ghost

[arabaliozian]

Sunday, June 22, 2008
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ON MURDER
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Of you expose a liar, a rapist, or a murderer, you don't need to deliver a sermon against lies, rape, and murder -- unless of course you are infatuated with the sound of your own voice.
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You may have noticed that the very same people who demand instant solutions to our problems are themselves part of the problem. It follows, these gentlemen will never be satisfied with any solution that will expose them as dupes or charlatans. And if a reform-minded person were to appear among them, they will dismiss him as an ignoramus or a daydreaming fool, sometimes even an enemy of the people. They will laugh at him. They will insult him. And if he keeps talking they will silence him. What they want, what they really need, is not a reformer but a messiah. And if a messiah were to appear among them, they will crucify him. I am reminded of Antranik Zaroukian's words: “Even as they speak of crucifixion, they nail us to the cross.”
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Speaking of the murder of Archbishop Levon Tourian in December 1933 in New York, Charles King writes: “The murder cemented divisions within the Armenian diaspora that have remained in place until today, for unlike the many other perpetrators of violence against Armenians – from Ottoman pashas to Soviet commissars – the authors of the twentieth century's most spectacular public murder of an Armenian cultural leader, inside an Armenian church, were Armenians.” See THE GHOST OF FREEDOM: A HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS (New York, 2008, page 178).
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Monday, June 23m 2008
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COPS
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After the collapse of the USSR, writes Charles King in THE GHOST OF FREEDOM: A HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS (New York, 2008), traffic cops in Armenia used to buy their job. There was even a pricing system for the purchase based on which sites were likely to be the most profitable. “For example, a roadblock on the way to a fashionable restaurant outside Lake Sevan commanded the highest price because citizens were reckoned to be carrying a significant amount of cash on their way to those destinations. The officer would then recoup his initial financial outlay, plus profit, through the collection of fines.”
Now I am in a better position to understand why, after a visit to the Homeland, a friend told me, “Everyone wants to emigrate, except cops.” I also remember an American friend saying, “Armenian traffic cops must be just about the ugliest men I have ever seen.”
Again, according to Charles King, drivers of expensive cars were not stopped because they were assumed to be men of influence.
Elsewhere he remarks: “Dysfunctional politics can sometimes serve the interests of politicians themselves even as they lead the people they claim to represent towards certain ruin.”
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The more talk of patriotism, the more corrupt the state. Hitler was a patriot. So was Mussolini. As for Stalin: he was the only head of state who called World War II “the Patriotic War.”
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Nothing offends me more than the spectacle of an idiot preaching patriotism.
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The most effective way of destroying a nation is by lowering its standards, so that every imbecile can parade as a genius, and every dupe as a statesman of vision capable of solving all our problems.
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All nations have their share of imbeciles, but in our case the imbeciles are either at the top or most likely to get there.
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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FOOLS, DUPES, AND MESSIAHS
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In a commentary headlined “No hope for democracy,” I read: “There is not going to be a revolution in [Mugabe's] Zimbabwe. Half the working-age population lives abroad.”
Are you thinking what I am thinking?
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There is only one solution to an intolerant community, and that is tolerance. I am therefore suspicious when those who parade as problem-solvers become intolerant in defense of their solutions.
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When a problem and a messiah meet, the problem is sure to prevail.
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An average, garden-variety fool is smarter than the smartest dupe. No fool will ever be taken in by a bearded charlatan who promises him an afterlife in which he will spend his time deflowering virgins, unless of course he is also a dupe.
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When I was a boy I wanted to be a famous writer. Not a good writer or a great writer, but a famous writer. In my old age all I want to be is an honest witness, and I am beginning to suspect being an honest witness among Armenians is a far more demanding undertaking than being a great writer.
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You can recognize a brainwashed dupe by the fact that he is dead from the neck up.
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An Armenian's capacity to dish out and/or consume verbal crap seems to be limitless.
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We survived the Turk. Will we survive the Armenian?
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The shortest list in the world: that of living Armenian intellectuals.
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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THE ROAD TO HELL
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Self-interest and ideas are mutually exclusive concepts. Where self-interest enters, ideas exit.
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I don't judge a man by his nationality or loyalty to a tribe, race, or ideology. I judge him by the degree of humanity he has been successful in defending against the dehumanizing forces of the world and his fellow men.
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No one can save a man, let alone a nation, that does not want to be saved or is programmed for self-destruction. Only a total ignoramus with messianic ambitions will tell you, if we do this, that, or the other, we will save the nation. And if you were to ask why I go on writing and what is my real aim, the answer to the first question will have to be, “Force of habit,” and the answer to the second question, “If I can convince an intolerant Armenan to be less intolerant, I consider it a major victory.” And if you were to ask next my number of major or minor victories, I would have to say either none or plead an amendment – the one dealing with self-incrimination.
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According to Charles King in THE GHOST OF FREEDOM: A HISTORY OF THE CAUCASUS, (page 226), constnat talk of genocide “has encouraged a patriotism built on victimhoom,” which has stunted our ability “of confidently looking to the future.” To our Turcocentric ghazetajis I say: “And you thought you were doing us a favor by defending our interests?”
Whoever said “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” sure knew what he was talking about.
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[freakyfreaky]

