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  • arabaliozian
    replied
    Re: elegy

    THE STORY OF MY LIFE



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



    One way to get acquainted with life



    and with one’s fellow men is to work



    for minimum wage under individuals



    you would do your utmost to avoid



    if given the choice.



    *



    WE ARE TOLD



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



    There will come a time



    when the lion will lie down with the lamb



    and the Armenian with the Armenian,



    but I doubt if I will live long enough to see it.



    *



    We are also told our political parties



    play an essential role



    in the preservation of our identity



    as Armenians in the Diaspora;



    the implication being our partisans



    are dedicated and selfless servants



    of the community



    and men of honor.



    *



    “MEN OF HONOR”



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



    That’s how members of the mafia identify themselves,



    as “men of honor.”



    What did you expect them to say? –



    that they are a gang of blackmailers, thieves, and murderers?



    #



    ON SUBSERVIENCE



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



    It is said of Goethe and Beethoven that



    they were once taking a walk in a park



    when they ran into a family of aristocrats.



    Whereas Goethe bowed down deeply



    as a sign of respect, Beethoven plowed on



    with the comment:



    “There are so many of them, and so few of us!”



    *



    My question:



    If subservience can penetrate the mighty brain



    of an intellectual giant like Goethe,



    what chance do the rest of us have



    after long centuries of systematic indoctrination,



    and brutal intimidation by the likes of Sultans and Stalin?



    #



    HABEMUS PAPAM!



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



    “Everything you have been saying about Armenians is wrong,”



    a reader tells me, and goes onto inform me



    he has discovered the root of all our problems.



    *



    OBSERVATION



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



    Our bosses, bishops and benefactors tend to behave as though they were not part of history, they live outside space and time, the law of gravity does not apply to them, and their actions don’t have consequences; and armed with that conviction they continue to bankrupt the nation with a clear conscience.



    *



    COMMENT



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



    You can’t adopt a propaganda line and pretend to be an honest man.



    *



    REFLECTION



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



    If only I could solve my own problems as easily as I solve the world’s problems!



    #








    Reply, Reply All or Forward | More















    Light Purple























































































    Today at 7:49 AM









    THE STORY OF MY LIFE



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



    One way to get acquainted with life



    and with one’s fellow men is to work



    for minimum wage under individuals



    you would do your utmost to avoid



    if given the choice.



    *



    WE ARE TOLD



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



    There will come a time



    when the lion will lie down with the lamb



    and the Armenian with the Armenian,



    but I doubt if I will live long enough to see it.



    *



    We are also told our political parties



    play an essential role



    in the preservation of our identity



    as Armenians in the Diaspora;



    the implication being our partisans



    are dedicated and selfless servants



    of the community



    and men of honor.



    *



    “MEN OF HONOR”



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



    That’s how members of the mafia identify themselves,



    as “men of honor.”



    What did you expect them to say? –



    that they are a gang of blackmailers, thieves, and murderers?



    #



    ON SUBSERVIENCE



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



    It is said of Goethe and Beethoven that



    they were once taking a walk in a park



    when they ran into a family of aristocrats.



    Whereas Goethe bowed down deeply



    as a sign of respect, Beethoven plowed on



    with the comment:



    “There are so many of them, and so few of us!”



    *



    My question:



    If subservience can penetrate the mighty brain



    of an intellectual giant like Goethe,



    what chance do the rest of us have



    after long centuries of systematic indoctrination,



    and brutal intimidation by the likes of Sultans and Stalin?



    #



    HABEMUS PAPAM!



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



    “Everything you have been saying about Armenians is wrong,”



    a reader tells me, and goes onto inform me



    he has discovered the root of all our problems.



    *



    OBSERVATION



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



    Our bosses, bishops and benefactors tend to behave as though they were not part of history, they live outside space and time, the law of gravity does not apply to them, and their actions don’t have consequences; and armed with that conviction they continue to bankrupt the nation with a clear conscience.



    *



    COMMENT



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



    You can’t adopt a propaganda line and pretend to be an honest man.



    *



    REFLECTION



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



    If only I could solve my own problems as easily as I solve the world’s problems!



