Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

[jgk3]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

No it does not, jgk3. I know you are smarter than that. Every single revolutionary movement throughout history had 'outside' support. A small group of men and women seeking freedom can never have success against large powers without outside support. Case in point, the American Revolution. Put aside what American 'patriots' would like to believe. Once you study the American revolution you will see that without the French expeditionary force sent to help out the revolutionaries the American colonies would have not been able to gain their freedom from the British. It was French inspiration, intellectual and political, that encouraged the Americans to seek independence. France got independence for America. Take the French equation out, I can make similar statements about many other nation as well.

Of course we Armenians needed western support, especially that of Russia. Armenian nationalists naturally had to find inspiration and support outside of Armenian lands to organize their movement. What intellectual dwarfs like Ara fail to point out is that with Imperial Russian support Armenians had soundly defeated the Turks in Anatolia by 1916 and had liberated Armenian lands all the way to Van. It was the Bolshevik revolution that ruined this positive situation for us. Due to the Bolshevik revolution the Russians were forced to abandon their Anatolian front. And due to the Bolsheviks, the West, that had supported Armenians until then, decided then that is would be better to win over a strategic nation like Turkey before it too fell to the Bolsheviks. Within the chaos of the First World War and the Bolshevik revolution that it spawned we Armenians simply fell through the geopolitical cracks. And none of our revolutionaries could have foreseen it. Armenian history is very complex and self-styled "intellectuals" like Ara need to keep their mouths shut about it.

I suppose you're right, now that you pointed that example out as it's a good model. Everything in this world is dictated by diplomacy, not by individual and isolated strife of nations. The latter is almost always complimentary to the former.

I still don't understand why you care for his comments? It's obvious what he would more-or-less say. You don't even need to ask him, just read his endless rants...

Although his ideology never changes, asking him specific questions can make him give specific answers, whether or not it's a direct reply, or if it's contained in his next post of notes/comments. I do this to see his take on it. There are many ways an individual can perceive another and exploring this phenomenon is important to me.

[arabaliozian]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

the natives are restless!

[jgk3]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

yes, we are!

[zourna]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

A birth day worth celebrating and embracing.
Speak your mind, Ara and be generous... It's not time yet to make free with your thoughts.
But in time, Armenians will learn to make peace with your thoughts by becoming resolutely fearless.
And for those "bomba-bimbos" that are helplessly trying to put Ara in the wrong; Stop making fools out of your sorry arses.

[Virgil]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

A birth day worth celebrating and embracing.
Speak your mind, Ara and be generous... It's not time yet to make free with your thoughts.
But in time, Armenians will learn to make peace with your thoughts by becoming resolutely fearless.
And for those "bomba-bimbos" that are helplessly trying to put Ara in the wrong; Stop making fools out of your sorry arses.

A fool always has his or her followers and, please, don't leave it to me to "put Ara in the wrong", you can thank the walking contradiction, Ara Baliozian, himself. I know exaclty what he is preaching and I have called him on it, don't accuse anyone of being "ignorant", its not ignorance that has driven me to call him a jackass, it is his actions and careless disregard of what his idealist and incoherant comments will amount to.

And if you are such a "great fan", claiming to "understand" the "wisdom" of the "great erudite", then please, by all means, put your money where your mouth is and explain to me and the rest of the board members, in as many words as you like, what exactly is his message and ultimate point? Enlighten us, the "bomba-bimbos", so that we may "understand" the "enigma" that is Ara Baliozian. I am calling you out, if indeed you "understand" him, then by all means put your money where mouth is, if you can defend his "ideas" then by all means, you are old enough to tell the audience what you are exactly defending.

[Armenian]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

And if you are such a "great fan", claiming to "understand" the "wisdom" of the "great erudite", then please, by all means, put your money where your mouth is and explain to me and the rest of the board members, in as many words as you like, what exactly is his message and ultimate point? Enlighten us, the "bomba-bimbos", so that we may "understand" the "enigma" that is Ara Baliozian. I am calling you out, if indeed you "understand" him, then by all means put your money where mouth is, if you can defend his "ideas" then by all means, you are old enough to tell the audience what you are exactly defending.

Forget it, dude. This individual is one of those self-hating, Turkified, diasporan fools that play the "zourna" out their asses...

bomba-bimbos??? What the hell is that supposed to be? So stupid...

[zourna]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

I may not understand all what Ara scribes, but I understand free speech and I defend that by all means. Now would you like me to explain what free speech is all about?

[zourna]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

And would you like me to play a piece for you, Armenian, fresh out of me arse?!

[Armenian]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

I may not understand all what Ara scribes, but I understand free speech and I defend that by all means. Now would you like me to explain what free speech is all about?

If you don't understand what he writes than you are simply a fool. Ara types are very easy to decipher: self-hate, massive ego and decades long disgruntlement... And you as a "free speech" crusader should understand that it applies for us as well. So why don't you defend 'my' free speech?

And would you like me to play a piece for you, Armenian, fresh out of me arse?!

Yeah, why not. But I have probably heard it from your kind before

[arabaliozian]

Re: Happy Birthday Ara Baliozian!

Sunday, December 23, 2007
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HUMBUG
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One of my gentle and anonymous readers, whose spelling leaves something to be desired, takes me to task for my ignorance of our history. “Armenian history,” he reminds me, “is an extremely complex topic,” and since I obviously do not know as much as he does, I should shut up about it. I am more than willing to concede that I don’t know all there is to know on the subject. But then who does, beside the Good Lord Himself, who so far has consistently refused to publish His version. As far as I know, no human being has ever dared to claim that after a lifetime of study he is now prepared to assert that he knows all there is to know about Armenian or any other history.
*
When after a lifetime of study Toynbee published his monumental ten-volume STUDY OF HISTORY, he was attacked and sometimes even verbally abused by an international array of historians who questioned the accuracy of his facts and the reliability of his conclusions. Dutch historians criticized him for his ignorance of Dutch history; xxxish historians tore him to shreds because he had dared to call xxxs “fossils”; English historians dismissed him as a megalomaniacal mystic and charlatan; and Soviet historians treated him as a heretic because he did not share their faith in Marxism. It would be no exaggeration to say that both Spengler and Toynbee, the two greatest historians of the 20th century, have more critics than fans among their fellow historians.
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Even when they deal in facts and nothing but facts, nationalist or ideologically committed historians lie because they select only those facts that support their particular thesis, and since the number of facts, documents, and eyewitness accounts is nearly infinite, they can do this without much difficulty.
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Who takes nationalist historians seriously? Only themselves, their dupes, and the power structure within which they operate.
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What matters about history is not how much we know or how many facts, documents, and eyewitness accounts we have at our disposal, but what have we learned from it. What have our nationalist or patriotic historians learned from our past? The very same thing that Turkish historians have learned: namely, to paint themselves all white and their adversaries all black.
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History does not have to be the propaganda of the victor or the consolation of the loser. Our sympathies may be with the losers but that does not make their version of events more honest, objective, and impartial.
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The aim of nationalist historians is not to learn but to teach. But teaching that is not preceded by learning is at best propaganda and at worst conditioning or brainwashing. Politics and history don’t mix. To allow politics or ideology to contaminate the study of history amounts to prostituting the past.
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A final note on our revolutionaries: history judges us not by our intentions (remember the old adage: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”) but our actions; and actions have consequences. It follows, we should judge our revolutionaries not by their intentions but by the tragic consequences of their actions.
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