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Re: .:The Road to Unity:.
Excellent post. Your common sense tells you that, the way things currently are, if Saco's "sounds good on paper" ideas were acted out in the real world, the "unity" will be just how I described it.
Originally posted by Crimson Glow
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First, this should probably be in the General Armenian Talk forum, as it doesn't strictly pertain to the genocide. Second, while this all sounds good on paper (or on monitor), there are several issues your proposal raises...
That would depend entirely on what differences we're referring to. Differences in certain opinions on politics, society, religion, history, etc. is one thing. But differences that hurt, or harm the Hye azg is a different story. Armenians running around, dressing, acting and talking like they're straight up ghetto black/Hispanic gangstas is definitely not going to warrant use of the world "jan" out of me. Neither are Armenians who have bought into the Western ideals of materialism, and are obsessed with accumulating wealth and possessions, looking down on other Armenians (or anyone, for that matter) who isn't in their status bracket. This type of behavior and lifestyle only serves to set our people BACK, and no amount of "janning" such people is going to provide a sense of unity, as there is very little left that is Armenian about them. I don't care how many times they declare their pride in being Armenian, the truth is they have sold out their heritage for whatever respective odar-promoted lifestyle they've adapted.
I agree, but let us separate disrespect from constructive criticism. The only way for us to grow as a nation and as a people is to address what is wrong with both, and take those issues head on. Pretending these things don't exist, or discouraging "negative comments" is only going to perpetuate the problem. The problem is not going to go away by ignoring it.
There are a couple problems with this. First, you presume that every Armenian is aware of such ideas. For example, you expressed disappointment that no one else lit a candle in your community. How many people knew that this was going on? How informed where they about when, why, etc? Secondly, to say that EVERY idea should be encouraged, no matter how ridiculous it may be, is...well....ridiculous. It is that kind of blind following that cost us so much in the past. Ideas NEED to be dissected, evaluated, analyzed and critiqued, weeding out the weaker ones in favor of the more sensible ones. We are too few to go along with anything anyone throws out there, wasting valuable time and resources on every campaign that pops up. We need concentrated efforts on GOOD ideas.
You're comparing apples to oranges. If every living Armenian signed a petition, or participated in these pointless online votes/surveys that no one other than Armenians and Turks care about, it still wouldn't cause a dent. You're dealing with a worldwide population of 7-8 million Armenians vs. a population of 80 million Turks IN Turkey alone! THAT is why we're loosing the petition and voting, as well as information wars, just as there was nothing we could do to stop the genocide 94 years ago.
All that being said, I'll tell you what I think the bigger issues are for Armenians. First and foremost, the inability to accept self-criticism. Rather than taking into account what people say our faults are, we get angry and defensive, sometimes even violent. As I said earlier, this doesn't solve anything. In fact, it perpetuates the negative stigma and stereotypes. Instead, we should be learning from criticisms, and finding ways to improve ourselves.
Secondly, the biggest reason for our lack of unity is this whole segregation between "types" of Armenians. It seems as though this may have started with Hyestancis, who have an elitist attitude towards Armenians born abroad. In turn, non-Armenian born Armenians show a dislike for 'Stancis. Regardless of how, when and where it started, it has evolved into quite the problem. You can't have unity if you don't care for your own kind based strictly on where they were born, and/or where they live, and or which Armenian dialect they speak. There are not enough of us left on this planet to segregate this way.
Lastly, we are loosing our ways. Armenians today are in an identity crisis. They're not sure if they're Russian, Arab, Italian mobsters, Frenchies, etc. Those of us in the diaspora, who so love to proclaim our undying devotion to our ethnicity, are good at talking the talk, but not so good at walking the walk. How can we be unified if we don't even know who we are?
I have found that most of today's Armenian youth know absolutely nothing about our history, culture, etc. They are much more fond of the lifestyles I mentioned earlier in the "no 'jan' for you!" paragraph. Now granted, a certain amount of assimilation is necessary anywhere you live. Obviously, you have to speak the host country's language, learn the norms, understand what is acceptable social behavior to them, etc. That's fine. But what I'm referring to is the lack of balance between say being an American, and being Armenian. There is no reason you can't be both at the respective right place and time. But all too often, Armenians are foregoing the Armenian part of that scale. Sure, you'll go to a kef party, maybe attend church on Sundays, etc. but it seems like we're just going through the motions just to do it. We're not actually doing these things for the sake of Armenian spirit, or because we truly feel it in our blood that it IS who we are, not some ancillary thing we do just to say, "yeah, yeah. I'm Armenian, see? Now leave me alone". So we first need to learn to segregate the Armenian identity from other host nations we've unfortunately been forced to live in, and then we must learn to retain it out of sheer desire, not just to check off a "to do" list.
