notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

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.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Wednesday, January 30, 2013
*****************************************
SMART ARMENIANS
**********************************
A smart Armenian is first and foremost
a self-assessed Armenian and in all self-assessments
propaganda speaks louder than reality.
*
Whenever I speak of reality
I am accused of being pro-Turkish probably because
for 600 years our reality was not ours but theirs.
When it came to the most important decisions in life,
it was they who made them.
We had no choice but to say “Yes, sir!”
They dished it out and we took it.
And when our revolutionaries decided to change that,
we all know what happened next: reality turned against us.
*
How long before we create our own reality?
My only tentative answer: I may not live long enough to see it.
*
I have dealt with many self-assessed smart Armenians
and they were all idiots.
So was I for most of my life.
Everything I say about Armenians is based on self-analysis.
*
Gentle reader: If you think what I say does not apply to you
because you are different, I am more than willing to apologize.
Every rule has its exceptions.
I have even heard it said that it is exceptions
that certify the legitimacy of a rule.
My hope is that really smart Armenians
will decide to step forward and get involved
in our community affairs instead of conducting
an underground existence.
*
Did I say really smart Armenians?
Strike that. Make it honest Armenians.
Because it doesn’t take a high IQ to see that
we are on the wrong path and on our way to the devil.
*
A warning: If you are an honest Armenian
and decide to be pro-active, don’t be surprised
if accusations of pro-Turkish sympathies are hurled against you
by moronized self-assessed Armenians.
#
Monday, January 28, 2013
****************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**************************************
Propaganda is as addictive as nicotine, alcohol, and opium.
*
The hidden message in all propaganda is,
what you think is right
and anyone who dares to disagree with you
is an enemy agent.
*
Now Barabbas was a publisher
and Cain a fascist.
*
Speechifiers and sermonizers end up believing
in their own speeches and sermons.
Arguing with them is like trying to enlighten a source of light.
*
There are times when I get so depressed
by my fellow countrymen that
the thought of death cheers me up.
*
Dissent means questioning the integrity of individuals
who believe in their own infallibility.
*
Propaganda sticks to children like crazy glue.
#
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
************************************
IRRELEVANCE
********************************
Even in a land of the brave and the free
there will be cowards and slaves;
and if not slaves to human masters
than slaves to ignorance, prejudice, and lies.
*
Our men at the top know that
the best way to avoid international scrutiny
is by achieving irrelevance,
and irrelevance is thrust on some
as greatness is thrust on others.
*
Who after all gives a damn about Armenia?
Not even Armenians.
Who gives a damn about our 1,500,000?
Not even Obama.
Who gives a damn about our ongoing “white genocide”
(exodus from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora)?
Not even our superpatriots
who prefer to speechify about the eternal snows of Mt. Ararat.
*
God’s existence is as great a mystery to me
as the Devil’s?
#
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
*****************************************
JESUS, MARX, FREUD
********************************
All of Freud may be said to be an expansion
of the Biblical dictum:
“The Kingdom of God is within you.”
Or, the resolution of all your inner conflicts and contradictions
are in your unconscious.
*
When Marx said “I am not a Marxist,”
he was in a way questioning the legitimacy of all ideologies
or closed systems of thought.
*
Einstein proved that all our fundamental assumptions
about time and space are wrong;
nothing is what it seems;
a great deal of reality may be comprehensible
but not everything.
There are things we may never understand and explain.
*
What has been the most important contribution
America has made to the world?
Double-talk.
To assert “All men are created equal,”
and with the full cooperation of the Church
to legitimize slavery.
*
What about Armenian contributions?
Inbred morons pretending to be smart.
*
If the Kingdom of God is within you,
so is the Empire of the Devil.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Wednesday, January 30, 2013
*****************************************
SMART ARMENIANS
**********************************
A smart Armenian is first and foremost
a self-assessed Armenian and in all self-assessments
propaganda speaks louder than reality.
*
Whenever I speak of reality
I am accused of being pro-Turkish probably because
for 600 years our reality was not ours but theirs.
When it came to the most important decisions in life,
it was they who made them.
We had no choice but to say “Yes, sir!”
They dished it out and we took it.
And when our revolutionaries decided to change that,
we all know what happened next: reality turned against us.
*
How long before we create our own reality?
My only tentative answer: I may not live long enough to see it.
*
I have dealt with many self-assessed smart Armenians
and they were all idiots.
So was I for most of my life.
Everything I say about Armenians is based on self-analysis.
*
Gentle reader: If you think what I say does not apply to you
because you are different, I am more than willing to apologize.
Every rule has its exceptions.
I have even heard it said that it is exceptions
that certify the legitimacy of a rule.
My hope is that really smart Armenians
will decide to step forward and get involved
in our community affairs instead of conducting
an underground existence.
*
Did I say really smart Armenians?
Strike that. Make it honest Armenians.
Because it doesn’t take a high IQ to see that
we are on the wrong path and on our way to the devil.
*
A warning: If you are an honest Armenian
and decide to be pro-active, don’t be surprised