    #

    Leave a comment:


  • arabaliozian
    replied
    Re: elegy

    Today at 7:49 AM









    THE STORY OF MY LIFE



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



    One way to get acquainted with life



    and with one’s fellow men is to work



    for minimum wage under individuals



    you would do your utmost to avoid



    if given the choice.



    *



    WE ARE TOLD



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



    There will come a time



    when the lion will lie down with the lamb



    and the Armenian with the Armenian,



    but I doubt if I will live long enough to see it.



    *



    We are also told our political parties



    play an essential role



    in the preservation of our identity



    as Armenians in the Diaspora;



    the implication being our partisans



    are dedicated and selfless servants



    of the community



    and men of honor.



    *



    “MEN OF HONOR”



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



    That’s how members of the mafia identify themselves,



    as “men of honor.”



    What did you expect them to say? –



    that they are a gang of blackmailers, thieves, and murderers?



    #



    ON SUBSERVIENCE



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



    It is said of Goethe and Beethoven that



    they were once taking a walk in a park



    when they ran into a family of aristocrats.



    Whereas Goethe bowed down deeply



    as a sign of respect, Beethoven plowed on



    with the comment:



    “There are so many of them, and so few of us!”



    *



    My question:



    If subservience can penetrate the mighty brain



    of an intellectual giant like Goethe,



    what chance do the rest of us have



    after long centuries of systematic indoctrination,



    and brutal intimidation by the likes of Sultans and Stalin?



    #



    HABEMUS PAPAM!



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



    “Everything you have been saying about Armenians is wrong,”



    a reader tells me, and goes onto inform me



    he has discovered the root of all our problems.



    *



    OBSERVATION



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



    Our bosses, bishops and benefactors tend to behave as though they were not part of history, they live outside space and time, the law of gravity does not apply to them, and their actions don’t have consequences; and armed with that conviction they continue to bankrupt the nation with a clear conscience.



    *



    COMMENT



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



    You can’t adopt a propaganda line and pretend to be an honest man.



    *



    REFLECTION



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



    If only I could solve my own problems as easily as I solve the world’s problems!



    #








    Reply, Reply All or Forward | More















    Light Purple























































































    Today at 7:49 AM









    THE STORY OF MY LIFE



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



    One way to get acquainted with life



    and with one’s fellow men is to work



    for minimum wage under individuals



    you would do your utmost to avoid



    if given the choice.



    *



    WE ARE TOLD



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



    There will come a time



    when the lion will lie down with the lamb



    and the Armenian with the Armenian,



    but I doubt if I will live long enough to see it.



    *



    We are also told our political parties



    play an essential role



    in the preservation of our identity



    as Armenians in the Diaspora;



    the implication being our partisans



    are dedicated and selfless servants



    of the community



    and men of honor.



    *



    “MEN OF HONOR”



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



    That’s how members of the mafia identify themselves,



    as “men of honor.”



    What did you expect them to say? –



    that they are a gang of blackmailers, thieves, and murderers?



    #



    ON SUBSERVIENCE



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



    It is said of Goethe and Beethoven that



    they were once taking a walk in a park



    when they ran into a family of aristocrats.



    Whereas Goethe bowed down deeply



    as a sign of respect, Beethoven plowed on



    with the comment:



    “There are so many of them, and so few of us!”



    *



    My question:



    If subservience can penetrate the mighty brain



    of an intellectual giant like Goethe,



    what chance do the rest of us have



    after long centuries of systematic indoctrination,



    and brutal intimidation by the likes of Sultans and Stalin?



    #



    HABEMUS PAPAM!



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



    “Everything you have been saying about Armenians is wrong,”



    a reader tells me, and goes onto inform me



    he has discovered the root of all our problems.



    *



    OBSERVATION



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



    Our bosses, bishops and benefactors tend to behave as though they were not part of history, they live outside space and time, the law of gravity does not apply to them, and their actions don’t have consequences; and armed with that conviction they continue to bankrupt the nation with a clear conscience.



    *



    COMMENT



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



    You can’t adopt a propaganda line and pretend to be an honest man.



