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  • notes / comments

    Thursday, May 13, 2004
    ******************************
    Three of our eminent academics cannot decide whether Zarian's TRAVELLER AND HIS ROAD is a diary, a work of fiction or a memoir. I read a detailed and carefully annotated essay on this controversy in a recent issue of HARATCH (Paris). A controversy? Make it, a tempest in a tea cup. Instead of discussing the meaning of the work (and there is so much to discuss there!) these gentlemen argue about its classification, which amounts to discussing the size and color of the envelope and completely ignoring the contents of the letter within. And to think that these are the very same people who complain that the new generation has no interest in Armenian studies. There is an American expression that sums up this type of exercise in futility: "Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." Or, as the Russians would put it: "Bald men fighting over a comb." This type of academic gives literature a bad name by glorifying irrelevance and reducing thinking to the level of mental masturbation. One of the most dangerous aspect of some forms of perversity is its total absence of awareness. Some perverts assume their perversity to be the norm and they go about their business on the assumption that if the whole world doesn't share it, it should. And when someone comes along and identifies it as a perversity they are outraged and dismiss him as a pervert. I am reminded of a friend of mine, a diplomat, who once observed that even our academics have mafias, and the aim of mafias, as everyone knows, is to legitimize criminal conduct - it is worth remembering that the original meaning of the word mafioso is "man of honor."
    #
    Friday, May 14, 2004
    *********************************
    World War II was the best thing that happened to me. I was four years old when a German bomb reduced to rubble everything we owned. From that day on, my parents became so involved in the harsh business of survival in an alien environment that they had neither time nor inclination to teach me the rules of the game and the important role double-talk plays in human affairs, perhaps because the rules they themselves had been taught were no longer valid and they, as adults, were as confused as I was. This may explain why, when at the beginning of my career as a writer I tried to recycle chauvinist propaganda and engage in double-talk I was so dissatisfied with the results that, had I kept it up, I would have died of cancer within two or at most three years. Which is why I maintain a touch of honesty may be as important to your health as all the vitamins put together - from ABC to XYZ.
    *
    Saturday, May 15, 2004
    ***************************
    There are those who study the past like lawyers in order to defend their side of the story. They forget that sooner or later a lawyer must confront not only the prosecution and its witnesses but also a judge and a jury, and the verdict may not always be in their favor.
    *
    When it comes to our political partisans and their fellow travelers, my motto is similar to that of the American pundit who said: "I never vote: it only encourages them."
    *
    Our genocide is a fact that no one can dispute.
    Here is another fact: it has been disputed not only by Turkish and Turcophile historians but also by such progressive and enlightened democracies as Israel and the United States.
    That's easy to explain, of course: both Israeli and American politicians are cynical opportunists whose number one concern is number one.
    The two questions we should ask at this point are: is there a single state in the world today whose leaders are motivated by altruism? And, will mankind ever experience a golden age in which international diplomacy will be guided by principles of justice and fair play?
    Even more to the point:
    What about our own political leaders and historians: in what way are they different from their odar counterparts? If, for every historian who documents the genocide, we had another who took it upon himself to document our own blunders, perhaps we would have a better chance to abandon our tribal ways and become a nation.
    I say to my fellow Armenians: If you want to change the world, begin with yourself; and if you want to teach ethics to odar political leaders, start with your own and don't be surprised if your efforts are not crowned with instant success.
    #

  • #2
    Very well said, on all accounts.

    Originally posted by arabaliozian
    Even more to the point:
    What about our own political leaders and historians: in what way are they different from their odar counterparts? If, for every historian who documents the genocide, we had another who took it upon himself to document our own blunders, perhaps we would have a better chance to abandon our tribal ways and become a nation.
    #
    As for Armenians documenting our own blunders, I consider that to be highly unlikely. Documenting, or even speaking of the blunders we have committed is considered to be "amot", and most will refrain from it because they wouldn't want to hurt their "reputation" in the ranks of whatever organization or goosagtsootyoon they're working for. Criticizing an action that the tashnagtsootyoon or the ramgavars (for example) have committed is almost equivalent to "srpabghdzoom" in some people's eyes, and even some topics that I've opened on this forum have angered some people.
    The fact is that most people who hold a function in our schools, agoomps, churches are not always there because of their abilities, but because they are blind followers and doers, who will not do much against the status quo that we are now almost accustomed to. As for the free-thinkers who recognize the problems, they are either of the "complain and do nothing type", or more usually, they try to get involved but can either not stand working with an "anham" group, or are rejected by it, because they are judged to be "eccentric". "Eccentric", by the way, is the term used among the community to describe anybody intellectual, who will freely talk about the flaws we have. Luckily , "eccentrics" will not get any of their remarks published in newspapers, because no newspaper will risk publishing anything against the organization/goosagtsootyoon it is affiliated to.