Without these things first being straightened out, there will be no Armenian unity.
That would depend entirely on what differences we're referring to. Differences in certain opinions on politics, society, religion, history, etc. is one thing. But differences that hurt, or harm the Hye azg is a different story. Armenians running around, dressing, acting and talking like they're straight up ghetto black/Hispanic gangstas is definitely not going to warrant use of the world "jan" out of me. Neither are Armenians who have bought into the Western ideals of materialism, and are obsessed with accumulating wealth and possessions, looking down on other Armenians (or anyone, for that matter) who isn't in their status bracket. This type of behavior and lifestyle only serves to set our people BACK, and no amount of "janning" such people is going to provide a sense of unity, as there is very little left that is Armenian about them. I don't care how many times they declare their pride in being Armenian, the truth is they have sold out their heritage for whatever respective odar-promoted lifestyle they've adapted.
I agree, but let us separate disrespect from constructive criticism. The only way for us to grow as a nation and as a people is to address what is wrong with both, and take those issues head on. Pretending these things don't exist, or discouraging "negative comments" is only going to perpetuate the problem. The problem is not going to go away by ignoring it.
There are a couple problems with this. First, you presume that every Armenian is aware of such ideas. For example, you expressed disappointment that no one else lit a candle in your community. How many people knew that this was going on? How informed where they about when, why, etc? Secondly, to say that EVERY idea should be encouraged, no matter how ridiculous it may be, is...well....ridiculous. It is that kind of blind following that cost us so much in the past. Ideas NEED to be dissected, evaluated, analyzed and critiqued, weeding out the weaker ones in favor of the more sensible ones. We are too few to go along with anything anyone throws out there, wasting valuable time and resources on every campaign that pops up. We need concentrated efforts on GOOD ideas.
You're comparing apples to oranges. If every living Armenian signed a petition, or participated in these pointless online votes/surveys that no one other than Armenians and Turks care about, it still wouldn't cause a dent. You're dealing with a worldwide population of 7-8 million Armenians vs. a population of 80 million Turks IN Turkey alone! THAT is why we're loosing the petition and voting, as well as information wars, just as there was nothing we could do to stop the genocide 94 years ago.
All that being said, I'll tell you what I think the bigger issues are for Armenians. First and foremost, the inability to accept self-criticism. Rather than taking into account what people say our faults are, we get angry and defensive, sometimes even violent. As I said earlier, this doesn't solve anything. In fact, it perpetuates the negative stigma and stereotypes. Instead, we should be learning from criticisms, and finding ways to improve ourselves.
Secondly, the biggest reason for our lack of unity is this whole segregation between "types" of Armenians. It seems as though this may have started with Hyestancis, who have an elitist attitude towards Armenians born abroad. In turn, non-Armenian born Armenians show a dislike for 'Stancis. Regardless of how, when and where it started, it has evolved into quite the problem. You can't have unity if you don't care for your own kind based strictly on where they were born, and/or where they live, and or which Armenian dialect they speak. There are not enough of us left on this planet to segregate this way.
Lastly, we are loosing our ways. Armenians today are in an identity crisis. They're not sure if they're Russian, Arab, Italian mobsters, Frenchies, etc. Those of us in the diaspora, who so love to proclaim our undying devotion to our ethnicity, are good at talking the talk, but not so good at walking the walk. How can we be unified if we don't even know who we are?
I have found that most of today's Armenian youth know absolutely nothing about our history, culture, etc. They are much more fond of the lifestyles I mentioned earlier in the "no 'jan' for you!" paragraph. Now granted, a certain amount of assimilation is necessary anywhere you live. Obviously, you have to speak the host country's language, learn the norms, understand what is acceptable social behavior to them, etc. That's fine. But what I'm referring to is the lack of balance between say being an American, and being Armenian. There is no reason you can't be both at the respective right place and time. But all too often, Armenians are foregoing the Armenian part of that scale. Sure, you'll go to a kef party, maybe attend church on Sundays, etc. but it seems like we're just going through the motions just to do it. We're not actually doing these things for the sake of Armenian spirit, or because we truly feel it in our blood that it IS who we are, not some ancillary thing we do just to say, "yeah, yeah. I'm Armenian, see? Now leave me alone". So we first need to learn to segregate the Armenian identity from other host nations we've unfortunately been forced to live in, and then we must learn to retain it out of sheer desire, not just to check off a "to do" list.
Without these things first being straightened out, there will be no Armenian unity.
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