if accusations of pro-Turkish sympathies are hurled against you
by moronized self-assessed Armenians.
#
Monday, January 28, 2013
****************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**************************************
Propaganda is as addictive as nicotine, alcohol, and opium.
*
The hidden message in all propaganda is,
what you think is right
and anyone who dares to disagree with you
is an enemy agent.
*
Now Barabbas was a publisher
and Cain a fascist.
*
Speechifiers and sermonizers end up believing
in their own speeches and sermons.
Arguing with them is like trying to enlighten a source of light.
*
There are times when I get so depressed
by my fellow countrymen that
the thought of death cheers me up.
*
Dissent means questioning the integrity of individuals
who believe in their own infallibility.
*
Propaganda sticks to children like crazy glue.
#
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
************************************
IRRELEVANCE
********************************
Even in a land of the brave and the free
there will be cowards and slaves;
and if not slaves to human masters
than slaves to ignorance, prejudice, and lies.
*
Our men at the top know that
the best way to avoid international scrutiny
is by achieving irrelevance,
and irrelevance is thrust on some
as greatness is thrust on others.
*
Who after all gives a damn about Armenia?
Not even Armenians.
Who gives a damn about our 1,500,000?
Not even Obama.
Who gives a damn about our ongoing “white genocide”
(exodus from the Homeland and assimilation in the Diaspora)?
Not even our superpatriots
who prefer to speechify about the eternal snows of Mt. Ararat.
*
God’s existence is as great a mystery to me
as the Devil’s?
#
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
*****************************************
JESUS, MARX, FREUD
********************************
All of Freud may be said to be an expansion
of the Biblical dictum:
“The Kingdom of God is within you.”
Or, the resolution of all your inner conflicts and contradictions
are in your unconscious.
*
When Marx said “I am not a Marxist,”
he was in a way questioning the legitimacy of all ideologies
or closed systems of thought.
*
Einstein proved that all our fundamental assumptions
about time and space are wrong;
nothing is what it seems;
a great deal of reality may be comprehensible
but not everything.
There are things we may never understand and explain.
*
What has been the most important contribution
America has made to the world?
Double-talk.
To assert “All men are created equal,”
and with the full cooperation of the Church
to legitimize slavery.
*
What about Armenian contributions?
Inbred morons pretending to be smart.
*
If the Kingdom of God is within you,
so is the Empire of the Devil.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Thursday, January 31, 2013
**********
…AND SO IT GOES
**********
The aim of politics is power.
The aim of literature is understanding reality.
When the two meet, literature loses.
And when literature loses,
murder, war, and massacre become inevitable.
*
Writers are dreamers?
Yes, but only in so far as they think
they can survive in a fascist environment.
*
The attitude of the average dupe towards literature?
“He is a writer? An Armenian writer?
He must be a daydreamer.
Let’s have some fun with him.”
*
Armenians are different from Turks?
In their treatment of dissent
they might as well be identical twins.
*
Dupes rate the lies of propaganda
above the truths of literature.
*
One reason why our dividers are more popular
than our dissidents is that
the IQ of the average Armenian is a negative digit;
which is why he is constantly reminded he is smart.
*
One of my most dedicated readers is a
Second-Amendment gun nut and racist
who thinks he fully qualifies as a commissar culture
and based on that assumption
he issues daily memoranda
reminding me that unless I follow instructions
I will never amount to anything.
*
When reason meets prejudice,
reason is bound to lose.
So what else is new?
Mart bidi ch’ellank.
#
Friday, February 01, 2013
**********
AS I SEE IT
**********
Some lies are so transparent that
they might as well be confessions.
*
There are no more deep truths,
only platitudes in fancy uniforms.
*
There are Armenians today who are pro-Assad.
I have met some of them myself.
What’s next?– being pro-Talaat?
*
To those who demand that I explain my explanations,
I say: I have already done so in the past
and I will again in the future.
*
Toynbee:“Comprehension sometimes consists
in just a correct understanding of questions
that are unanswerable."
#
Saturday, February 02, 2013
**********
ON OUR 1%
**********
Why did Raffi say “we are sheep without a shepherd”?
Why did Avedik Issahakian call our leaders “brainless”?
And why did Zarian call them “useless”?
Were all three wrong or dupes of enemy propaganda?
*
Baruir Massikian, a successful lawyer in Egypt
in addition to being a brilliant writer:
as he lay dying in hospital he was approached
by a delegation community leaders
who suggested he leave his considerable wealth
(he was a bachelor) to an Armenian educational foundation.
His reply:“I’d much rather leave it to a Cairo bordello.”
Was he anti-Armenian or pro-Turkish?– two charges
that are leveled against anyone
who dares to refuse being a dupe.
*
Why do our academics prefer to write
about the Middle Ages and the Genocide?
And why is it that whenever someone tries to expose
the corruption and incompetence of our 1%
he is insulted by our superpatriots
and experts on any given subject?
*
Please note that I am only asking questions.
I am not making dogmatic assertions whose sole intent is
to divide the community into members of the club
and alienated degenerates.
*
I repeat myself and the 1% does not?
*
In the opinion page of my local morning paper
a pundit begins his commentary with the following words:
“We live, breathe and exist in an age of apocalyptic uncertainty.”
If you were to ask one of our pro-establishment propagandists,
my guess is he would say:
“We never had it so good
because we are in the best of hands.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, February 03, 2013

