notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

comments

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**********************************
In the months preceding the Genocide
there was a great deal of intense dialogue
between Armenian leaders,
but as always with Armenians,
the dialogue failed to produce a synthesis.
*
Dialogue Armenian style:
two monologues that never cross.
*
Academics have mastered the art
of expanding a sentence to a page,
a page to a chapter,
and a chapter to a book:
a condition also known as verbal diarrhea.
*
Nothing comes more naturally to a man
than to exaggerate his own importance.
*
Anyone who says Armenians are
just about the smartest people on earth
should be classified under
just about the dumbest idiot on earth.
#

[Haykakan]

Re: comments

I do not understand why mods allow this guy to open up a million threads and just post once in each.

[lampron]

Re: comments

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
**********************************
In the months preceding the Genocide
there was a great deal of intense dialogue
between Armenian leaders,
but as always with Armenians,
the dialogue failed to produce a synthesis.
*
*

There were apparently Armenian writers like Zarian and Zohrab who believed that a world war would bring disaster to Armenians because the Turks would use it as a cover for genocide

And the smug 'revolutionaries' (who claimed Great Britain and France would stop the Turks, even though they hadn't in 1896) and ignored those warnings. For their incredible wisdom they are celebrated to this day by a political party (although this party behaves more like a banquet-organizing group than a party)

[arabaliozian]

insanity

ON INSANITY
********************************
“Not guilty by reason of insanity” and
“not guilty by reason of belief system”
might as well be synonymous statements.
*
The 11th Commandment:
“Thou shalt reject all gods, messiahs, and prophets
except your own.”
*
When it comes to the most important questions,
someone else will be more than happy
to answer them for you.
*
When it comes to certainties,
I know that 1+1=2 and not 11.
Beyond that your guess is as good as mine.
*
You want to understand your fellow Armenians?
Think of a man who is committing suicide
by cutting his own throat with a rusty knife.
#

[arabaliozian]

experience

Monday, February 09, 2015
******************************************
SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE
*******************************************
War and massacre fall on us
like thieves in the night
only because there are too many
who say “we never had it so good”
and not enough who say
“we are in deep xxxx.”
*
History does not repeat itself;
it is reality that stays the same.
Wars, massacres and man’s inhumanity to man
are constants. We forget that at our own peril.
*
I write as I do because
my own personal blunders happened
when it didn’t even occur to me
they were in the realm of possibilities.
*
I don’t stress the dark side of life.
I observe reality.
To the blind all things are sudden.
*
If you shake hands with the devil,
don’t be surprised if you lose
not only your hand
but also your cojones.
*
We cannot change reality
in the same way that we cannot avoid
being born and dying.
We may, however,
on some very rare occasions,
take evasive action.
#

[lampron]

Re: experience

Monday, February 09, 2015
******************************************
SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE
*******************************************
War and massacre fall on us
like thieves in the night
only because there are too many
who say “we never had it so good”
and not enough who say
“we are in deep xxxx.”
*

If they have never had it so good, it could be that they are only thinking about themselves - enjoying the good life,
and the fate of fellow Armenians is of little concern, even when they claim to be fiercely pro-Armenian (such as the case of many churchmen and party leaders/followers)

[arabaliozian]

critics

CRITICS
*************************
To criticize Armenians
is to victimize the victims all over again,
I am told.
All I can say in my defense is that
I victimize no one.
I reason.
Why would I want to alienate
my only source of income –
namely, my readers?
*
I write as I do because the alternative
is to recycle the propaganda line
of defunct belief systems and ideologies
or to spew anti-Turkish venom,
which also means
adopting Turcocentric ghazetajis
as my role models – a fate worse than death.
*
To say the only thing my criticism does is
to victimize Armenians all over again
is to imply we are beyond criticism,
which also means all our writers
who have adopted a critical stance –
from Khorenatsi to Zarian –
have been on the wrong path,
unlike our bosses, bishops, and benefactors
whose sole concern is to serve God
and the interests of the nation;
and if you believe that
you’ll believe anything!
#

[arabaliozian]

for/against

FOR OR AGAINST
****************************
When we speak of Armenians
we speak of shadows,
and when we speak of Armenia
we speak of a cadaver.
*
The lower we sink
the greater our need for flattery.
*
The very same people who are against
corrupting the young are for sending them to war
to kill and die in the name of God and Countfry.
*
You can’t say “Forget it!” to a traumatic experience.
*
Editors, publishers, agents:
they are the pimps of literature.
*
You have a better chance of being right
if you speak against your own interests.
#

[lampron]

Re: for/against

FOR OR AGAINST
****************************
*
You can’t say “Forget it!” to a traumatic experience.
*

#

a traumatic experience is an experience over which the victim had no control

it should be analyzed in order to learn from it, such that a similar hopeless situation is not repeated

[arabaliozian]

Re: experience

GRUB FIRST
*********************
Intellectuals, academics, writers:
they tend to be more tolerant
of political and religious leaders
than of the competition.
Remember Ezra Pound on Hitler:
“a Jeanne d’Arc, a saint.”
*
“Sometimes you go too far,”
a reader tells ms.
Who is to decide how far is too far?
In the eyes of our 1% and their dupes
the fact that I am alive
is already too damn far.
*
Under a ruthless bloodthirsty dictator
an entire nation can go insane
as surely as a vulnerable, defenseless,
oversensitive vegetarian
surrounded by carnivores.
*
In a war both sides can’t be right
but both sides can be
and usually are dead wrong!
*
Status quo:
Morally defunct, militarily irrelevant.
#