if only because
                    peace is better than war,
                    and life is better than death.
                    #

                    Comment


                    • Re: elegy

                      Thursday, June 09, 2011
                      *****************************
                      ON TURKS (I)
                      *********************************************
                      Armenians are not Christian Turks.
                      Neither are Kurds Mountain Turks.
                      Armenians and Kurds have been around much longer than Turks.
                      And the chances are they will be around long after.
                      *
                      Freedom is a fundamental human right.
                      It is the right and duty of all oppressed people
                      to rise against their oppressors.
                      Which is what the Kurds are doing today;
                      and which is what Armenians
                      and Turks themselves did
                      (together with several other nations)
                      at the turn of the last century
                      in the Ottoman Empire.
                      *
                      At a critical point in their history, however,
                      Turks made the wrong decision by adopting the slogan
                      “Turkey for Turks,” which in reality meant
                      sultanism without the sultan,
                      fascism instead of democracy, and
                      massacre instead of compromise.
                      *
                      Had the Turks chosen multiculturalism
                      as opposed to monoculturalism,
                      they would now be a superpower
                      and a dominant force in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
                      Because they went in the opposite direction
                      they are now vulnerable to Kurds
                      who will eventually bleed them to death
                      so that even a kick will be enough
                      to scatter the bones of the Ottoman skeleton.
                      *
                      Kemal may be the Father of modern Turkey
                      but he is also its gravedigger.
                      *
                      Moral I: Every idea has its contradiction
                      and sometimes the contradiction is closer to the truth.
                      *
                      Moral II: Free speech matters because
                      it exposes fallacies and it doubles our options,
                      thus allowing us to make the better of two choices.
                      *
                      Moral III: Even the best ideas become destructive
                      when implemented in the name of consistency.
                      *
                      Moral IV: Tolerance and flexible moderation are preferable
                      to inflexibe fanatcicism and intolerance.
                      #
                      Friday, June 10, 2011
                      *****************************
                      ON TURKS (II)
                      *********************************************
                      Because they betrayed us,
                      they accuse us of betraying them.
                      Because they massacred us,
                      they accuse us of massacring them.
                      Who believes them?
                      Only their own brainwashed dupes.
                      *
                      At the turn of the last century
                      both Turks and Armenians agreed on the fact that
                      Sultan Abdulhamid II was neither
                      a representative of Allah on earth
                      (as he pretended to be)
                      nor a benevolent dictator,
                      but a ruthless, degenerate tyrant
                      who oppressed Turks
                      and subjected Armenians
                      to successive waves of massacres.
                      *
                      With the full agreement and cooperation
                      of the Armenian political leadership,
                      the Young Turks deposed and exiled the Sultan,
                      after which they betrayed the Armenians
                      by adopting and implementing a policy of extermination
                      on the grounds that Armenians
                      (including unarmed women, children, and old men)
                      were a threat to the territorial integrity of the Empire.
                      *
                      Now then, go ahead and accuse Armenians
                      of betrayal and massacre,
                      and while doing so try to keep in mind that
                      Turks outnumbered Armenians forty to one.
                      #
                      Saturday, June 11, 2011
                      *****************************
                      ON TURKS (III)
                      *********************************************
                      Has anyone ever bothered to see
                      how many times the expression "human rights"
                      or "free speech" occurs in the many speeches
                      delivered by fascist leaders?
                      *
                      If you think today
                      what you thought ten years ago,
                      or if you still believe everything
                      your schoolteacher or imam taught you,
                      you can be sure of one thing:
                      the last ten years of your life
                      have been a waste of time
                      because you have learned nothing.
                      *
                      Where disagreement and dissent
                      are classified as criminal offenses,
                      the men at the top will be serial killers.
                      *
                      Wars, revolutions, and massacres
                      are also expressions of dissent and criticism.
                      *
                      The insane outnumber the sane
                      because reasonable men are in no position
                      to violate anyone's human right of free speech.
                      *
                      Where indoctrination is identified with education,
                      recycling propaganda will be identified with thinking.
                      *
                      No matter how corrupt, incompetent, and stupid,
                      a power structure will always have
                      its defenders, supporters, and dupes.
                      *
                      Whenever I am criticized by a brainwashed dupe,
                      I can only think of the Turkish expression:
                      “Yedii boka bak!” – if you will forgive my French.
                      #

                      Comment

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