Re: ghost

Thanks, Ara.

[arabaliozian]

Re: ghost

Thursday. June 26, 2008
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IT COMES WITH THE TERRITORY
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To write for Armenians means to share your thoughts and experiences with readers who are better and smarter than you. But since their superiority is self-conferred, it cannot be objective, or honest, or real. It may even be pure fiction and fantasy, and more precisely, a shameless lie.
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It is not at all unusual for an Armenian to think that, if he identified himself as a patriot or uses patriotism as a shield, he becomes invulnerable to charges of fascism and hooliganism. He may even utter all kinds of nonsense and get away with it. To such an Armenian I say, if you view patriotism as a noble sentiment, why this need to make an ass of yourself?
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The sad truth is, there are no safe ideas, ideals, and ideologies. Consider what happened to the ideals of the French Revolution in the Terror, or to Marxism in Stalin's USSR, and to the Word of God in the sermons of American televangelists and Armenian bishops.
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It is not enough to voice lofty principles. One must earn the right. For myself, I shall always be grateful to Judas for not writing an ode to loyalty. But as an Armenian, I am used to reading editorials on tolerance by fanatics and listening to sermons on chastity by fornicators. As they say, it comes with the territory.
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Friday, June 27, 2008
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MANY QUESTIONS, ONE ANSWER
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We all want the same thing: to improve matters.
We all agree we have problems.
We are unanimous in admitting we need reforms.
It's amazing the number of things we agree on.
It's the solutions we don't agree on.
It's when we start discussing solutions that the crap hits the fan.
Our Turcocentric ghazetajis want to begin by reforming the Turks, which is easier said than done.
Others want to democratize our mafias in the Homeland. Ditto.
Still others want to deliver sermons to our bishops to show them the path leading to church unity.
All these projects boil down to a single word: honesty.
How do you introduce honesty in a dishonest environment?
How do you convince a brainwashed dupe that he is not as smart as he thinks he is? How do you convince a crook that in the long run and for all concerned (including himself, especially himself) honesty is better than dishonesty?
How do you convince a bishop that “a house divided against itself cannot stand”? How do you convince a boss that an ideology that divides the nation does more harm than good?
How do you convince a benefactor that by supporting institutions that legitimize divisions he may not be doing us a favor?
Finally, how do you reform a reformer?
Let me rephrase the question:
How do you teach the value of humility to a megalomaniac with messianic ambitions?
How do you convince a sanctimonious prick that uttering pious platitudes does not make him an admirable specimen of humanity, and that patriotism means love of country as well as fellow countrymen?
To say my solution is better than yours is to imply you have a better chance to succeed where far better men than yourself failed.
What is the answer?
Is there one?
Isn't there anything I can do?
Do I give up?
Hell no!
You begin by reforming yourself.
And that, my friend, is a project that may keep you busy for the rest of your life.
I speak from experience.
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Saturday, June 28, 2008
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OF APES AND MEN
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The most effective way to moronize a nation is (a) by brainwashing the people to think they are smart; (b) by introducing nationalism in a multicultural or bastardized environment, and (c) by dividing them into mutually hostile groups or tribes.
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For biological as well as cultural reasons, the offspring of mixed marriages (which I was brought up to think as bastards) are smarter, healthier, and more tolerant, if only because they are products of two or more worldviews, traditions, and values. But they are also more vulnerable to charges of disloyalty and treason. This may explain why, once upon a time people of the Middle East were the smartest and the most progressive in the world. But gradually and as a result of tribal and religious divisions and power struggles, they allowed themselves to be bullied, brainwashed, and intimidated by power hungry megalomaniacs with the horizons, moral compass, and IQ of apes.
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We will never have any peace as long as we think we are better than Turks and vice versa. The same applies to all our internecine tribal, ideological, and denomination divisions.
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The more underdeveloped the brain, the more easily it is brainwashed.
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I can't imagine anything more cowardly than verbally abusing someone anonymously and from a safe distance. It is no wonder that in Russia Armenians are known as “cowardly.” And I agree with Gandhi when he said, “A coward has no right to identify himself as a member of the human race.”
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Speaking of cowardly Armenians, you may be interested to know that in Greece Armenians are known as “Turkish gypsies,” and in France as “filthy.” I am now beginning to suspect these offensive labels have as much merit as our own self-assessment of ourselves as smart, progressive, and civilized.
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If you don't like what I write, stop reading me. I assure you, that's the most effective and civilized way of silencing a writer. To verbally abuse him or trying to silence him because he dares to say things that you don't like reading is to prove him right.
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[freakyfreaky]

