notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Saturday, September 22, 2012
****************************************
OBSERVATIONS
***********************
After telling us the Bible is the word of God
and “a house divided against itself cannot stand,”
they divide a house that is already divided
between believers and non-believers.
*
You say it’s impossible
and I say doing what must be done
creates its own energy and cunning.
*
Even as they blabber endlessly
about Turks and massacres
they tell me I am being negative.
*
Romney’s problem:
a big mouth and a bigger foot.
#
Saturday, September 22, 2012
***************************************
ON POSTERITY
& RELATED ATROCITIES
************************************
Posterity?
I am not sure about posterity.
You and I may well be our only posterity.
*
Depression?
I have been depressed most of my life
and I consider it an integral part of the human condition.
Unlike most Americans
I don’t think happiness or well-being to be a patriotic duty.
I have never been near a shrink,
nor taken a single pill.
Only the occasional drink.
*
Homeland?
I can’t imagine anyone not loving
its mountains and rivers, lakes, valleys, and forests.
Neither can I imagine anyone
not hating the former KGB agents and commissars
who are now in charge of it.
Call it treason if you like.
I call it rejection of all crypto-fascist propaganda.
I call it refusal to be the dupe of thieving charlatans,
and in that I am with the majority – namely
all those who have voted with their feet and live abroad
or they define homeland as anywhere on earth
where they are allowed to work and provide for their families.
#
Saturday, September 22, 2012
***************************************
ON STUPIDITY
**********************
Be aware of stupidity
for it is the source of all evil.
*
The problem with hatred is that
it tends to metastasize.
Hatred of the enemy
turns brother against brother.
*
More often than not
our choice is not between good and evil
but between the lesser of two evils.
*
Details are important
especially the ones you miss
or refuse to see.
*
“In the name of Allah
the Compassionate, the Merciful,
Owner of the Day of Judgment.”
I quote from memory.
I paraphrase. If wrong ascribe it to Alzheimer’s,
not to blasphemy.
*
It is hatred of the infidel
that turns Shia against Sunni
and Assad against his ownpeople.
*
From the lyrics of a popular Armenian song:
“An Armenian loves to eat (oudel)
and he eats to hate (adel).”
*
He who is blinded by hatred
believes he has 20/20 vision
and God is on his side.
*
“I am not here to bring peace but a sword.
If you don’t have a sword,
sell your cloak and buy one.”
If you can’t guess who said that,
I suggest you read the Scriptures.
*
And now let us pray!
“Our Father Who art in Heaven…”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, September 23, 2012
***************************************
DECEPTION (IV)
************************
For 600 years we hated the Turks
and we had every right to do so
for what they did and kept doing to us,
but we deceived them into thinking
we loved them and we did such a good job of it
that they named us their most loyal millet (ethnic minority).
*
For 60 years we also hated
the “onion-head” Russians
but again we pretended to love them
by calling them our “big brothers.”
We went further. Much further.
We betrayed and surrendered our ablest men
to their murderers.
*
And now that we have no one to deceive
we deceive one another
and we do such an excellent job of it
that most Armenians in the Diaspora
believe when native Armenians call them “aghber”
they don’t mean “white trash,”
but “brother.”
*
We have become such habitual and expert liars that
we believe in our own lies.
Now you know why our 1% divides the 99%
and gets away with it.
They say they divide us
because they are men of principle
and gentlemen do not compromise on principles.
The fact is they divide us out of fear.
Fear of what we might do to them
when we uncover the truth.
After all, far more civilized and progressive nations than us
have beheaded, executed, and assassinated their kings.
The only reason we have done nothing of the kind so far is that
we have been duped into thinking
our leaders are not our enemies
but our heroes and saviors.
*
Armenians of the world unite.
You have nothing to lose
but your dividers and gravediggers..
#
Monday, September 24, 2012
*************************************
CHEZOKS