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

DEAD END

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

If I criticize the 1%

it’s because I am on the side of the 99%.

If I don’t enjoy the support of the 99%

it may be because the secret ambition of most of them

is to join the 1%.

*

Freedom of religion also means

the freedom to brainwash children.

If we don’t see the harm in that

it’s because we live in a world

in which subservience is valued more than freedom,

intolerance more than tolerance,

revenge more than justice,

and ultimately war and massacre

more than peace and coexistence.

*

On the day we learn to think for ourselves

we may have a better chance to achieve solidarity

not only with our brothers

but also with our enemies.

*

Always treat today’s enemy

as if he were tomorrow’s friend.

*

If I am different it’s only because I rely

more on my own thinking than on the thinking of

empty suits and bearded charlatans

who make a comfortable living by deceiving

the defenceless and the ignorant.

#

Monday, February 04, 2013

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

SOUND BITES

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

If Christianity has legitimized

intolerance, persecution, torture, war and massacre,

can we really say “There are good religions?”

*

I don’t believe in optimism.

Hell, I don’t even believe in pessimism.

In pessimism we construct a narrative that makes sense.

But evil is incomprehensible.

So is reality. That’s why every historian

creates his own version of the past.

*

Does it make sense to say what’s theirs is bad

and what’s ours is good

when that’s exactly what they say too?

*

If you make a list of writers who preferred exile

to life in their own homeland,

you may end up with a who’s who is contemporary literature.

*

Our reality is so unbearable that my objectivity

is sometimes confused with self-hatred.

*

“When we kill them it’s good;

when they kills us it’s bad.”

What’s the difference between this mindset

and the one expressed by an African tribal chieftain

quoted by C.G. Jung in his memoirs:

“When my enemy steals my wives, it’s bad;

when I steal his it’s good.”

*

To those who say “I don’t agree with you.

Human beings are better than that; so is life.”

All I can say is: “Enjoy your innocence (or is it ignorance?)

while you can. It won’t last.”

*

How often do I find myself saying:

“I would have agreed with you thirty years ago.”

#

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

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

COMMISSARS OF CULTURE

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

Q: Who are they? Could we have a definition?

A: They are Armenians who know what must be said and done

but who want someone else to do it for them.

Q: Why?

A: The obvious answer is, they don’t know.

They only pretend to know. They are bluffing.