    Comment


    • #3
      notes / comments

      Sunday, May 16, 2004
      ******************************
      We should remind ourselves once in a while, and the more frequently the better, that we are imperfect beings living in an imperfect world and anyone who asserts or suggests or implies that he may well be an exception to this rule is one who cannot bear the weight of his imperfections and the dishonor of his blunders.
      *
      One mark of civilization is the ability to disagree without resorting to verbal abuse. In that sense, we have among us, perhaps even we are at the mercy, of barbarians who try to cover their barbarism with the flag by projecting the image of superpatriots. They operate on the false assumption that their chauvinism justified their conduct and they completely ignore the fact that the means they employ to express themselves belong to the jungle.
      In other words, they are no better than Turkish gypsies who identify themselves as Armenians, and since their awareness is that of barbarians, this contradiction escapes their consciousness. Their aim is to prove they are better Armenians but they succeed only in proving they are both wicked and stupid.
      *
      To those who are eager to point out that I too on occasion engage in verbal abuse, I say: by proving that I too am a Turkish gypsy you reinforce my argument, which is, we all harbor a Turk within us, and the first step in rediscovering our true identity is to be born again as human beings.
      #
      Monday, May 17, 2004
      ****************************
      You can recognize an Armenian by his inability to handle disagreement, and Armenian disagreements come in a large variety of shapes, shades and sizes.
      There are academic disagreements over irrelevant, petty abstractions completely divorced from reality.
      There are disagreements in defense of an ideology or orthodoxy whose sole aim is to prove that one side is always right and the other wrong.
      There are disagreements which are extensions of egos rather than brains ("I known better because I am smarter," - or rather, louder, and when that fails, more abusive).
      And then there are fascist disagreements that are motivated by lust for power and in defense of a propaganda line.
      How to reconcile these disagreements?
      The Armenian who discovers a fail-safe method to do that deserves to be called the greatest leader in our millennial history, perhaps even a miracle worker of messianic dimensions.
      #
      Tuesday, May 18, 2004
      *******************************
      An often asked question: Should we forgive the Turks?
      A seldom asked question: Have they ever asked for our forgiveness?
      *
      An environment that values patriotism will breed phony chauvinists; and a culture that values wealth will beget wheeler-dealers and bloodsuckers some of whom will surround themselves with brown-nosers and will parade as national benefactors.
      #
      Wednesday, May 19, 2004
      ******************************
      There can be dialogue only between two honest men with two different sets of experiences or perspectives. Two propaganda lines cannot engage in dialogue because propaganda and honesty are mutually exclusive. Propaganda cannot be honest even when honestly believed in. Faith may move mountains but it cannot change a lie to truth.
      #
      Thursday, May 20, 2004
      ****************************
      He who says my God is the only true God and my faith the only true faith, carries within him the seeds of countless wars and massacres even when his God is one of peace and even when his religion is based on mercy, compassion and love.
      *
      We have become so obsessed with the issue of genocide recognition that we completely ignore the fact that once more we have placed ourselves at the mercy of the Turks and we continue to be dependent on their sense of justice and fair play.
      #
      Friday, May 21, 2004
      *****************************
      You want to make an Armenian friend? Recycle his favorite propaganda line. You want to make him an enemy or expose the Turk in him? Speak your mind.
      *
      If an odar criticizes us, we dismiss him as pro-Turkish. If an Armenian criticizes us, we call him an enemy of the people. We have no use for critics because we assume to be beyond criticism, and nothing makes us more vulnerable to criticism than this false assumption.
      *
      Mikael Nalbandian: "It is high time that Armenians learn the manly art of telling black from white."
      *
      Leo Alishan: "To be aware of our failings is smart; to ignore them is the height of stupidity."
      #
      Saturday, May 22, 2004
      ****************************
      Once upon a time but not so long ago I used to be younger than anyone else. Now I am almost always the oldest. Today, a conversation with a much older man who turns out to be five years younger than I. Either I am well preserved, I think, or he has made a mess of his life; and sure enough, he mentions three catastrophic illnesses and a nasty divorce that almost reduced his status to that of a homeless panhandler. But then, who is to say if writing for Armenians is not as painful an experience as terminal cancer combined with a nightmare divorce from a gold-digging shrew from hell?
      *
      People hate lies, but they hate the truth even more . I can't say I speak the truth because I don't know the truth; but I plead guilty to the charge that I speak honestly about what I think and feel.
      *
      Conducting a civilized discussion is not exactly an Armenian art form. Here is a practical suggestion: state the facts as objectively as you can and let them speak for themselves. No need to engage in verbal abuse because insults cannot strengthen a weak case. On the contrary, they may expose it as untenable.