**********************
One of our elder statesmen
(may God have mercy on his soul,
if there is a God and he had a soul)
once wrote a book in which he blamed all our problems
on chezoks (non-partisan Armenians).
“They are neither hot nor cold,” said he.
“They are neither for nor against anything.
They don’t care.
They are useless, aimless, and purposeless.
They exist but they do not live…
they are a dead weight…”
and so on and so forth.
You may have noticed that
when our speechifiers get going,
nothing can stopping them.
Zarian knew what he was talking about when he said
“An Armenian’s tongue is sharper than a Turk’s yataghan.”
*
In my review of the book I said something to the effect that
our dividers were the real source
of all our problems, not chezoks.
In his angry telephone call
our statesman said, among other things:
“I thought you were on our side.”
“I am on nobody’s side,” was my answer,
“if only because I have done no harm.”
*
My father was a chezok
not because he didn’t care
but because he lost everything twice
and I mean that literally:
first time in 1915 during World War I in Turkey,
second time in 1941 during World War II in Greece.
As a result he spent all his time
trying to make a living and provide for his family
in alien and hostile environments.
He died in his fifties and he looked ninety.
He may not have been a great Armenian
but he was an honest man.
I wish I could say the same of our
Ottomanized, Levantinized, Americanized, and Sovietized
fellow countrymen who parade as first-class Armenians
and expect the rest of us to look up to them
as role models.
#
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
********************************************
BROTHERS
************************
There are truth-seekers and there are propagandists.
The aim of propagandists is power.
The aim of truth-seekers is exposing lies.
*
Propaganda has produced such monsters as
the Nazi who believed to belong to a superior race;
the xxx who believed to be God’s Chosen;
the English sahib who saw himself as a civilizing agent;
the child-molesting Catholic priest;
and closer to home, the Armenian patriot
with “Ararat in his heart”
who views a fraction of his fellow Armenians as “white trash.”
In America propaganda has produced the KKK
and legitimized racism;
in Russia the Big Brother (in the Orwellian sense of the words)
and the commissar.
By contrast truth-seekers have been solitary underdogs
and victims of propagandists.
Gandhi in India,
Martin Luther King in America (both assassinated),
Solzhenitsyn in Russia,
Socrates in 5th-century BC Greece and
Jesus in 1st-century Palestine.
*
How to identify a propagandist?
Easy! A propagandist is a member of an organized group
with a clearly defined agenda
which pretends to be on the side of truth
but on closer inspection reveals itself to be Big Lie.
If you are a member of such a group,
look out brother, you may well be on your way to the Devil.
*
I read the following quotation in my morning paper today:
“He who knows others is wise.
He who knows himself is enlightened.” Lao Tzu.
#
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
*********************************************
WHY I WRITE THE WAY I WRITE
********************************************
Do you really want to know
why I write the way I write?
I will tell you.
I write the way I write in defense of all Armenians
who were insulted and abused in the name
of this or that brand of patriotism
of which there are as many as there are Armenians.
*
A Bolshevik’s patriotism, for instance,
means not only love of homeland
but also loyalty to the memory of Stalin.
A nationalist’s patriotism bears all the earmarks
of racism and fascism.
*
I write in defense of all writers
who were betrayed, silenced, exiled, butchered, or shot.
I write to remind our Turcocentric ghazetajis and their dupes
that it is wrong to gauge an Armenian’s patriotism
by the degree of hatred he harbors against Turks.
I write to say that I have nothing but contempt
for the kind of Armenian who after perpetuating our problems
tells me, “We need solutions, not critics.”
My message to them is:
“If you really need solutions, hang yourself!”
*
I have no illusions about myself and my fellow Armenians.
I am fully aware of the fact that
I have as much influence on Armenian affairs
as a grain of sand on the Saharan desert.
But I write to set the record straight.
#