    *



    REFLECTION



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



    If only I could solve my own problems as easily as I solve the world’s problems!



    #








    Reply, Reply All or Forward | More















    Light Purple















































































































    Leave a comment:


  • arabaliozian
    replied
    Re: elegy

    FREEDOM
    *************************
    Everyone speaks of freedom of religion
    as if it were a good thing,
    a mark of progress and civilization.
    What if what will civilize the world
    is not freedom of religion
    but freedom of dissent and heresy?
    But as long as rabbis, bishops and imams
    are allowed the freedom
    to poison the minds of children
    we will have wars and massacres.
    *
    Why is this so difficult to understand?
    Empires decline and fall
    not when its prostitutes, pimps,
    thieves and degenerates prosper
    but when its spiritually superior individuals
    (self-assessed of course) assume leadership positions.
    *
    Moral I: Freedom of religion is freedom to enslave.
    *
    Moral II: Freedom to brainwash children
    is a crime against humanity.
    #
    JAGADAKIR
    **************************************
    We have a school of thought that says
    Christianity was a bad choice for us.
    We should have converted to Islam.
    The unmistakable implication being,
    since we cannot change the past,
    we cannot change our present and future.
    What’s done is done and it cannot be undone.
    It is our jagadakir (destiny) therefore
    to remain perennial losers.
    Let us therefore, in legal parlance,
    drop our pants and bend over to whoever is on top –
    be he a shah, pasha, padishah, sultan or commissar.
    *
    But I maintain our problem is not our choice of religion.
    Our problem is ignorance of the world,
    divisiveness, corruption, incompetence, treason,
    and intolerance of any idea
    that may shatter our image as la crème de la crème
    and expose us as la crème de la scum.
    #
    IN BRIEF
    ************************
    On our present situation:
    Losers at the mercy of other losers.
    *
    SWINE
    ******************
    The 1% are cold-blooded swine
    who think they will not burn in hell
    because hell is their own invention.
    *
    KNOWN UNKNOWNS
    ************************************
    We know that Sultan Abdulhamid II’s mother
    was Armenian. We also know that Talaat himself
    was probably part-Armenian.
    What we don’t know is
    how many of our own present leaders are Turks.
    *
    INTERNET
    ***************************
    Is the Internet making us smarter or dumber?
    I don’t know. All I know is that
    if an ape uses it he will not be born-again
    as a human being.
    *
    ON ASSAD
    **********************
    Tina Brown on Bashar-al-Assad:
    “A creepy, lisping, giraffe-necked liar.”
    *
    LOLITA
    **********************
    I don’t read and reread LOLITA
    to be enlightened or instructed.
    I read it because it is compulsively readable –
    from the first (“fire of my loins”)
    to the last sentence.
    #
    NOTES & COMMENTS
    **************************************
    There is a general in every solider
    (according to Napoleon),
    a pope in every seminarian,
    a master in every slave,
    a capitalist in every proletarian,
    and (according to a schoolteacher)
    a Turk in every Armenian.

    *
    Nothing disarms a man
    with a highly developed spirit of contradiction
    than agreement.
    *
    We read so many obituaries
    and hear of so many deaths when we are alive
    that we end up thinking of ourselves
    almost as immortal.
    #

    Leave a comment:


  • arabaliozian
    replied
    Re: elegy

    INSPIRATION
    **********
    The eternal snow of Mt. Ararat .
    Nightingales serenading the moon.
    I leave these things to our versifiers.
    The written word is my main source of inspiration.
    When I agree with something,
    I compose a variation.
    When I disagree,
    I improvise a contradiction.
    When I read an irresistible passage,
    I quote it.
    I love to quote.
    i love to read books of quotations.
    So much so that I have myself compiled two of them:
    one published (A DICITIONARY OF ARMENIAN QUOTATIONS),
    the other (much more extensive) in manuscript form.
    *
    As for originality:
    How much of Plato is Socrates?
    How much Socrates owes to the pre-Socratics
    most of whose works have survived, if at all, in fragments.
    *
    It was Hemingway who once said:
    “Minor writers plagiarize. Major writers steal.”
    And sure enough, at one time or another all major writers
    have been accused of being plagiarists –
    Sartre, Garcia Marquez, Toynbee, Zarian...
    *
    Toynbee once described himself as someone
    who moves old furniture around.
    Garcia Marquez’s style has been traced back
    to the 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS and Faulkner.
    An American academic, Stern by name
    (that’s the only thing I remember about him)
    once wrote a book in which he traced all of Sartre’s ideas
    to predecessors.
    It was Oshagan who accused Zarian.
    Need i say more?....
    #
    TWO GERMAN PHILOSOPHERS
    **********
    On Nietzsche:
    When asked what he thought of Nietzsche,
    Jules Renard is said to have replied:
    "There are too many useless letters in his name."
    *
    On Heidegger:
    The son-of-a-xxxxx was a Nazi
    who fell in love with one of his students
    who happened to be a xxxess.
    *
    LOATHSOME IMBECILES
    **********
    In his THE ITALIANS, Luigi Barzini writes:
    "There comes a day in every man's life
    when he realizes his leaders are loathsome imbeciles."
    *
    COUNTER-PROPAGANDA
    **********
    I repeat myself because I write counter-propaganda.
    If propaganda repeats itself, what choice do I have?
    #

    Leave a comment:


  • arabaliozian
    replied
    Re: elegy

    ON SERMONIZERS
    ******************************
    Where preaching to the converted
    has become a profitable enterprise,
    exposing lies will be seen as a criminal offence.
    *
    ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
    ***********************************
    I thank my fellow Armenians
    for allowing me to live.
    *
    AMERICAN SAYING
    *****************************
    “It is not enough for a gardener to love flowers;
    he must hate weeds.”
    *
    HEROES
    ******************
    Nations that are perennial losers
    brag about their many heroes.
    *
    ORSON WELLES SPEAKS (III)
    ***********************************
    On Kissinger:
    “A selfish, self-serving ****.”
    *
    On the Cannes Film Festival
    ********************************
    “Anybody connected with it is a crook.”
    *
    On himself
    *******************
    “I am a hypocrite. A sellout.”
    #
    WHAT IS LITERATURE
    ********************************
    There are benefits to being a minor writer:
    you write with greater freedom
    because you are not yet slave to your reputation.
    Saroyan failed because of his early success.
    *
    When I write I don’t think of readers.
    I don’t allow them to dictate the direction of my thoughts.
    As for those who disagree with me:
    I will be more than happy to listen to them
    provided they identify themselves as investigative reporters.
    *
    I am as capable of recycling propaganda or chauvinist crap
    as the best of them. You want proof?
    Read my first dozen books.
    *
    A famous French writer once said
    literature consists in making **** look like rose jam.
    *
    He who speaks of gods speaks of false gods;
    and he who speaks of false gods, speaks of thirsty gods –
    thirsty for blood.
    Who said that?
    I don’t know.
    I am not here to assert originality of thought
    but to make sense; and if a sentence makes sense
    it must have been said before.
    *
    It has also been said that man cannot create
    a single worm but he has created ten thousand gods.
    Now, replace the word “gods” with reality,
    or even better, Reality, and I dare anyone to say
    his Reality is more real than my Reality.
    #
    CONSIDER THE SYRIANS
    ********************************
    Old age is not always synonymous with wisdom.
    Syrians are much older than Americans.
    If they go on killing one another it may be because
    they know something Americans don’t know –
    a knowledge that so far they have failed to share
    with the rest of mankind.
    They only say the rebels are terrorists.
    Who is a terrorist?
    Anyone who is willing to kill innocent civilians,
    including women and children,
    for a self-assessed “noble” cause.
    Nothing further, your Honor!
    *
    ON CHAUVINISM
    **************************
    Write a short story about an Armenian so patriotic that
    he believes the real inventor of the Molotov xxxxtail
    was Mikoyan.
    *
    ON MODERN ART
    **************************
    Is modern art a gigantic hoax?
    Some art critics think so.
    One of them has even written a book
    titled TO HELL WITH PICASSO.
    And now consider Leonardo, Michelangelo,
    and Piero della Francesca:
    Has anyone ever dared to question their integrity?
    *
    CRITICS
    ******************
    To those of my readers who classify me
    as a “self-hating Armenian,” I say,
    I am more than willing to concede that
    I see nothing questionable in loathing anyone
    – including myself – who rejects all ideas
    that may question his status as a lovable human being.
    #