Just like their role models in the USSR who trusted Stalin

more than Solzhenitsyn. Our commissars today trust more

our bosses, bishops, and benefactors than our writers.

Q: Why do they?

A: My guess is they believe literature to be a dead end.

No money in it. No power. No future.

Our history is clear on this point:

To write for Armenians is a waste of time.

Q: Knowing this you go on writing, why?

A: A good question, but I have a better one for you:

Why do Armenians who are brought up to believe

they are smart, progressive and civilized

choose to behave like inbred morons

when it comes to politics and collective action?

More precisely, why do they support our dividers

and grave-diggers?

Q: You must have an answer to that question.

A: I don’t! Unless of course we say they behave like morons

because they are in fact morons.

Q: I wouldn’t describe that as a diplomatic explanation.

A: Literature is not diplomacy. Neither is it a profitable enterprise

unless of course you decide to write

about the Middle Ages and the massacres.

But that’s a subject for another conversation.

#

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

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

ON BEING AN ARMENIAN WRITER

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

Q: What are some of the positives and negatives

in being an Armenian writer?

A: Positives? None! Negatives? To begin with

you work for nothing;

you are treated like an unemployed and unemployable misfit,

a mental masturbator;

morons take it upon themselves to tell you

what to write and how to write it;

and worst of all, you are dependent on the charity of swine.

A: Aren’t you afraid that by using angry words

you may run the risk of undermining your own objectivity?

A: I am more than willing to take that chance.

Those who are against me will be against me

even if I were to speak like an angel.

And I have every reason to suspect

if so far Armenian writers have been ignored

it’s because they were afraid to go down into the gutter

where our self-appointed “betters” and their dupes live.

Some day if these gentlemen are unmasked,

they will be exposed as bottom-of-the-barrel

egomaniacal sociopaths and bullies

who operate on the assumption that

they know better and our only option is to say “Yes sir!”

Q: "The Sultan is dead, long live the Sultan?"

A: That’s true for Ottomanized Armenians.

For Sovietized Armenians it’s “Stalin is dead,

long live our commissars!”

Q: Do you see a light at the end of the tunnel?

A: For me, no! For those who may follow me, maybe.

You never know…anything is possible.

And they say I am a pessimist.

What the hell do they know?