[Artashes]

Re: elegy

"He may not have been a great Armenian but he was an honest man".
That is how I would discribe the people that raised me. I feel fortunate.
If I got the story straight Diogenes spent his life looking for a man like your father(or mine).
Artashes

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Thursday, September 27, 2012
*****************************************
THEOLOGY
***************************
If God exists,
why does He go out of His way
to make Himself inaccessible and incomprehensible?
If Truth is One,
what is it that drives us to invent ten thousand lies?
If the Kingdom of God is within us,
where is the Empire of the Devil?
*
“If I cannot answer the most important question,
am I not fooling the reader?” Chekhov said.
I suspect if we ever have the Answer –
which may or may not happen in our lifetime –
we will say,
But of course!
What else?
I should have guessed.
I had eyes but couldn’t see,
ears but couldn’t hear,
and a brain but couldn’t think.
#
Saturday, September 29, 2012
*********************************************
EASY QUESTIONS / OBVIOUS ANSWERS
*********************************************
With religious leaders like popes, imams, and rabbis,
who needs religion?
With Scriptures like the Bible and the Koran
that legitimize divisions, intolerance, the persecution of heretics,
and the murder of infidels, who needs Scriptures?
With monarchs like the Romanovs in Russia,
the VIII Henrys in England,
and the French Louis who came by the dozen,
who needs kings?
With bloodthirsty dictators like Hitler and Stalin,
who needs dictators?
*
Speaking of blood:
In the Ottoman Empire it was a capital offense
to spill the blood of a present or future sultan,
so they adopted a different method to eliminate the competition:
they strangled all potential usurpers with a silk cord.
(And they say Turks are dumb!)
*
With scary presidential candidates like Romney and Ryan
who needs presidents?
Gore Vidal may have been right when he said
America will be better off without its politicians.
To the question, who will run the country, he replied:
“Swiss hotel managers.”
With historians who cover up the criminal conduct
and incompetence of the regime in power,
who needs schoolteachers who recycle propaganda?
*
I am not just asking question:
I am predicting the shape of things to come.
Neither am I a prophet:
I just use my common sense and the lessons of the past.
#
Saturday, September 29, 2012
***********************************
IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST
****************************************
Let’s cut the crap, shall we?
Let’s leave rhetoric to our speechifiers
infatuated with the sound of their own voice;
and let’s leave pious sentiments to our sermonizers
whose favorite mode of communication
is to say the opposite of what
they really think and feel.
*
I see Armenians as perennial losers and victims
whose secret ambition in life is to victimize,
and since they can’t victimize others,
they victimize their own.
As dupes they can’t stand anyone
who refuses to be a dupe.
As products of millennial oppression
by bloodthirsty tyrants
they see nothing morally questionable
in brainwashing the weak,
oppressing the defenseless,
and in deceiving the ignorant and the naïve.
That’s as far as their conception of patriotism goes.
*
I know what I am saying.
I have been in the belly of the beast
and I have dealt with some of our best and brightest.
I am not here to flatter our collective colossal ego
or to pretend to love you as a brother.
Neither am I here to assert my superior brand of Armenianism,
whatever the hell that may mean.
I leave that to our bosses, bishops, benefactors
and their dupes, flunkeys, and hirelings.
*
Whenever I am told to be kinder to my readers, I reply:
A nation that managed to survive the Turk’s yataghan
can survive the opinions of a minor scribbler
who is here today and will be gone tomorrow.
*
Abraham Lincoln once said:
“Am I not destroying my enemies
when I make friends of them?”
I have tried that method not once or twice
but many times.
It doesn’t work.