      Comment


      • #4
        observations

        Sunday, May 23, 2004
        *****************************
        Capital dehumanizes not only the worker, said Marx, but also the capitalist and society as a whole. The same could be said of nationalism - that it dehumanizes not only the enemy but also the nationalist himself, also nations and the world as a whole.
        *
        "I think therefore I am," said Descartes, but he couldn't explain why people think differently about the very same subject even when they claim to use their common sense.
        *
        The world is not an extension of our ego but the other way around. At every moment of our lives we are dependent on countless invisible forces beyond our control. We don't choose our parents, religion, nation or tribe. A Turk thinks and feels as he does because he was born a Turk, he had a Turkish education, he reads Turkish newspapers and books.
        *
        To what extent what a man feels and thinks depends on where he was born? What if geography rather than common sense shapes our perception of reality.
        *
        For every Armenian pundit who says his version of the past is the only true one there is a Turkish pundit who says the opposite. Do these pundits believe in what they say? And if they do, does it ever occur to them that it is where they were born and raised that shapes their thinking more than the rules of logic and common sense?
        #
        Monday, May 24, 2004
        ****************************
        Is freedom of thought possible in a world where at a very early age and at a time when we can neither think nor judge for ourselves we are exposed to ideas that are not our own?
        *
        A Turk is brought up to believe Armenians are infidels, therefore less human than they and less deserving of fundamental human rights. Whose fault is that? Their God and their religion? Or rather, their interpretation or understanding of their God and religion? If a guilty man can plead not guilty by reason of insanity, can he also feel justified in pleading innocent by reason of his belief
        #
        Tuesday, May 25, 2004
        ***************************
        If religion legitimizes murder in the name of God, in what way is it different from insanity? - at least, as far as the victims go.
        To those who say, "My religion does not legitimize murder," may I quote Voltaire's unforgettable dictum: "Since it was a religious war, there were no survivors."
        And if you say: "You are talking about the past and I am talking about the present," I will say: A man of faith is a man of faith regardless of national origin or orthodoxy.
        *
        Religions are closed systems of thought and they all begin by legitimizing intolerance and dehumanizing heretics and infidels.
        "This may apply to Islam today but not to Christianity." That's because Christians are top dogs. If some day their status is reduced to that of underdogs, who is to say we will not behave like jihadists?
        *
        Let us not confuse technological progress with moral progress. If anything, the 20th Century has been bloodier and more barbaric than the Middle Ages. Machines may change but man stays the same.
        God may have created man but it is man who keeps recreating God in his own image and adapting Him to his own needs.
        Islam has its fundamentalists and fanatics as surely as Christianity and in troubled waters scum invariably rises to the top.
        #
        Wednesday, May 26, 2004
        *****************************
        It may be morally superior to be a victim than a victimizer but how many wolves would prefer to be sheep?
        *
        There is nothing wrong in being a pessimist if you work like an optimist.
        *
        It is not easy reasoning with a moron who calls you a moron.
        *
        The only thing that I have learned from my Armenian critics is the law of the jungle.
        *
        Life has a way of searching out and locating your weaknesses in order to cause maximum damage.
        *
        Writing is a pleasure with only one drawback:
        you cannot choose your readers.
        *
        The human condition: We are all uninvited guests in search of an invisible host who may or may not exist.
        *
        Fascists silence writers because they know in the realm of ideas they are destined to lose. Censorship is an admission of defeat.
        *
        History is not a succession of inevitable occurrences or
        the will of God unfolding. If it were, we would have to agree that the Armenian Genocide was the Will of God.
        #
        Thursday, May 27, 2004
        ******************************************
        Whenever I use my common sense and objectivity I am accused of being pro-Turkish. I suppose the same thing happens to an honest Turkish writer. Perhaps because all honest men swim in a sea of humbug.
        *
        Propaganda works only when the leaders say what the people want to hear. It is a conspiracy between cunning operators and dupes who are too lazy to think for themselves.
        *
        On the day mankind discovers a way to detect and eliminate all propaganda, all politicians will be exposed as compulsive liars.
        *
        If you expose lies, all liars will conspire against you.
        *
        In America, the rich think God is on their side; in our own circles, they are treated as if they were Gods by their circles of brown-nosers.
        *
        Jules Renard: "The saddest moments: those in which we realize wisdom is also a fraud."
        *
        I understand so well those who hold views that I held thirty years ago and their anger when their infallibility is questioned.
        #
        Friday, May 28, 2004
        ******************************
        If you want to project the image of a good Christian, do not speak like a bloodthirsty infidel.
        If you want to be thought of as a patriotic Armenian, do not speak like a Turk on the warpath.
        If you want to misrepresent yourself as a tolerant and civilized man, the very least you can do is not to curse like a rude and uncouth barbarian.
        Remember, unawareness of contradictions is the surest symptom of instinctive or animal behavior, that is to say, beastly conduct.
        A typical example: "No four-letter words here, please! We don't go for that xxxx!"
        And finally, to our Muslim brothers and sisters, I say: If you speak in the name of a "merciful and compassionate Allah," do not murder innocent women and children. For actions speak louder than words, and the wages of sin is death.
        #
        Saturday, May 29, 2004
        *****************************
        Trying to understand reality and promoting hatred (or war propaganda) are mutually exclusive enterprises.
        *
        I can think of nothing more despicable than the war propaganda of old men, civilians, and faceless and nameless bureaucrats who operate on the assumption that they will never come face to face with the enemy and someone else will do the fighting and dying for them. I would trust the judgment of these individuals as much as the patriotism of someone high on drugs. But perhaps to some people patriotism and hatred of the enemy provide a kind of high which they need as much as an alcoholic needs his bottle of booze.
        *
        All cowards are brave when they know their cowardice will not be exposed on the battlefield.
        #

