Re: elegy
Saturday, June 01, 2013
****************************************
WHO’S WHO
*************************
“You are a disgrace to the nation!”
Am I really?
What about our oligarchs and kleptocrats
whose greed is surpassed only by Wall Street CEOs
who have been successful in convincing themselves
and others that they are too big to fail?
What about our brown-nosers
who have not yet kissed an ass that didn’t smell like roses?
What about our superpatriotic paranoiacs
who see inauthentic or second-class
or bastardized Armenians everywhere?
What about our bosses, bishops, and benefactors
whose sole contribution to our collective existence
has been the introduction of meaningless dogmatic divisions
that make us more vulnerable to so-called
historic, economic, social, and cultural forces
beyond our control?
What about our crypto-Stalinist neo-commissars
who miss the good old days?
What about our dupes who believe everything they are told?
Am I really a disgrace to the nation
or those who dare to speak in its name?
#
WHEN I WAS YOUNG
******************************************
When I was young I relied on the judgment of my elders.
Now that I am old I can rely on no one but myself;
and when I consider the long list of blunders
that I have committed
I have no choice but to conclude
that I must just about the least reliable person on earth;
and if you think those who are now in charge
of our collective destiny are wiser than I am,
all I can say is that we all entertain illusions
that we hate to give up
notwithstanding the evidence against them.
*
To put it differently:
you are right not to trust my judgment
but you have fewer reasons to trust
the judgment of your “betters”
because historic reality tells us
in no uncertain terms
they may well be the worst scum on earth.
#
DEATH WISH
**************************
Judge a man by his actions not his words.
Judge an ideology or religion by its history
not its sermons and speeches.
It follows, if we were to judge a nation by its history
we may have to conclude that
Syrians don’t think they deserve to live,
Armenians don’t think they deserve to be a nation,
and Turks use the nationalist or Kemalist card
the way a serial killer uses the insanity plea.
Perhaps death wish plays a larger role
in human affairs than we like to admit.
Perhaps in politics what matters more
than lust for power
is the instinct to kill and die.
If, that is, we base our conclusions on facts
as opposed to speculation and propaganda.
#
Saturday, June 01, 2013
****************************************
WHO’S WHO
*************************
“You are a disgrace to the nation!”
Am I really?
What about our oligarchs and kleptocrats
whose greed is surpassed only by Wall Street CEOs
who have been successful in convincing themselves
and others that they are too big to fail?
What about our brown-nosers
who have not yet kissed an ass that didn’t smell like roses?
What about our superpatriotic paranoiacs
who see inauthentic or second-class
or bastardized Armenians everywhere?
What about our bosses, bishops, and benefactors
whose sole contribution to our collective existence
has been the introduction of meaningless dogmatic divisions
that make us more vulnerable to so-called
historic, economic, social, and cultural forces
beyond our control?
What about our crypto-Stalinist neo-commissars
who miss the good old days?
What about our dupes who believe everything they are told?
Am I really a disgrace to the nation
or those who dare to speak in its name?
#
WHEN I WAS YOUNG
******************************************
When I was young I relied on the judgment of my elders.
Now that I am old I can rely on no one but myself;
and when I consider the long list of blunders
that I have committed
I have no choice but to conclude
that I must just about the least reliable person on earth;
and if you think those who are now in charge
of our collective destiny are wiser than I am,
all I can say is that we all entertain illusions
that we hate to give up
notwithstanding the evidence against them.
*
To put it differently:
you are right not to trust my judgment
but you have fewer reasons to trust
the judgment of your “betters”
because historic reality tells us
in no uncertain terms
they may well be the worst scum on earth.
#
DEATH WISH
**************************
Judge a man by his actions not his words.
Judge an ideology or religion by its history
not its sermons and speeches.
It follows, if we were to judge a nation by its history
we may have to conclude that
Syrians don’t think they deserve to live,
Armenians don’t think they deserve to be a nation,
and Turks use the nationalist or Kemalist card
the way a serial killer uses the insanity plea.
Perhaps death wish plays a larger role
in human affairs than we like to admit.
Perhaps in politics what matters more
than lust for power
is the instinct to kill and die.
If, that is, we base our conclusions on facts
as opposed to speculation and propaganda.
#
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