crackpots

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

When Zarian said, "Armenians survive by cannibalizing one another," he clearly implied the solution, namely, vegetarianism (metaphorically speaking, of course). #armenians

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Once upon a time I knew an Armenian so rude in argument and so eager to go down into the gutter that very few wanted to follow him there, so that after a while he thought of himself as a 20th-century reincarnation of the famous medieval Armenian philosopher David Anhaght ("Invincible"), so called because he is said to have been invincible in argument.

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Overheard: "I don't see movies because they are trash, and I don't read books because if they are any good they will be made into movies."

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

To how many of my fellow men I could say, I was dead wrong to think of you as an idiot, and you were absolutely right to think of me as one.

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Friday, August 12, 2016
*********************************
ON JUSTICE & CIVILIZATION:
A DIALOGUE
**************************************
Q: From Socrates to Gandhi:
fools have consistently conspired
to persecute and silence the wise.
Why? There must be an answer
that makes sense.
Q: The obvious answer?
They hate to be exposed as fools,
especially if they have classified themselves
as smart and morally superior.
Q: To avoid being exposed as fools,
they commit murder? Doesn’t make sense.
A: They don’t think what they do is murder.
Q: If not murder, what?
A: Execution: a painful act that must be performed
in defense of civilization and justice.
Q: I find it difficult to believe
they can’t see the absurdity and criminality
of what they do.
A: Consider some of your own greatest blunders:
Did you think of them
as blunders when you committed them?
Q: No, of course not.
A: There is your answer!
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Thursday, August 11, 2016
***********************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**************************************
Never disagree with someone you don’t know:
he may be a fool or a fanatic.
*
A disagreement is a dead end only to idiots.
*
I make a list of bloodthirsty dictators
and I conclude that mobs (or the 99%)
have a natural tendency to fall for
loud-mouth crooks and charlatans.
*
19th-century Canadian slogan:
“Kill the Indian, save the man.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

As a child I was taught there are
two kinds of “nahadags” or martyrs:
regular nahadags and “esh (jackass) nahadags.”
A regular nahadag is one who dies
in the name of a cause he believes in.
A jackass nahadag, by contrast,
dies in the name of a lie someone else pretends to believe in;
or, in Sartre’s words, someone
who “believes that he believes but he doesn’t.”

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Wednesday, August 10, 2016
************************************
ON LEADERSHIP
******************************
Mussolini and Italians,
Hitler and Germans,
Stalin and Soviets,
Trump and Yanks:
Political leaders are idiots.
*
As understanding develops,
so does the art of deception.
*
Enemies are misunderstood friends.
*
Modern philosophers are not easily accessible
probably because they know what happened
to Socrates and Jesus.
*
The function of philosophy is to tell us
where is the beginning of the road.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

In our environment if you kiss one ass
and ignore another you make an enemy.
#armenians

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

The only reason I became a writer is that
I failed in everything else.