        Comment


        • #5
          Sunday, May 23, 2004
          *****************************
          Capital dehumanizes not only the worker, said Marx, but also the capitalist and society as a whole. The same could be said of nationalism - that it dehumanizes not only the enemy but also the nationalist himself, also nations and the world as a whole.
          *
          "I think therefore I am," said Descartes, but he couldn't explain why people think differently about the very same subject even when they claim to use their common sense.
          *
          The world is not an extension of our ego but the other way around. At every moment of our lives we are dependent on countless invisible forces beyond our control. We don't choose our parents, religion, nation or tribe. A Turk thinks and feels as he does because he was born a Turk, he had a Turkish education, he reads Turkish newspapers and books.
          *
          To what extent what a man feels and thinks depends on where he was born? What if geography rather than common sense shapes our perception of reality.
          *
          For every Armenian pundit who says his version of the past is the only true one there is a Turkish pundit who says the opposite. Do these pundits believe in what they say? And if they do, does it ever occur to them that it is where they were born and raised that shapes their thinking more than the rules of logic and common sense?
          #
          Monday, May 24, 2004
          ****************************
          Is freedom of thought possible in a world where at a very early age and at a time when we can neither think nor judge for ourselves we are exposed to ideas that are not our own?
          *
          A Turk is brought up to believe Armenians are infidels, therefore less human than they and less deserving of fundamental human rights. Whose fault is that? Their God and their religion? Or rather, their interpretation or understanding of their God and religion? If a guilty man can plead not guilty by reason of insanity, can he also feel justified in pleading innocent by reason of his belief
          #
          Tuesday, May 25, 2004
          ***************************
          If religion legitimizes murder in the name of God, in what way is it different from insanity? - at least, as far as the victims go.
          To those who say, "My religion does not legitimize murder," may I quote Voltaire's unforgettable dictum: "Since it was a religious war, there were no survivors."
          And if you say: "You are talking about the past and I am talking about the present," I will say: A man of faith is a man of faith regardless of national origin or orthodoxy.
          *
          Religions are closed systems of thought and they all begin by legitimizing intolerance and dehumanizing heretics and infidels.
          "This may apply to Islam today but not to Christianity." That's because Christians are top dogs. If some day their status is reduced to that of underdogs, who is to say we will not behave like jihadists?
          *
          Let us not confuse technological progress with moral progress. If anything, the 20th Century has been bloodier and more barbaric than the Middle Ages. Machines may change but man stays the same.
          God may have created man but it is man who keeps recreating God in his own image and adapting Him to his own needs.
          Islam has its fundamentalists and fanatics as surely as Christianity and in troubled waters scum invariably rises to the top.
          #
          Wednesday, May 26, 2004
          *****************************
          It may be morally superior to be a victim than a victimizer but how many wolves would prefer to be sheep?
          *
          There is nothing wrong in being a pessimist if you work like an optimist.
          *