#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Thursday, February 07, 2013
***************************************
NAMING NAMES
*****************************
Q: You never name names. Why?
A: In our environment naming names doesn’t work.
Q: What do you mean it doesn’t work?
A: Last time someone named names he was taken to court,
his sources evaporated, he was found guilty, he suffered a stroke,
and shortly thereafter he died.
Q: His sources evaporated, how?
A: They refused to testify in court.
Q: Why?
A: Obviously they didn’t want to lose their only source
of financial support.
Q: I see.
A: That’s the way it has always been in our environment:
those in power and the establishment in general
have been invulnerable. This was true
even in the Ottoman Empire and the Soviet Union.
Even on the eve of the Genocide there were
Armenians – and I don’t mean dupes --
who worked for the Ottoman and Soviet administrations,
which means they supported the Sultan and the Young Turks.
Krikor Zohrab, an eminent lawyer, diplomat,
and intellectual leader was one of them –
he was a close friend and supporter of Talaat
who had him murdered in cold blood.
I am myself personally acquainted with writers
who make a comfortable living as secretaries of bishops.
Do you think they will even consider testifying
against their only source of income
and start looking for another job?
Who would hire them?
Armenian writers are not exactly in great demand
in today’s marketplace. But all that is theory.
In reality it has never happened.
We don’t have a system or cultural environment
that supports individuals who place truth or principle
above self-interest. And we have always had
ruthless manipulators willing to take advantage of this situation.
#
Friday, February 08, 2013
***************************************
ON READING
**************************
Q: What are some of the books you have reread more than twice?
A: Lesley Blanch’s SABRES OF PARADISE,
Toynbee’s RECONSIDERATIONS (volume xii of his STUDY OF HISTORY),
and Sartre’s WORDS.
Q: A strange trio.
A: I forgot Nabokov’s LOLITA, and of course Zarian
whom I have translated into English,
and to translate a book is equivalent to rereading
it ten times if not more. There may be others
but these are the ones that come readily to mind at the moment.
Q: What is it about Zarian that fascinates you?
A: His daring and uncanny ability to say
what you almost think…and his unique grasp of reality.
Q: What about books that have changed your worldview?
A: Dostoevsky’s IDIOT, Turgenev’s FATHERS AND SONS,
and Suzuki’s INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM,
all of which I read as a teenager --
and Plato’s DIALOGUES. Also Shaw’s plays,
or rather their prefaces which are longer than the plays themselves.
And Thomas Mann’s MAGIC MOUNTAIN.
Q: Do you have a favorite genre?
A: All of them – fiction, essays, biographies, memoirs, diaries,
conversations, crime novels, encyclopedias…
everything but poetry. I don’t remember to have ever read
a collection of verse from beginning to end.
Isolated poems now and then, here and there,
but Milton, Dante, and T.S. Eliot, no!
As for Pushkin: I might as well be deaf, dumb, and blind.
I have always suspected that in poetry
manner is more important than substance.
Q: Do you think Armenians read enough?
A: Somewhere Zarian says that what Armenians preferred to read
at the turn of the century in Istanbul were best-sellers
like Zevaco and Eugene Sue – whom no one reads these days.
I know Armenians who love books for purely cosmetic reasons,
to make an impression on visitors.
I am beginning to suspect an Armenians’ greatest enemy
is neither the Turk nor his fellow Armenian
but the written word.
#
Saturday, February 09, 2013
**************************************
FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE
**********************************
Gandhi once said you can evaluate a civilization
by the manner in which it treats its animals –
and, I would add, its writers.
If you make a list of our writers
you will be astonished to discover
an astonishing number of them
were either silenced, ignored and exiled or
betrayed to the authorities,
murdered and committed suicide.
*
Armenia has been called “the cradle of civilization”
by an Irish academic who enjoyed the financial support
of the Gulbenkian Foundation,
the wealthiest foundation in the world, it has been said.
But it would be even more accurate to call it its grave.
*
And speaking of Gulbenkian:
Why did he leave only 7% of his wealth to Armenians?
Did he know something we don’t know?
Did he guess that if he were to leave
all his wealth to Armenians,
93% of it would end up in the wrong pockets?
I am not casting aspersions,
just asking question and searching for answers.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, February 10, 2013
******************************************
HOLY BOOKS
**********************
We all have our own.
To some it’s the Bible,
To others the Koran,
to still others the UPANISHAD.
In my twenties my holy book was
Thomas Mann’s THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN
in which there are endless arguments
about all the important issues in life.
The two fictional characters who engage in these arguments
are Naphta (authoritarian, mystical, fascist)
and Settembrini (a liberal humanist).
The arguments are so convincingly done that
at the end you cannot tell who is right and who wrong.
*
In my thirties my other holy book was
Toynbee’s RECONSIDERATIONS
(volume xii of his STUDY OF HISTORY)
in which ideas about the past, that is to say life,
are carefully analyzed and discussed at considerable length.
*
It is to be noted that Mann’s character of Naphta
is based on the famous communist critic and philosopher Lukacz
with whom he was personally acquainted
(Lukacz was later to write a book on Mann);
and in RECONSIDERATIONS Toynbee quotes
many of his critics except Hugh Trevor-Roper
whose attack on him was so ruthless and rude
that its intent was not to question Toynbee’s ideas
but to destroy him personally.
*
Also to be noted, both Mann and Toynbee
were great readers of the Bible.
Mann even wrote his longest book,
