Re: elegy
Thursday, January 24, 2013
**************************************
WHY DO I GO ON WRITING?
************************************
That’s a question I ask myself again and again
and I always come up with an answer
that may make sense to me
but no one else.
*
I write to settle a score, beginning with myself.
I feel partly responsible for our leadership.
I supported it for a number of years.
I kissed its ass when I should have kicked it.
*
Our divisions go so far back in history
that they have become invulnerable to dissent and criticism.
It is also true that if a system is rotten
it will fall if not tomorrow than the day after.
Isn’t that what happened to monarchy, fascism, and Stalinism?
*
The reason our divisions have survived is that
we have lived on the margins of history;
and they have not so much survived as they have become,
in Toynbee’s classification, fossilized.
They are dead men walking.
Case in point: by failing to unite the Armenian vote in America,
our leadership has condemned itself to be a silent scream.
No American presidential candidate will ever take us seriously
so long as we divide our vote evenly
between Republicans and Democrats.
*
As for our Turcocentric ghazetajis
who pretend to be defenders of the Cause:
so far all they have succeeded in doing
is drive the Cause to a dead end.
Their unspoken or real aim is not to get justice
but to cover up the incompetence
of the empty suits they work for.
*
A final note on Turks:
they are not all butchers and murderers;
they have their share of both as surely as
we have our share of traitors, collaborators,
and cover-up artists,
#
Friday, January 25, 2013
*****************************************
PARADOX
***********************
We think with someone else’s thoughts
and we believe by adopting someone else’s belief system.
When it comes to the two most important things in life –
thinking and believing,
or that which makes us human --
we are more like apes than men.
I think therefore I am not.
*
Our disagreements and conflicts are not ours
but someone else’s.
Neither are our wars.
Only our victims may be said to be ours.
*
Absurdity is not a philosophical abstraction;
it is embedded in our daily existence.
*
Question all certainties.
Reject all dogmatic assertions.
And never forget that what you borrow
is not yours.
#
Saturday, January 26, 2013
***************************************
AS I SEE IT
***************************
Our most popular school of criticism
consists in slinging mud (such as pro-Turkish)
hoping some of it will stick.
*
Identifying blunders in others can be useful
only if it may help us identify our own.
*
Thirst for fame is the surest symptom of mediocrity.
*
Only pathological liars with political ambitions
rewrite history in order to project a positive image.
*
A book is called bad or dangerous if it proves
what you believe to be true is a lie.
#
Thursday, January 24, 2013
**************************************
WHY DO I GO ON WRITING?
************************************
That’s a question I ask myself again and again
and I always come up with an answer
that may make sense to me
but no one else.
*
I write to settle a score, beginning with myself.
I feel partly responsible for our leadership.
I supported it for a number of years.
I kissed its ass when I should have kicked it.
*
Our divisions go so far back in history
that they have become invulnerable to dissent and criticism.
It is also true that if a system is rotten
it will fall if not tomorrow than the day after.
Isn’t that what happened to monarchy, fascism, and Stalinism?
*
The reason our divisions have survived is that
we have lived on the margins of history;
and they have not so much survived as they have become,
in Toynbee’s classification, fossilized.
They are dead men walking.
Case in point: by failing to unite the Armenian vote in America,
our leadership has condemned itself to be a silent scream.
No American presidential candidate will ever take us seriously
so long as we divide our vote evenly
between Republicans and Democrats.
*
As for our Turcocentric ghazetajis
who pretend to be defenders of the Cause:
so far all they have succeeded in doing
is drive the Cause to a dead end.
Their unspoken or real aim is not to get justice
but to cover up the incompetence
of the empty suits they work for.
*
A final note on Turks:
they are not all butchers and murderers;
they have their share of both as surely as
we have our share of traitors, collaborators,
and cover-up artists,
#
Friday, January 25, 2013
*****************************************
PARADOX
***********************
We think with someone else’s thoughts
and we believe by adopting someone else’s belief system.
When it comes to the two most important things in life –
thinking and believing,
or that which makes us human --
we are more like apes than men.
I think therefore I am not.
*
Our disagreements and conflicts are not ours
but someone else’s.
Neither are our wars.
Only our victims may be said to be ours.
*
Absurdity is not a philosophical abstraction;
it is embedded in our daily existence.
*
Question all certainties.
Reject all dogmatic assertions.
And never forget that what you borrow
is not yours.
#
Saturday, January 26, 2013
***************************************
AS I SEE IT
***************************
Our most popular school of criticism
consists in slinging mud (such as pro-Turkish)
hoping some of it will stick.
*
Identifying blunders in others can be useful
only if it may help us identify our own.
*
Thirst for fame is the surest symptom of mediocrity.
*
Only pathological liars with political ambitions
rewrite history in order to project a positive image.
*
A book is called bad or dangerous if it proves
what you believe to be true is a lie.
#
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