          It is not easy reasoning with a moron who calls you a moron.
          *
          The only thing that I have learned from my Armenian critics is the law of the jungle.
          *
          Life has a way of searching out and locating your weaknesses in order to cause maximum damage.
          *
          Writing is a pleasure with only one drawback:
          you cannot choose your readers.
          *
          The human condition: We are all uninvited guests in search of an invisible host who may or may not exist.
          *
          Fascists silence writers because they know in the realm of ideas they are destined to lose. Censorship is an admission of defeat.
          *
          History is not a succession of inevitable occurrences or
          the will of God unfolding. If it were, we would have to agree that the Armenian Genocide was the Will of God.
          #
          Thursday, May 27, 2004
          ******************************************
          Whenever I use my common sense and objectivity I am accused of being pro-Turkish. I suppose the same thing happens to an honest Turkish writer. Perhaps because all honest men swim in a sea of humbug.
          *
          Propaganda works only when the leaders say what the people want to hear. It is a conspiracy between cunning operators and dupes who are too lazy to think for themselves.
          *
          On the day mankind discovers a way to detect and eliminate all propaganda, all politicians will be exposed as compulsive liars.
          *
          If you expose lies, all liars will conspire against you.
          *
          In America, the rich think God is on their side; in our own circles, they are treated as if they were Gods by their circles of brown-nosers.
          *
          Jules Renard: "The saddest moments: those in which we realize wisdom is also a fraud."
          *
          I understand so well those who hold views that I held thirty years ago and their anger when their infallibility is questioned.
          #
          Friday, May 28, 2004
          ******************************
          If you want to project the image of a good Christian, do not speak like a bloodthirsty infidel.
          If you want to be thought of as a patriotic Armenian, do not speak like a Turk on the warpath.
          If you want to misrepresent yourself as a tolerant and civilized man, the very least you can do is not to curse like a rude and uncouth barbarian.
          Remember, unawareness of contradictions is the surest symptom of instinctive or animal behavior, that is to say, beastly conduct.
          A typical example: "No four-letter words here, please! We don't go for that xxxx!"
          And finally, to our Muslim brothers and sisters, I say: If you speak in the name of a "merciful and compassionate Allah," do not murder innocent women and children. For actions speak louder than words, and the wages of sin is death.
          #
          Saturday, May 29, 2004
          *****************************
          Trying to understand reality and promoting hatred (or war propaganda) are mutually exclusive enterprises.
          *
          I can think of nothing more despicable than the war propaganda of old men, civilians, and faceless and nameless bureaucrats who operate on the assumption that they will never come face to face with the enemy and someone else will do the fighting and dying for them. I would trust the judgment of these individuals as much as the patriotism of someone high on drugs. But perhaps to some people patriotism and hatred of the enemy provide a kind of high which they need as much as an alcoholic needs his bottle of booze.
          *
          All cowards are brave when they know their cowardice will not be exposed on the battlefield.
          #

          Comment


          • #6
            Nice stuff.