I have had better luck with Turks.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, September 30, 2012************************************** 1001******************* We are a nation of a thousand and one Watergates and we are engaged in a collective and almost unanimous effort to cover them up in the name of patriotism. What follows is only one of them.*For a hundred years now we, Armenians of the Diaspora, have been demanding an apology from the Turks who not only have been stonewalling us but also calling us liars. Has anyone ever asked an apology from our former Bolsheviks in the Homeland who terrorized, oppressed, betrayed, exiled, and murdered fellow Armenians who refused to say “Yes, sir!” to the Kremlin? To add insult to injury, role models like Sylva Kaputikian openly declared to have been proud members of the Communist Party. And to think that these “authentic” Armenians call us, Armenians of the Diaspora, “trash.” If that’s what it takes to be an authentic or patriotic Armenian, I want no part of it. If that’s what living in the shadow of Mt Ararat does to Armenians, I say I will never set foot there. *So what if I will never qualify as a first-class citizen? So what if, in the words of a gentle reader from the Homeland, I am not better than “a piece of xxxx!” All I can say in my defense is that I have done my utmost to qualify as a human being. Can our patriotic brothers and sisters in the Homeland say as much? *To those who try to be authentic Armenians like the natives, I say: Get yourself another hobby because you will never make it. You will never rise above the status of “white niggers,” “trash,” and “xxxxs.” Far better men than yourself have tried and failed miserably. For more on this subject read Zarian’s posthumously published NOTEBOOKS and DIARIES.#Monday, October 01, 2012************************************** IT TAKES ALL KINDS********************************** Patriotism and prostitution: in our environment they might as well be synonymous. I suspect the integrity of our patriots as I suspect the virginity of a bordello madam. *Speaking of madams: I remember to have read somewhere that the wealthiest woman in Turkey was a bordello madam by the name of Manoogian – an easy name to remember. *I once met an Armenian who knew everybody who was somebody in our communities. Privately he was full of venom about our “great” men; publicly he led an anonymous existence. What did he do for a living? I am not sure. But between the lines I gathered he was dependent on the charity of swine. *My father knew nobody and nobody was interested in what he thought. He too led an anonymous existence. His last job was that of a dishwasher in a Greek restaurant. *Once, when asked to deliver a speech, I said: “Writing is hard. Speaking is harder.” That’s when I did nothing but recycle chauvinist crapola in whatever I wrote. On another occasion when asked in the presence of an audience why I was not interested in encouraging the next generation of writes, I said: “We need readers, not writers.” You might say I belong to the haiku school of speechifying. *If I ever write another book – which I doubt I ever will – I have two tentative titles: “The Swan Song of a Jackass,” and “The Memoirs of an Anonymous Nobody.”#Wednesday, October 03, 2012************************************ BROTHERS********************************* A few years ago I lost several Armenian friends from Syria because I dared to disagree with them when they said Arabs are friendly people and they love Armenians.*Patriotism: not one of my favorite words perhaps because every Armenian has his own definition of the word whose aim is to divide the community into friends and enemies,The hidden source of this aberration Seems to be less political and more biological.*The world may be divided into friends and enemies and if you want to survive, you must kill. If you don’t kill you will be killed. Timing is of the essence. Do not procrastinate. Kill him as soon as you can. Kill him even if you don’t have a good enough reason to hate him. Kill him even if he is your brother.*I learn something every day, that’s how ignorant I am.#Wednesday, October 03, 2012******************************************* THE BEST REVENGE********************************** A French writer once said that if your wife runs away with a man, the best revenge is to let him keep her. You may call this turning the other cheek. I call it employing a lethal weapon with which to inflict maximum damage.*BIG LIES********************* No matter how big the lie, it will be believed by some. Kennedy was assassinated by the Mafia. Hitler was a xxx. Obama is a Muslim. The Russians are our big Brothers. The Serpent in the Garden of Eden was a CIA agent in disguise. There are superior and inferior races. God’s Chosen. Seventy-three virgins. Armenians are smart.*SHADES OF GRAY**************************** Our problems are as clear as black and white. If they seem more as shades of gray it’s because an entire class of academics, bureaucrats, hirelings, hangers-on, partisans and panchoonies have been brainwashed to believe their survival depends on convincing the 99% into thinking patriotism consists in being a dupe and thinking for oneself is pro-Turkish.