Re: ghost

Ara, this is a little off point, but plays of your OF APES AND MEN soliloquy.

Welcome to Hollywood: where they make people out of monkeys and monkeys into people.

[arabaliozian]

Re: ghost

Thursday, July 10, 2008
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UNDERSTANDING ARMENIANS
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If you want to know more about Armenians, the worst thing you can do is read a book about them written by an Armenian. Since I have written one myself, let me tell you how it is done. You read a few books on the subject. You select, paraphrase, and quote the positives and discard the negatives on the grounds they were written by Turcophile scumbags. The result is bound to be a best-seller. Mine was. Four printings and all sold out within months.
But if you really want to understand Armenians, here is what you do: you enter an Armenian discussion forum on the Internet and post an honest, objective, and self-evident statement -- something like, say, two plus two equals four, or the sun rises in the East -- and see what happens. I will tell you what happens. You will come face to face with Armenians who believe, as the offspring of victims of massacres, they are justified to verbally massacre anyone who refuses to recycle their favorite brand of propaganda.
What have the Armenians learn from history beside adopting Turks as their role models? You may well ask. Don't get me wrong. We probably have as many moderates as extremists. But like all extremists everywhere, ours too are better organized and loud. So much so that they appear to represent the majority even when they are a minority that suffer from acute verbal diarrhea, which happens to be a common malady among us.
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Friday, July 11, 2008
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HOW NOT TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
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Because I am not a prophet, they want my head on a platter.
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The only reason we engage in verbal massacre is that the real thing is against the law.
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They tell me they are all for free speech, but not for idiots like me, and they define idiot as anyone who disagrees with them.
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Like the kingdom of god, the solution to our problems is within us. But if we are to believe our Turcocentric ghazetajis, the solution is in Ankara.
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When I was a fascist I justified myself by saying, how can I, a victim of fascism, be a fascist? I now have the answer to that question: the secret ambition of all victims is to victimize.
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It is written: “If you have an Armenian friend, you don't need enemies.”
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The solution to our problems is not a verbal formula. But if you insist on a verbal solution, abracadabra is as good as any.
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When nations lack critics, it means they are not worthy of them.
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To those who say the nation will be better off without Armenians like me, I say, you are now in an excellent position to understand them because that's exactly how they felt about us at the turn of the last century.
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Only after we de-Ottomanize ourselves we may begin the search for solutions. Until then we will continue to think of genocide as the only viable solution.
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Saturday, July 12, 2008
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STRAIGHT TALK
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Some Armenians write anonymously on the Internet because, I am told, they are afraid of Turkish retaliation. I invite these Armenians to answer the following questions. How many Armenians have Turks killed during the last fifty years? How many Turks have Armenians killed in the same period? And last but far from least: How many Armenians have been killed by Armenians?
Turks, moreover, have welcomed thousands of Armenians in Turkey. How many Turks have we welcomed in our homeland and communities in the Diaspora? “Dzour nesdink, shidag khossink.”
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Anyone who thinks he knows and understands everything he needs to know and understand should be declared a certified case of arrested development or a mindset that consists in mindlessness.
If space can't be infinite, where does it end? What's on the other side of the line or wall? Why things exist? These are questions no scientist or philosopher has ever been able to answer. Now then, go ahead and pretend to know and understand all you need to know and understand when what you know may not even be a drop in the ocean of knowledge.
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