            To the moderators. Can you live this stuff here and not move it to the Daily Journal? Thank you.
            Achkerov kute.

            Comment


            • #7
              It was. Anon thanks for a valuable tip.

              Ara, this thread can be dedicated to your random thoughts and daily impressions, or you can post them in the Journal thread. Take your pick, but please try not to create identical posts in various sections of the forum. Thank you.

              Comment


              • #8
                notes / comments

                Sunday, May 30, 2004
                *************************
                Whenever I raise the subject of Armenians and racism I am invariably attacked by our racists as anti-Armenian and even pro-Turkish - because anything remotely critical of Armenians is thought of as pro-Turkish in our environment.
                Are Armenians racists?
                Let me begin by asking: Am I a racist?
                I was brought up as a racist.
                I hated all Turks.
                I hated Greeks too (because they called us "Turkish gypsies").
                I thought of the offspring of mixed marriages as bastards.
                I thought of the West as morally inferior and of Americans as a bastardized nation.
                Because Shahan Shahnour's grandfather was Greek, his patriotism and Armenianism were questioned again and again by our pure-blooded partisans, he was even physically assaulted, and his character vilified with such intensity in our press that he eventually assumed a new name (Armen Lubin) and gave up writing in Armenian.
                I have relatives in the U.S. (and I don't mean Alabama or Mississipi) who believe Blacks are inferior and all interracial couples degenerates.
                Once a good friend of mine, whose mother is an Azeri, was called a "Turkish xxxxx" by one of our dedicated partisans.
                Are we racists?
                Let the evidence speak for itself.
                Are we justified in being racists? No, because our racism alienates friends, and we have friends everywhere - among Americans, Greeks, Kurds, Jews, and even Turks (half of whom may well be half-Armenian).
                #
                Monday, May 31, 2004
                ******************************
                In a world where "it takes all kinds," it is impossible to be "all things to all men." No matter how selfless and noble your belief system, there will be those who will label you as an infidel, a heretic, a fool, or an enemy. That's because instinct (our animal side) speaks louder than reason (an extremely recent evolutionary development). To hope that things will change in our lifetime or even a thousand years hence might as well be an empty illusion. Consider the number of statesmen of vision, philosophers, prophets and messianic figures who have dedicated their lives to the service of their fellow men and were poisoned, crucified, assassinated, and exiled into the desert. Failure has been and continues to be the destiny of all men of goodwill whose sole aim in life is to promote universal peace and brotherhood. I am fully aware of this but I go on because the only way to justify pessimism is to work like an optimist; and defeatism makes sense only if you soldier on as if victory were inevitable. Don't ask me to explain this because I don't understand it myself.
                #
                Tuesday, June 01, 2004
                *****************************
                If, instead of simply stating "I disagree with you," you let loose a barrage of personal insults or profanities, you can be sure of one thing: you are an oreo Armenian = Armenian on the outside, Ottoman on the inside. So that, in your case, hating Turks might as well be synonymous with hating yourself.
                Since I am myself sometimes tempted to use profanities (as opposed to turning the other cheek) I am more than willing to concede that I too harbor a Turk within. But this phenomenon of two contradictory or Jekyll/Hyde beings coexisting within the same body is not a specifically Armenian aberration but a universal condition. Even Americans use the expression "Young Turks" in reference to ambitious politicians (Gingrich being a recent example) who are eager to introduce radical reforms in order to change the balance of power.
                According to C.G. Jung "the relation between conscious and unconscious is compensatory." Translated into everyday parlance this means that man is constantly torn between two opposite tendencies one of which remains hidden from his own awareness. So that, the more an Armenian tries to project a patriotic image, the stronger the Turk within. Or, the more he protests or defends his Armenianism, the harder he tries to cover up his Ottomanism.
                To those who say "I can't harbor a Turk because I have harmed no one," I say: if "at the beginning was the word," all bloody massacres begin with verbal massacres. One reason you have harmed no one is that you live in an environment in which killing or harming fellow human beings is against the law.
                #
                Wednesday, June 02, 2004
                ********************************
                Shahan Shahnour: "To have intellectual humility and to express with some degree of candor what one really thinks: these are two features that have been tragically absent in some of our partisan writers."
                *
                All understanding proceeds from self-awareness. I have at no time criticized an Armenian aberration or failing that I have not detected in myself. Once upon a time I too was a holier-than-thou charlatan whose central concern was engaging in one-upmanship and I resented anyone who dared to express an opinion that differed from mine without first obtaining my seal of approval.
                *
                An Armenian critic has no future and an Armenian brown-noser has no self-respect.
                *
                I don't make an effort to be a good Armenian. I don't even know what that means; and I doubt if there are two Armenians who agree on what constitutes Armenianism. Trying to be an honest human being keeps me so busy that I have no time for any other enterprise.
                #