    Leave a comment:


  • lampron
    replied
    Re: elegy

    Originally posted by arabaliozian View Post
    I
    EMPTY BOAST
    ********************
    “No one understands Turks as well as we do!”
    Oshagan once bragged. My question is:
    What did we do with our superior brand
    of knowledge and understanding except
    wait until it was too late?
    #
    And what did "we" know? It is the opposite

    The Turks knew Armenians better than Armenians knew (and still know) about themselves!

    Leave a comment:


  • arabaliozian
    replied
    Re: elegy

    ORSON WELLES SPEAKS

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

    He hated the Irish, beginning with Spencer Tracy.

    In his recently published CONVERSATIONS he explains:

    “Seven hundred years of bitter oppression

    changed their character, gave them

    that passive meanness and cunning.”

    *

    By contrast, he loved Hungarians:

    “I love Hungarians to the point of sex!

    I almost get a hard-on when I hear a Hungarian accent;

    I am so crazy about them.”

    *

    On Israelis: “The only time they make good music

    is when Zubin Mehta, a Hindu, comes to conduct.”

    *

    On Coppola: “THE GODFATHER is the glorification

    of a bunch of bums who never existed.”

    *

    More to follow….

    #

    ORSON WELLES SPEAKS (II)

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

    On intellectuals:

    “They are the biggest pushovers.

    They love power.

    They cluster around whatever golden boy,

    or man, is in power and begin to justify it.”

    *

    On writers:

    “I don’t like Dostoevsky.

    Tolstoy is my writer.

    Gogol is my writer.

    I’m not a Joyce guy…”

    *

    On women:

    “They are another race.

    You can’t tell them the truth.

    You have to lie.”

    *

    On Russians:

    “They have terrible taste.

    They are a people of genius;

    and they are very literal.

    They are ‘machine-made.’

    Poor people.”

    *

    On American journalists: ‘

    “xxxxsuckers with typewriters.”

    *

    On Laurence Olivier:

    “He was so in love with his own image

    it was terribly hard for him

    to resist going down on himself.”

    #

    ONCE BRAINWASHED

    ALWAYS BRAINWASHED

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

    That’s the only way to explain why so far

    Christians have failed to convert Muslims

    and vice versa.

    *

    Both bishops and imams agree that

    when it comes to brainwashing

    children are more receptive candidates;

    and what’s even more outrageous,

    they call it education.

    *

    The overwhelming majority of people

    are born, live, and die as dupes.

    *

    I judge the importance of a book

    by the number of prejudices and preconceptions

    it exposes and shatters beyond repair.

    *

    An honest Christian will be honest

    only in the eyes of his co-religionists.

    An honest infidel or hetanos is an oxymoron.

    *

    An Armenian has no use for writers.

    He is a man of action who understands everything

    and knows nothing – or is it the other way around?

    #

    Leave a comment:


  • arabaliozian
    replied
    Re: elegy

    CONFESSION (XXII)

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

    Since I have no political ambitions

    I don’t mind admitting that

    I have been wrong most of my life

    and I am probably wrong today.

    If to be right means to kill someone

    I’d much rather be wrong.

    *

    My favorite illusion:

    As human being most people are equipped

    to see the light of reason.

    *

    Addicts of the blame-game

    refuse to believe that we have played a key role

    in our history and we continue to do so today.

    *

    Anonymous: “History does not repeat itself,

    but it rhymes.”

    #

    WORSE THAN A CRIME

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

    A friend of mine once wrote a book

    titled AS OTHERS SEE US

    but was careful to quote and discuss

    mostly friendly witnesses.