#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Thursday, October 4, 2012************************************** OPEN SECRETS**************************** On the day good Turks and good Armenians are allowed to form an alliance, all their differences will be resolved amicably and to their mutual advantage. *As for bad Turks and Armenians: all I can say about them is that they deserve one another. *Did I say good Turks and good Armenians? Make it, good half-Armenians and good half-Turks. Pure-blooded Armenians and Turks are a fiction of nationalist propaganda. They don’t exist. Very much like Americans, both Turks and Armenians have been thoroughly bastardized. Nothing wrong in that. On the contrary. Very much on the contrary! Bastardization promotes co-existence, peace, and prosperity. That’s an open secret. You want proof? Everybody wants to immigrate to America. Who in his right mind would want to move in the opposite direction?*Both good Turks and Armenians are today at the mercy of bad men who owe their position of eminence to big lies (the deification of Kemal) and fear (constant and endless talk of massacres). Nothing good can come from lies and fear. That’s another open secret.#Friday, October 05, 2012************************************* ECONOMICS 101****************************** Who understand economics? Not even economists. For every economist who says one thing there is another who says the opposite. Truman once said he would like to meet an economist with only one hand, because after each statement they make, they add “on the other hand.” *The favorite word of my professor of economics was “interdependence.” He used it in every other assertion he made. That’s because every factor in economics is dependent on another. *Corporations prosper only when the middle and lower classes can afford to buy their goods and services. The state is not a corporation whose priority is to balance books, show a profit, and to trim the fat by eliminating programs and decreasing spending. *Economics cannot be divorced from history. They are interdependent. FDR, like Obama, had to deal with depression and war. He increased the number of government programs. And it worked. Under Eisenhower (a Republican) the tax rate for the wealthy went up 91%. America survived as well as prospered. So did Europe with American help (the Marshall Plan). *Bush (II) was right when he said the wealthy don’t pay taxes because they have smart accountants who take advantage of loopholes and when they run out of them they hide their savings in offshore banks. (Does that ring a bell?)By contrast the middle and lower classes spend what they make and whenever money moves, a fraction of it goes to creating jobs and taxes. *Who understand economics? The answer is those who in the past confronted and were successful in solving the same problems that we confront today.#Saturday, October 06, 2012***************************************** WHAT’S IN A NAME?****************************** Iraklis (Greek), Hercules (English), Hercule (French), Ercole (Italian), Hergele (Turkish). Moral: One nation’s hero is another’s hoodlum.*In a book on Azerbaijan, I remember to have read once that General Antranik’s name is as well known to Azeris as Talaat is to us.*PRIDE AND PREJUDICE********************************* For everyone who brags “I am proud to have been a member of the Communist Party,” I should like to hear at least two who say “I am thoroughly ashamed to have been a member of a criminal gang.”* A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH**************************************** I once received the manuscript of a short story with a note that said: “Do you think I should encourage my son’s literary ambitions?” In my reply I said: "If your son is in need of encouragement, he cannot be a writer.” I had another hidden reason for saying that. Only a sadist would condemn an innocent boy to the fate of a perennial loser forever dependent on the charity of swine.#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Wednesday, October 10, 2012
**************************************
DESTINY
***********************
Who is in charge of our destiny?
Surely not the regime in Yerevan
which is a puppet of the Kremlin;
and surely not our political parties in the Diaspora
that (in the words of a friend)
cannot even lead a dog to the nearest hydrant
or catch a cold in a flu epidemic.
Perhaps the right question in this context is not
who is in charge of our destiny
but do we have one?
*
We are taught to brag about our genius for survival.
What we are not told is that
the greatest challenge isn't surviving our enemies
but our own leadership.
*
I quoted a friend above.
I should have said a former friend.
My former friends outnumber my present friends
a hundred to one.
*
Last week I made a new friend.
This week he made it abundantly clear that
I will make him very happy
on the day I drop dead.
Easy come, easy go.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Thursday, October 11, 2012