the tetralogy JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS,
based on an episode in GENESIS.
*
When told the Bible was written by the Holy Ghost,
Shaw is said to have replied,
“All books are written by the Holy Ghost.”
What about LOLITA, one is tempted to ask.
LOLITA too, Shaw would have replied
(the book was published after his death)
because THE SONG OF SONGS in the Old Testament
fully qualifies as an erotic rhapsody in which,
Hebrew scholars tell us,
there is even talk of oral sex – obviously lost in translation.
#
Monday, February 11, 2013
*************************************
SOUND BITES
***************************
*
COMMON KNOWLEDGE
*********************************
“The small state, racked by internal dissension,
invites the foreign conqueror.”
This is a line that occurs in a short story by Mary McCarthy.
I quote it to point out the fact that far from being
the best and the brightest, we are a cliché known by all except us.
That’s how cunningly and thoroughly we have been brainwashed.
*
SUICIDE
****************
Instead of blabbering endlessly about murder,
we should speak of suicide by a thousand self-inflicted cuts.
*
THE ENEMY
***********************
He who is his own worst enemy
does not need an enemy.
*
THE WAY OF THE COMMISSAR
****************************************
You don’t like what he says?
Shoot him.
You can't shoot him?
Silence him.
You can’t silence him?
Call him “son of a Turkish xxxxx.”
*
TRANSLATION
***********************
“A government by the people for the people.”
Translation:
“A government by the mafia for the mafia.”
*
WORDS
********************
Instead of analyzing my words
teach yourself to analyze your actions.
Unawareness, according to Freud and Jung,
is the source of all evil
*
PROPAGANDA
**************************
The real aim of propaganda is not to misrepresent lies as truths
but to moronize the people,
and the most effective way to moronize the people
is to call them seven times smarter than Greeks and xxxs.
#
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
***************************************
CONTROL FREAKS
****************************
The Pope telling Galileo what to think
and imams telling women how to dress
spring from the same source:
ignorance, arrogance, and greed for power.
*
Unmask religion and expose the primitive in man.
*
If you cannot deal with reality,
invent your own fiction.
*
A man of faith believes his faith to be infallible
and with God on his side he can do no wrong.
This fallacy has claimed more innocent lives than any other.
*
There are as many paths to God or Truth
as there are human beings.
To say otherwise is to legitimize intolerance
and ultimately war and massacre.
This is not theory but reality,
that is to say, history.
*
The same applies to patriotism.
There are as many variants of patriotism
as there are patriots.
To say, suggest, or imply that your kind of patriotism
is better than mine or anyone else’s is to justify
all kinds of aberrations, including crimes against humanity.
*
To say my faith, my God, my Truth and no other
is to be on a path that leads not to God but to the Devil.
#
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
*******************************************
NOTES & COMMENTS
*********************************
The phoniest Armenians are those
who never miss an opportunity
to assert their superior brand of patriotism.
*
As children we are taught big lies
and forbidden to speak little ones.
*
Because I expose contradictions
I am told I hate myself.
*
The biggest lies are fractions of the truth.
*
In a trial by jury,
the function of the jury is not to separate
the guilty from the innocent
but to decide which side
has the more competent lawyer.
*
Nationalist historians are not liars;
they only emphasize the positive
and cover up the negative.
I know how that’s done because I have done it myself.
See my ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY & CULTURE.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Thursday, February 14, 2013
***************************************
WHO LOVES ARMENIANS?
****************************************
In his youth Zarian loved Armenians
because he saw himself as a messianic figure
and his fellow Armenians as a crucified nation.
In his old age he saw himself as a victim
of intolerance and envy,
and he died with the conviction that
he had been murdered.
*
Saroyan loved the whole world including Armenians
but he couldn’t stand his own family
including his half-Armenian son and daughter.
*
Michael (GREEN HAT) Arlen loved his fellow Armenians too
but he warned his half-Armenian son to stay away from them.
The son followed his father’s advice
with only one interruption
that lasted long enough for him to write
PASSAGE TO ARARAT that became a best-seller.
*
Because I hate myself, some of my critics tell me,
I am in no position to love or understand my fellow Armenians,
and armed with that conviction
they feel justified in calling me “son of a Turkish xxxxx,”
among other abusive terms.
*
I have noticed that Armenians who speak endlessly of love
are the least lovable specimens
and though I have tried very hard to love them
I have failed.
But that’s my fault rather than theirs.
#
Saturday, February 16, 2013
*****************************************
LIES, BIG LIES, AND
CONTRADICTIONS
************************************************** ***
In politics don’t judge the man,
judge the men behind the man.
*
The same Leonardo who said war is
“pazzia bestialissima” (the most beastly madness)
also designed war machines.
*
Even Jesus failed to unmask Judas
until it was too late.
*
If Zohrab was Talaat’s dupe,
who among us will dare to say
he is nobody’s dupe?
*
One reason I keep coming back to dupes is that
I have been one most of my life…
with no end in sight.
*
If I were to make a list of Big Lies we believed in,
I would begin with
“The Turks would not dare to massacre us,” and end with
“Russians are our Big Brothers.”
*
To preach love and legitimize hatred is a contradiction,
and yet most religious leaders appear to be unaware of this fact.
*
Love of God (religion) and love of homeland (patriotism)
have justified more crimes against humanity