    *

    I committed a worse blunder:

    I wrote a book on Armenian history

    from which I excluded anything

    that may be remotely classified as negative;

    and what’s even more repellent to me now,

    I never thought of what I was writing

    as propaganda. Like all idiots and dupes

    I believed it was my patriotic duty

    to treat my readers as idiots and dupes.

    *

    Assad’s crime we are told is using poison gas

    to kill his own people.

    What we are not told is that

    his blunder consisted in having made no effort

    to reconcile and unite his fragmented nation.

    *

    I think it was Talleyrand who once said to Napoleon:

    “It was worse than a crime, Sire, it was a blunder.”

    #

    ON TEXTBOOKS

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

    There is one past but there are

    ten thousand historians.

    *

    ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY

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

    There are two basic approaches to the study of history:

    objective and hysterical.

    *

    FROM AN OBJECTIVE STUDY

    OF ARMENIAN HISTORY

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

    We were divided by Turks;

    we were divided by Bolsheviks;

    and we are now being divided by our own

    Ottomanized, Stalinized, and moronized bureaucraps (sic).

    *

    FROM A TEXTBOOK

    ON POLITICAL SCIENCE AND DIPLOMACY

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

    Never fight your enemies if you can divide them.

    Remember the Armenians.

    *

    FROM A TEXTBOOK

    ON BRAINWASHING

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

    After you moronize them

    you can even convince them to be

    just about the smartest people on earth.

    #

    DISAGREEMENTS

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

    Many readers disagree with me.

    That does not surprise me in the least.

    In human affairs disagreement is the rule

    rather than the exception.

    *

    Lawyers and politicians disagree all the time;

    so do bishops and imams; and in our case

    bishops (Etchmiadznagan) and bishops (Anteliassagan).

    *

    More often than not however,

    disagreements are rooted not in ideas

    but in sources of income, or power and prestige.

    We live in a world where ideas have become

    as relevant as the song of a non-existent bird

    in an imaginary forest.

    *

    Speaking of our ruling classes,

    and more specifically our neo-commissars

    and crypto-Panchoonies: they have discovered

    a new way of dealing with their critics:

    they refuse to acknowledge their existence;

    and it seems to work provided of course

    you ignore the high assimilation rate in the Diaspora

    and the exodus in the Homeland.

    Criticizing them might as well be an exercise in futility;

    and exposing their would be like trying to kill a man

    who is committing suicide.
    #

    Leave a comment:


  • arabaliozian
    replied
    Re: elegy

    OBSERVATIONS
    *************************
    Loyalty or subservience to the leadership
    is not a definition of patriotism but of fascism.
    *
    The only good thing about life is that
    it is above ground.
    *
    Sometimes we forget that Assad sits
    on a “throne of blood,” like Macbeth,
    and reality is catching up with him
    as it tends todo sooner or later with all of us.
    *
    If someone whose judgment I don't trust
    were to agree with me,
    I would disagree with myself.
    *
    Andrea De Carlo: "He tells me to follow my instinct.
    But what if I have two of them?"
    #
    PROVERBS
    ***************************
    If you like proverbs you will love
    THE DICTIONARY OF MODERN PROVERBS
    Compiled by C, Doyle, W. Mieder & F.R. Shapiro
    (London: Yale University Press, 2012).
    Some samples follow:
    *
    “The best man for the job
    may be a woman.”
    *
    “If you aren’t the lead dog,
    the scenery never changes.”
    *
    “Life is a **** sandwich:
    the more bread you have,
    the less **** you eat.”
    #
    SPEAKING OF OBAMA
    **********************************
    Next time you speak of Obama, ask yourself:
    Would Romney have been a better choice?
    *
    To brainwash children means to train them
    to say “Yes, sir!” instead of “Hell, no!”
    *
    Cherish your enemies,
    you may learn more from them
    than from your friends.
    *
    Our most dangerous enemy is not the Turk
    but the Turk within us.
    *
    I find it very difficult to love my fellow men
    after reading my morning paper.
    #
    NOBODY’S PERFECT
    ********************************
    Whenever I am told “Nobody’s perfect”
    (meaning “Shut the f*ck up!”) I say:
    “Dzour nesdink, shidag khossink.”
    In other words: our own imperfections
    should not prevent us from discussing
    our own motherf*ckers.
    *
    My contempt for loud-mouth Armenians from the Levant
    is not mine but that of a Levantine elder statesmen
    who once told me:
    “They walk past an elementary school
    and brag about their university degrees.”
    *
    Neither is my antipathy for Islam mine
    but that of Sunnis and Shias
    for one another.
    *
    You cannot deceive God,
    not even a non-existent God
    because God is another word for Reality.
    *
    The right word at the right time
    can be as effective as a hammer-blow to the head.
    #