********************************

WHAT HAPPENED

***************************

We should have seen it coming but we were blind.

So was our leadership. And we all know what happens

when the blind lead the blind…

*

When Raffi said, “The Ottoman Empire is no place for Armenians;

they have no respect for human life there,”

we said, what the hell does he know?

*

When Roupen Sevag’s German fiancée

visiting him in Istanbul said:

“I don’t like these Turks,” he said:

“You don’t know them, I do.

Deep down they are nice folk.

You’ll change your mind after you get to know them.”

He was one of the first to be butchered.

*

When on the eve of the Genocide Zohrab warned:

“This time they will massacre indiscriminately,”

they said “Zohrab effendi is exaggerating.”

Some left, among them Siamanto,

but they found life abroad so alien that

they returned only to be slaughtered.

*

When Oshagan said “Homeland,”

he meant Istanbul.

*

It happened gradually.

It didn’t fall on us like a thief in the night.

It began fourteen centuries ago

when their Prophet dehumanized all non-Muslims

by classifying them as infidels.

*

It happened six hundred years ago

when we surrendered our fate into their hands

and said in effect:

Henceforth we will serve you faithfully and obediently.

You want our daughters? You can have them.

Our sons? You can have them too.

*

It happened when Protestant missionaries

taught us to sing “Onward Christian soldiers,”

which they (Turks) assumed to be some kind of war chant

and that we were in cahoots with the infidel West

and were planning an invasion.

*

It happened when the rumor spread

that Turkish girls in the Balkans were being crucified.

A myriad other factors contributed to the final catastrophe,

but again the accumulation of details was so gradual

and we were so blind that we pretended to notice nothing.

*

We thought if the Great Powers of the West are on our side

we had nothing to fear.

We behaved with the arrogance and stupidity of people

who assume to be invulnerable.

*

I am reminded of this arrogance and stupidity again

whenever we of the Diaspora are called “aghber”

by our own Bolshevik brothers and sisters in the Homeland.

*

An English traveler at the turn of the last century in Armenia:

“What magnificent landscapes.

What wretched people!”

*

Mart bidi ch’ellank!

#

Saturday, October 13, 2012

****************************************

ON DISAGREEMENT

*******************************

At the root of all disagreement

there is an unspoken line that says:

“You are not smart enough or good enough

to contradict what I say.”

And at the root of all megalomania

there is self-deception.

All authority is suspect.

*

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE…

**************************************

Muslims today treat infidels

with the same ferocity that Catholics treated heretics

in the Middle Ages.

*

BULLIES

**********************

They invent a god so that they can speak in his name.

In other words, their belief system is rooted

in their need to bully the weak and defenseless

with a clear conscience.

*

PERVERTS

************************

Religions, theology, Holy Scriptures, popes, imams, rabbis:

these things interest me only in so far as

they reveal the workings of the human mind

or rather the perversities of the human brain.

As for the nature of god and the next world:

not only do I not believe a word they say

but I am also offended by their shameless audacity

in treating me as if I were a helpless retard

in need of their charlatanism.

#

DEATH WISH

*****************************

Divisions exist because people consent to be divided;

and people consent to be divided

even when it means digging their own graves.

Freud’s death wish may also be defined as

a universal and unconscious desire

to commit collective suicide…

or self-inflicted genocide.

*

ON BEING NEGATIVE

******************************

Two questions:

When Socrates said, “Ignorance is the source of all evil,”

was he being positive or negative?

When the Scriptures say,

“Truth shall set you free,”

thus implying we are slaves of lies:

would you call that a positive or negative assertion?

*

ON MAFIAS

*****************************

Judge a tree by its fruit,

an idea by its history,

an ideology by its lies,

a religion by its mafia

and a mafia by its number of innocent victims.