than hatred of the Devil.
#
Saturday, February 16, 2013
******************************************
WHO LOVES ARMENIANS? (II)
**************************************
There are systems of ignorance as surely
as there are systems of knowledge
and we choose both by the degree of flattery they contain.
*
Christians believe they are worthy of the Crucifixion,
xxxs believe they are the Chosen,
and Muslim believe non-Muslims to be “infidel dogs.”
*
What about Armenians?
To begin with we don’t much care
about Turks, Kurds, Azeris, Georgians,
“onion-head” Russians, and the so-called “civilized West”
which fought its lousy World War I
instead of coming to our aid.
Neither are we fond of Protestants and Catholics
even when they happen to be fellow Armenians.
Native-born Armenians look down at Diasporans (“aghber”) --
I have myself been called “a piece of xxxx” by a fellow Armenian
born and raised in the shadow of Mt. Ararat.
*
Who loves Armenians?
Not even Armenians.
As the popular refrain has it:
“Mart bidi ch’ellank!”
Literally: “We will never acquire the status of human beings.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, February 17, 2013
*****************************************
US/THEM
****************************
As a child I was told many things
that as an adult I rejected.
As a Catholic I was brought up to believe
the only reason Martin Luther had divided the Church
was to fornicate with a nun.
*
More often than not the hidden aim
of all categories, differences, and labels
is to assert some kind of phony superiority.
*
Shaw once said that the reason why
he was successful in creating believable female characters
is that he did not think of women as different from men.
When the French say “Vive la difference!”
I have every reason to suspect
they have in mind only anatomical differences.
*
An old lady from Kharpert once told me
they viewed women from Izmir (Smyrna) as xxxxs
because they (Izmirtsis) used make-up;
and a woman from Izmir once told me
they view Kharpertsis as Kurds.
For every label there will be a counter-label.
*
Native-born Armenians versus Diasporans
(or aghber = white trash).
As a non-native Armenian I suspect native-born Armenians
to be former Bolsheviks, even Stalinists.
*
We are all brought up to look down on our fellow men
for reasons that on closer inspection reveal themselves to be
based on ignorance, prejudice, fear, and fallacies.
I feel therefore justified to formulate
the following categories of my own:
human beings who view their fellow men and women as equals
and dupes who suffer from a psychological aberration
known as infantilism which consists
in clinging to illusions, lies, and prejudices instilled in them
when they could not yet think for themselves and
whose hidden aim is to make them feel superior or privileged.
#
Monday, February 18, 2013
*******************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*******************************
Why is it that people who view abortion as murder
don’t see war as murder?
*
The Enlightenment did not put an end to the Dark Ages;
neither did Christianity expose false gods.
*
Whenever a reader calls me pro-Turkish
I know he has run out of arguments.
If memory serves, it was Goebbels who said:
“Making noise is an effective means of opposition.”
*
As a pessimist I hate to be right.
*
Because I make Armenianism
(its cheap, loathsome variant) look hateful,
I am accused of hating myself.
*
Be a dupe, join a group.
*
The contempt of idiots and fanatics
is as valuable an asset as the affection of good men.
*
When Jesus said “The Kingdom of God is within you,”
the rabbis thought, there goes my bread and butter.
*
Among us success is harder to survive than failure.
*
In real life all stories have an unhappy ending
if only because at the end everyone dies.
#
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
*****************************************
ON PATRIOTISM
*************************************
The most patriotic Armenian is neither
the devout church-goer nor
the dedicated partisan
but an honest man.
*
If you can’t think of me as a critic
(someone who exposes contradictions)
think of me as the devil’s advocate.
As far as I know no one has ever identified
a devil’s advocate with the devil.
*
Where there is money there will be prostitution
in one form or another;
and where there is patriotism, there will be treason,
and more often than not it will the real traitors
who will accuse the real patriots of treason.
*
Armenians who criticize no one and nothing
(except perhaps Turks and Kurds)
will criticize critics and their favorite mode of criticism
will be slinging mud in the hope that some of it may stick.
*
Our critics – and we have had our share of them –
have made no difference in our collective existence
probably because our idiots outnumber the rest 99 to 1.
I may be wrong in this.
The correct ratio may well be 98 to 2.
#
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
******************************************
WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING
**************************************
“In their place I would have done a better job.”
That’s not what I have been saying.
What I have been saying is
having committed blunders
I would not spend the rest of my life
trying to cover them up
in an effort to project a positive image.
Neither would I declare myself to have been
a proud member of the Communist Party
(as Sylva Kaputikian is said to have done).
or any other party, for that matter.
Or having divided the community
I would not portray myself as a statesman of vision
whose number one concern is the welfare of the nation.
Neither would I judge a regime or a power structure
by the number of privileges and powers it bestows on me
and to hell with everyone else.
As for brainwashing children into believing
we never had it so good because we are in the best of hands:
I would consider that adding insult to injury
and raising another generation of brainwashed idiots.
Now then, go ahead and accuse me
of making too many demands on our “betters”
who may not be perfect but are doing their best
under difficult conditions:
and if you believe that you will believe anything!
#