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  • arabaliozian
    replied
    Re: elegy

    VIGNETTES

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

    As a child I had the IQ of a parrot

    and the understanding of an ape.

    *

    More often than not

    lies make more sense than the truth.

    *

    Fiction is more predictable than reality.

    *

    We will never know all the consequences

    of our actions and words.

    *

    A child will believe everything he is told

    by an adult.

    *

    Superstitions acquired in childhood

    are never abandoned.

    *

    Children educated by rabbis, imams, and bishops

    will grow up to be xxxish, Muslim, and Christian respectively.

    *

    Human conflicts begin in the cradle

    and end in the grave.

    *

    There is no law that says

    it is criminal to deceive children.

    *

    Wars and massacres are planned and executed

    by ruthless operators who speak in the name of God

    that is merciful and compassionate.

    *

    Whoever said Planet Earth is the insane asylum

    of a distant galaxy knew what he was saying.

    *

    Am I right or wrong?

    I don’t know and I don’t care to know.

    My past is an encyclopedia of blunders:

    one more will make no difference.

    #

    CONSIDER SYRIA

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

    We are perennial dupes because

    we are satisfied with easy explanations.

    Turks massacred us because they are evil.

    We are a progressive nation because

    we were first to convert to Christianity.

    We are smart because

    “it takes seven xxxs to fool an Armenian.”

    Russians are our Big Brothers.

    *

    All these explanations that have acquired

    the status of slogans can be easily torn to shreds

    by anyone with a single-digit IQ

    and a superficial knowledge of history.

    *

    Case in point:

    what’s the use of being smart in the market place

    if we are idiots in politics?

    And if we are idiots in politics

    what’s the use of being smart anywhere else?

    *

    Turks are evil?

    Can you name a nation that has not committed massacres?

    And if you can’t name one,

    consider Syria and the fact that

    most Armenians support the massacres.

    *

    As for Russians being our brothers:

    Russians are nobody’s brothers,

    not even their own.

    #

    COMMON SENSE & HISTORY

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

    In their initial phase

    my greatest blunders appeared to me

    as triumphs of logic and common sense.

    *

    When the distribution of wealth is uneven

    there will be benefactors;

    and where there are benefactors

    brown-nosers will prosper.

    *

    In a dishonest environment

    honesty will be perceived as a capital offense.

    Common sense may be against me

    but history is with me.

    *

    To say we need solutions

    is to conspire with habitual and compulsive liars.

    *

    One of our most cherished ideas:

    If you can blame it on others,

    why assume responsibility?

    *

    In political and religious propaganda

    lies make more sense than the truth.

    What is the truth?

    I don’t know and I may never know it.

    I am neither a prophet nor a messiah.

    I am only a scribbler whose sole function is

    exposing lies and liars.

    #

    QUESTION I

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

    Which is worse or more damaging

    to the economy of a nation :

    street crime or dishonest chief executive officers?

    *

    QUESTION II

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

    Which is worse or more damaging

    to our survival as a nation:

    what the Turks did to us at the turn of the last century

    or what our own political leadership has been doing to us

    for the last two thousand years?

    *

    ON STYLE

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

    Charlatans are long-winded.

    Be brief. If what you say makes sense

    you don’t need a defense attorney.

    *

    SLOGANS

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

    We preach “freedom or death”

    but practice life at all cost,

    no matter how degraded and dehumanized.

    *

    CONFESSION

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

    Like everyone else I was born stupid

    and I was educated to say “yes, sir!” to idiots

    until I realized that stupidity is

    neither an asset nor a terminal condition.

    #

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