#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, October 14, 2012
**************************************
OBSERVASTIONS
***********************************
When everything works as planned
something is bound to go wrong.
*
My conscience is clear only when I speak
against my own interests.
*
We have many answers but not the Answer,
and all our answers add up to no more than 1% of reality.
*
Our understanding of god is based
on hearsay evidence.
*
Subservience and freedom are mutually exclusive concepts.
*
After Socrates and Jesus the world doesn’t need new ideas,
only reminders.
*
Hell is an invention of bullies.
*
Capitalism: What’s mine is mine
even if most of it I stole from you.
*
Where there are innocent victims
there will also be a mafia.
#
Monday, October 15, 2012
*********************************************
MO YAN SPEAKS
***********************************
Speaking of his fellow Chinese,
Mo Yan (this year’s Nobel Prize winner in literature)
says somewhere (I am quoting from memory):
“Once upon a time they were innocent,
then they became fanatics,
after which they were afraid of their own shadows,
finally they settled on being evil.”
And I reflect on the celebrated words of Confucius:
“When you see a good man, emulate him.
When you see a bad man, examine your own heart.”
*
“Is democracy possible in Syria?”
asks a pundit in my morning paper.
His answer: “It seems improbable.”
*
Is democracy possible in Armenia?
Next question: Is democracy possible in the Diaspora?
What have we learned after a century of life in America?
Our political and cultural institutions function
as if all talk of human rights and free speech
were utopian or anti-Armenian concepts.
Sultanism is so ingrained in our collective existence that
we see nothing questionable or suspect
in being at the mercy of bosses, bishops, and benefactors
who behave as if they had never heard of democracy.
Mart bidi ch’ellank!
#
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
****************************************
J.S. BACH & THE BEATLES
*************************************
In their own time the Beatles were more popular than Bach.
They may still be for all I know.
It is unbelievable to what extent most men live and die
with total unawareness of their own possibilities.
*
LOSERS
**************
My defeats outnumber my victories 99 to 1,
perhaps even 999 to a fraction of 1.
In that sense I represent my nation more faithfully
than our great men most of whom, if not all,
achieved their greatness by eliminating the competition.
*
KILLERS
***********************
A serial killer is a serial killer
even if a jury renders a verdict of not guilty.
And if you say human justice may not be perfect but it works,
may I remind you that for a good number of years, even decades,
men like Mao, Stalin, and Hitler enjoyed the reputation
of great statesmen and not as dangerous serial killers or psychopaths.
In the eyes of his fellow countrymen
even Genghis Khan is seen to this day as a titan among men.
#
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
***************************************** Sunday, October 14, 2012
**************************************
OBSERVASTIONS
***********************************
When everything works as planned
something is bound to go wrong.
*
My conscience is clear only when I speak
against my own interests.
*
We have many answers but not the Answer,
and all our answers add up to no more than 1% of reality.
*
Our understanding of god is based
on hearsay evidence.
*
Subservience and freedom are mutually exclusive concepts.
*
After Socrates and Jesus the world doesn’t need new ideas,
only reminders.
*
Hell is an invention of bullies.
*
Capitalism: What’s mine is mine
even if most of it I stole from you.
*
Where there are innocent victims
there will also be a mafia.
#
Monday, October 15, 2012
*********************************************
MO YAN SPEAKS
***********************************
Speaking of his fellow Chinese,
Mo Yan (this year’s Nobel Prize winner in literature)
says somewhere (I am quoting from memory):
“Once upon a time they were innocent,
then they became fanatics,
after which they were afraid of their own shadows,
finally they settled on being evil.”
And I reflect on the celebrated words of Confucius:
“When you see a good man, emulate him.
When you see a bad man, examine your own heart.”
*
“Is democracy possible in Syria?”
asks a pundit in my morning paper.
His answer: “It seems improbable.”
*
Is democracy possible in Armenia?
Next question: Is democracy possible in the Diaspora?
What have we learned after a century of life in America?
Our political and cultural institutions function
as if all talk of human rights and free speech
were utopian or anti-Armenian concepts.
Sultanism is so ingrained in our collective existence that
we see nothing questionable or suspect
in being at the mercy of bosses, bishops, and benefactors
who behave as if they had never heard of democracy.
Mart bidi ch’ellank!
#
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
****************************************
J.S. BACH & THE BEATLES
*************************************
In their own time the Beatles were more popular than Bach.
They may still be for all I know.
It is unbelievable to what extent most men live and die
