notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?

By Ara Baliozian


Democracy could also be defined as
ceaseless resistance to fascism.
Because fascism, in addition to being a constant temptation,
is also easy. What's hard is recognizing its signs and symptoms,
such as: censorship in the name
of some noble-sounding abstraction;
ascribing one's failures on foreign powers (xenophobia);
exaggerating one's tribal or national uniqueness
or superiority by re-writing history.

[Haykakan]

Re: elegy

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?

By Ara Baliozian


Democracy could also be defined as
ceaseless resistance to fascism.
Because fascism, in addition to being a constant temptation,
is also easy. What's hard is recognizing its signs and symptoms,
such as: censorship in the name
of some noble-sounding abstraction;
ascribing one's failures on foreign powers (xenophobia);
exaggerating one's tribal or national uniqueness
or superiority by re-writing history.

Thats funny because zionism is doing exactly that under the guise of democracy. Bribing people is even easier in a democracy where you print your own money.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

the 3 pillars of fascism:
*******************************
anti-semitism,
anti-intellectualism,
nationalism.

anti-zionism=anti-semitism

a garden variety anti-semite now identifies himself as an anti-zionist (in case you didn't know).

the palestinians, very much like armenians, have at no time throughout their long history (in the old days they were known as philistines) have experienced democracy.
From Goliath to Arafat: they have been at the mercy of corrupt amd authoritarian rulers.
they will be better off in an israeli democracy...
in the same way that armenians today are better off in america than in their own beloved homeland.

[jgk3]

Re: elegy

Ara, why should being an anti-semite receive any more attention than being an anti-palestinian?

[Federate]

Re: elegy

Dear lord, not Ara Baliozian too! No such thing as anti-Semitism Ara unless you're talking about all the peoples who speak the Semitic language which includes the Arabs. This is beyond the question asked by jgk3. This last post was the worst ever by you, Mr. B.

[KanadaHye]

Re: elegy

the 3 pillars of fascism:
*******************************
anti-semitism,
anti-intellectualism,
nationalism.

anti-zionism=anti-semitism

a garden variety anti-semite now identifies himself as an anti-zionist (in case you didn't know).

the palestinians, very much like armenians, have at no time throughout their long history (in the old days they were known as philistines) have experienced democracy.
From Goliath to Arafat: they have been at the mercy of corrupt amd authoritarian rulers.
they will be better off in an israeli democracy...
in the same way that armenians today are better off in america than in their own beloved homeland.

I hope this was all sarcasm...

[Haykakan]

Re: elegy

I think a flaw has been identified in Ara's perception of things but we all have such flaws so ....

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, September 27, 2009
***********************************************
IF THE PAST IS PROLOGUE
********************************************
The only thing that so far has changed in our collective existence is the size and nature of our blunders.
*
To make plans without taking into consideration the unforeseen, the unknown, and the unknowable is to court disaster.
*
The apologists of the Wall Street bonus scandal call it “an insignificant fraction of the bailout money.” That's what they said about Watergate too -- “a third-rate burglary.”
*
I once heard an Armenian from the Homeland say, “So what if he [Nixon] lied? They lie to us every day.”
*
I look forward to the day when capitalism will bite the dust...and it will, as surely as communism did.
*
They gave the Nobel Prize to Arafat and Kissinger but not to Tolstoy and Gandhi. And when they awarded the Prize to Thomas Mann they did so not for THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN but for BUDDENBROOKS.
Had Hitler won World War II, he too would have been considered for the Nobel Prize “for pacifying the West after thirty centuries of almost ceaseless internecine conflicts.”
*
“After Hitler won World War II...” What a novel one could write with such a first line!
*
Before you dare to disagree with an Armenian, consider the words of an old wise man: “When you fight with a pig, you both get dirty, but only the pig likes it.”
#
Monday, September 28, 2009
*****************************************
IN PRAISE OF BREVITY
*********************************
Better a bad haiku than a mediocre sonnet. In writing the principle that never fails is brevity. Keep it short! A paragraph may be admirable in its beauty and complexity, but it is one-liners that stick to one's mind.
“To be or not to be...”
“Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains.”
“A bourgeois is a bourgeois regardless of nationality.”
“An Armenian's tongue is sharper than a Turk's yataghan.”
“Once upon a time we were willing to die for freedom, we are now afraid of free speech.”
*
ONE-LINERS FROM DIOGENES
*********************************************
To the son of a prostitute who threw a stone at him:
“Be careful, my boy, you may be hitting your father.”
To a bald man who insulted him:
“I congratulate the hairs on your head for abandoning a fool like you.”
On being reprimanded for masturbating in public:
“I wish I could satisfy my hunger as easily.”
*
ON NATIONALISM
*******************************
In the Middle Ages Armenians ruled empires and they were themselves ruled by xxxs (Bagratunis) and the Mamigonians (Chinese). What has nationalism done for us except to divide us further?
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

for 2000 years the j*ws came to terms with their own status as losers.
for 1000 years (and more) we came to terms with our own status as losers.
the trouble with palestinians is that they don't know how to win, and they refuse to come to terms with their status as losers.
as for arabs being semites = that line is a cliche used by anti-semites to cover up their prejudice.

[KanadaHye]

Re: elegy

for 2000 years the j*ws came to terms with their own status as losers.
for 1000 years (and more) we came to terms with our own status as losers.
the trouble with palestinians is that they don't know how to win, and they refuse to come to terms with their status as losers.
as for arabs being semites = that line is a cliche used by anti-semites to cover up their prejudice.

Are you kidding me? The j*ews haven't lost their edge of deception since their conception. Case and point.