[arabaliozian]

comments

Monday, March 25, 2013

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

NOTES & COMMENTS

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

If both sides believe Truth to be on their side

it must be a Big Lie.

If both sides believe God to be on their side,

it must be the Devil.

In a historic context Homo sapiens may be defined as

a being who cannot tell the difference

between God and the Devil.

*

Q: Is it true that you are more critical of Armenians

than of Turks?

A: As an Armenian I criticize Armenians.

I leave to Turkish critics the task of criticizing their own.

*

When tyrants silence writers,

they invariably target the best.

*

The reason I am a pessimist or see the dark side of things

is that I refuse to be moronized by the 1%.

*

In murder it may be “cherchez la femme.”

But in war and crimes against humanity

it’s cherchez moral and intellectual hoodlums

parading as statesmen.

*

The 99% don’t make history;

they only suffer it.

#

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

NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS

OR GENOCIDE BY OTHER MEANS

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

Learning also means unlearning

what you were taught as a child.

Loving your people also means hating their enemies.

The average dupe loves to brag about the lies

he has been taught as a child

and to ignore the evidence to the contrary.

*

We in Canada are brought up to brag about

our multiculturalism and to forget that

there was multiculturalism in the Ottoman Empire too;

so much so that after 600 years of “brutal oppression”

we produced literary giants like

Baronian, Odian, Zabel Yessayan, and Zohrab.

*

Now then, name a single Canadian-born Armenian

who is capable of writing a single decent line

in his mother tongue.

*

I have heard smart Canadians define multiculturalism

as “let them dance.” Obviously because

they can read between the lines of their state propaganda

better than outsiders like us.

*

In the obituary of the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe,

I read the following this morning:

“He spent much of his adult life in the United States

but resisted literary honors from a government

he refused to accept.”

In other words, he refused to be taken in

by a policy of genocide by other means.

*

If you want to read more about the many ways

the 1% has of misleading, deceiving, confusing, bamboozling, flimflamming, exploiting, and hoodwinking the 99%

read MYTHOLOGIES by Roland Barthes.

#

IDIOTS

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

Armenians who say there are divisions everywhere

are simply parroting the words of an idiot

whose sole aim is to explain and justify

his own powers and privileges.

*

There are divisions even in the most advanced democracies?

It is equally true that, unlike us,

advanced democracies have a centralized power structure

because they have been successful

in overcoming their tribalism,

namely the misconception that

my political party, my church, my backyard

and my chickens matter more than all others.

*

There are divisions everywhere?

There are also rapists and murderers everywhere.

Should we therefore accept them

as inevitable facts of life

and adopt a live and let live stance

in the name of compassion, tolerance and patriotism?

*

There are divisions everywhere?

There are also crooks and idiots everywhere.

Does that mean we should allow them

to be in charge of our collective destiny?

#

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

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

MEMOS TO MYSELF

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

Political leaders prefer dupes to dissidents.

*

The plea of not guilty may be available to dupes

but not to their deceivers.

*

Power corrupts, weakness castrates.

*

On the art of writing: the less art the better.

*

To write too much is not a sin;

to discard too little is.

#