with total unawareness of their own possibilities.
*
LOSERS
**************
My defeats outnumber my victories 99 to 1,
perhaps even 999 to a fraction of 1.
In that sense I represent my nation more faithfully
than our great men most of whom, if not all,
achieved their greatness by eliminating the competition.
*
KILLERS
***********************
A serial killer is a serial killer
even if a jury renders a verdict of not guilty.
And if you say human justice may not be perfect but it works,
may I remind you that for a good number of years, even decades,
men like Mao, Stalin, and Hitler enjoyed the reputation
of great statesmen and not as dangerous serial killers or psychopaths.
In the eyes of his fellow countrymen
even Genghis Khan is seen to this day as a titan among men.
#
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
*****************************************
LET US REASON TOGETHER
**************************************
A Canadian prime minister (Jean Chretien)
is quoted as having said:
“I like to stand up to Americans.
It’s popular.”
We like to hate Turks.
That’s popular too.
But it’s wrong!
What have we accomplished after a hundred years of hatred?
We can’t even convince Americans to support our side.
Hating is a waste of time,
Hating nations is worse!
We should hate not nations but murderers and liars
regardless of nationality.
There are honest Turks
as surely as there are dishonest Armenians.
It is wrong to confuse a nation with its regime.
Regimes are ephemeral and transitory stages
in a nation’s life.
Neither should we confuse loyalty
or subservience to a regime
with patriotism.
Hatred may take us from A to B
but it is understand
that can go all the way to XYZ.
Hating is easy;
understanding much harder.
When it comes to politics
or any other discipline for that matter,
the easy answer is not always the right one.
In the writings of our Turcocentric ghazetajis
and readers who enjoy reading them
I see nothing but militant malice.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Thursday, October 18, 2012*************************************** A CONTRADICTION**************************** “The Kingdom of God is within you.”*“Our Father Who art in Heaven.”#EITHER/OR*********************** Someday everything will make sense. Either that or we will be beyond caring.#HOW TO RECOGNIZE A CHARLATAN***************************************** *** Two waysOne) A charlatan has more answers than questions; and he has answers even to questions that have no answer.(Two) If the facts are not on his side he will invent some that are.#ANOTHER EITHER/OR************************************** We either believe the testimony of our writers or our ruling classes whose every word is contaminated by propaganda, that is to say a Big Lie.#IF…**************** If you lose an argument it doesn’t necessarily mean you were wrong. It only means your opponent had a better lawyer.#SIZE MATTERS************************** Among sharks, a barracuda has a better chance to survive than a sardine.#Saturday, October 20, 2012************************************ SOLUTIONS**************************** Solutions don’t fall from heaven like manna. Solutions are hard work. But when we speak of solutions we think of the abracadabra variant whereby you deliver the right verbal formula and the problem vanishes like a puff of smoke. *For 1700 years our religion has been teaching us to love our enemies; and for 1500 years our writers, beginning with Khorenatsi and Yeghishe (two historians of the Golden Age) have been emphasizing the central role that solidarity plays in the life of a nation. I therefore feel justified in concluding that anyone who says “We don’t need critics, we need solutions!” should be classified as a habitual and compulsive liar who is out to deceive not only others but also and above all himself. *Solutions? As a nation we are like the proverbial peasant who seated on his jackass searches for his jackass. And if you say, you can’t teach love of Turks to Armenians who hate Armenians, all I can say is: “You can say that again, brother!”#ENEMIES*************************** The question we should ask is not “Why do they hate us?” but “What have we done to deserve so many of them?” *If might is right, it follows, absence of might is wrong, and if not a crime against humanity, an invitation to it.*Today I know something I didn’t know yesterday: It is not our enemies who divide us (in order to rule us); it is we who divide ourselves to be closer to the sultan and commissar, and in the Diaspora, to our bosses, bishops, and benefactors.There is only one way to make it in our environment: to be a brown-noser. *I will never forget the contempt and anger in the voice of one of our elder statesmen (who was also the hireling of a benefactor), when he said to me: “Just who the hell do you think you are?”*An old lady once said to me: “When I write to the President of the United States, I get a reply. But when I write to an Armenian, I am ignored.” It was this same old lady who, after reading one of my comments against the dangers of assimilation, asked me: “What’s wrong with assimilation?” I don’t remember my exact answer then, but my answer today would be: “For some Armenians, assimilation would be a step in the right direction.”#