notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

I haven't checked.

And it's not like everyone that lived back then had to definitely write a book about Avarair. Again, I'm not going to go too deep into this subject as I know very little about it ... for now!

not a book, not.
but at least a line about a minor skirmish on the border.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Friday, July 17, 2009
*****************************************
THE TROUBLE WITH HONESTY
************************************************** ****
The trouble with being honest is that you will never know how many people will get hurt. But that's all right as long as you are one of them.
*
It happens to me more or less regularly: I try to solve a problem but I am not sure if I can. I go ahead anyway on the grounds that doing something is better than doing nothing, and trying is better than giving up – and by the time I am through, I have created more problems for myself.
Moral: The most important thing to know about digging a hole is to know when to stop.
*
A Turkish friend once said to me: “Why is it that you and I agree on everything except the Genocide?” The only answer I could come up with was: “Probably because we have been brainwashed by two different sets of propagandists.”
*
Speaking of disagreements: Have you ever noticed that whenever you successfully demolish a bureaucrat's arguments, he says, “Let me check with my supervisor.” And when he comes back, he does so with a decision that is invariably against you.
I have lost more arguments against invisible and non-existent supervisors than anyone else.
*
German saying: “A dog knows his master, but not his master's master.”
*
Nothing comes more naturally to victims of a great injustice than to inflict minor injustices on their friends.
*
One of the most incomprehensible things about human beings is their willingness to subject themselves to the verbiage of speechifiers and sermonizers.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Saturday, July 18, 2009
*****************************************
THERE IS NO BUSINESS LIKE...
WRITING FOR ARMENIANS
************************************************** ****
Do you really know how I feel when I write?
I feel like a nun promoting virginity
to an audience of bordello madams and pimps.
*
In their efforts to make me see the light,
my critics succeed only in reinforcing my convictions.
I probably have a similar effect on them.
But then, my aim is not to change anyone's mind
-- I am not a miracle worker –
but to let our Jack S. Avanakians know that
they can't fool all the people all the time.
*
I know they read me because they correct me.
As for those who insult me,
I don't take them seriously.
Anyone who takes a dislike at me
will insult me without reading me,
and even when he reads me,
he will make no effort to understand what he reads.
On the contrary: he will go out of his way to misunderstand me.
*
Do you know why I never run out of things to say?
Because I use my enemies as my muses.
#

[londontsi]

Re: elegy

for 600 years we were the Sultan's most loyal servants -- "the most loyal millet."
why would he massacre us at a time when he needed us most?
the answer must be:
because we believed the West (we were dupes)
and because we counted on russian victory (bad judgment).

From your own definitions, loyal servant.
Servants are always dispensable whether national, domestic or corporate.
Its a matter of time or circumstance.

Are you suggesting Armenian nation should have existed only as servant nation?
In history there were many servant nations who, because they stayed that way
for too long do not exist now or are wonders in this world till their final demise.

[londontsi]

Re: elegy

I like your ideas not because they are (always) right but because they are thought provoking.

[londontsi]

Re: elegy

Tuesday, July 14, 2009#

Armenianism is an “ism” like any other ism.
It should be carefully analyzed and not adopted as a belief system.

Never heard the term Armenianism.
I know the term a "good Armenian" which to me means knowing where you came from and where you are going as a nation, as instinctively as any living thing which does everything possible to preserve its species in perpetuity.

More blood has been shed in the name of patriotism
than any other ideology or religion.

What has changed, any hopes thing will be different in the future.
Is the answer complaining about it?

If patriotism means loyalty to one's nation
and disloyalty to the rest of mankind,
I want no part of it.

Maybe not, but what is bothering your conscience with regards being disloyal to mankind?

A true patriot living in self-imposed exile is an oxymoron
(with emphasis on the last two syllables);

There is no such thing as true patriot.
There is only patriot dictionary definition is

1. A person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion.
2. A person who regards himself or herself as a defender, esp. of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government.

and a warlike patriot who is unwilling to kill and die speaks with a forked tongue.

I think you have a romantic view of war.
War is a multifaceted event, people can contribute in different ways
( agreed many may not).

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Never heard the term Armenianism.
I know the term a "good Armenian" which to me means knowing where you came from and where you are going as a nation, as instinctively as any living thing which does everything possible to preserve its species in perpetuity.




What has changed, any hopes thing will be different in the future.
Is the answer complaining about it?




Maybe not, but what is bothering your conscience with regards being disloyal to mankind?




There is no such thing as true patriot.
There is only patriot dictionary definition is

1. A person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion.
2. A person who regards himself or herself as a defender, esp. of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government.




I think you have a romantic view of war.
War is a multifaceted event, people can contribute in different ways
( agreed many may not).

like all armenians, you have a highly developed spirit of contradiction.
that too is an integral part of armenianism.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

From your own definitions, loyal servant.
Servants are always dispensable whether national, domestic or corporate.
Its a matter of time or circumstance.

Are you suggesting Armenian nation should have existed only as servant nation?
In history there were many servant nations who, because they stayed that way
for too long do not exist now or are wonders in this world till their final demise.

armenians are survivors, yes,
provided we agree that
their best have perished
and only their worst have survived.

[londontsi]

Re: elegy

armenians are survivors, yes,
provided we agree that
their best have perished
and only their worst have survived.

All currently living Armenians will perish in a generation or two.
What matters is what they leave behind.

Within the new generations there will be their best and as you call their worst.

The survival of the Nation will depend whether there will be enough of the best to "carry" the worst.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

All currently living Armenians will perish in a generation or two.
What matters is what they leave behind.

Within the new generations there will be their best and as you call their worst.

The survival of the Nation will depend whether there will be enough of the best to "carry" the worst.

we have always been at the mercy of the worst; but until very recently we also had some good men, like Zarian, Shahnour, Zabel Yessayan, Mahari, Bakounts...
today we have nobody!
the triumph of the mediocre, the unprincipled, the corrupt, and the incompetent.