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                • #9
                  Trying to be an honest human being keeps me so busy that I have no time for any other enterprise.
                  #
                  Well i think this is eventually the only goal that should preceed any other.. as human beings.. im afraid though fro some its even too late for that.. lol
                  How do you hurt a masochist?
                  -By leaving him alone.Forever.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    notes / comments

                    Thursday, June 03, 2004
                    *********************************
                    "Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are." Not quite. Even Jesus was taken in by Judas.
                    "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are." This saying is contradicted by another: "There is no accounting for tastes."
                    "Tell me the words you use more frequently and I will tell you who you are." That's much better.
                    My most frequently used (or rather thought) words are: "This is not what I had in mind."
                    *
                    Our intolerance is such that we even refuse to tolerate any mention of it.
                    *
                    In an intolerant society, writes Melvin J. Lasky, the late editor of ENCOUNTER, "manuscripts will be banned, and writers and readers will once again be sitting in concentration camps for having thought dangerous ideas or uttered forbidden words."
                    We don't yet have concentration camps for people, but we do have them for ideas; and where books remain unpublished and unread, burning them becomes redundant.
                    *
                    I remember to have read somewhere in Shahnour (I am now quoting from memory): "The best way for a writer to serve his nation is by producing works that live. Whether these works are positive or negative should be of no concern to anyone."
                    #
                    Friday, June 04, 2004
                    ******************************
                    The problem with overestimating yourself is that forever after you are condemned to live up to your image; and that's a race you are destined to lose.
                    *
                    If whiskey tasted as sweet as a cola it would be popular with children too -- with predictable results. I write for adults, not children or retards who are taken in by propaganda.
                    *
                    It is extremely difficult to convince intolerant people that they are intolerant. That's because they speak in the name of God or Truth - the implication being that anyone who disagrees with them speaks in the name of lies and the devil.
                    *
                    On an atomic level we existed since the beginning of time and we shall continue to exist until the end. The immortality of the atom is a fact; it's the immortality of the soul that is speculation.
                    *
                    You may have noticed that Charents's best known poem is titled "To my sweet Armenia," and that as far as I know he never wrote a poem titled "To my sweet fellow Armenians." That's because mountains and valleys are easier to love than Armenians.
                    #
                    Saturday, June 05, 2004
                    *******************************
                    To assert your Armenianism it is not necessary to adopt Ottoman means. When Zarian said, "An Armenian's tongue can be sharper than a Turk's yataghan," he was referring to this aberration.
                    *
                    To assert their respect for democratic principles, our partisans and ideologues think nothing of violating such fundamental human rights as free speech - which amounts to saying, "I believe in free speech but only in my own, not yours, especially if yours contradict mine."
                    *
                    What is the value of a view if it only parrots someone else's? Is dialogue possible between two robots who are in complete agreement with each other because that's how they have been programmed?
                    *
                    Contradicting yourself and insisting that you are right amounts to adding arrogance to stupidity.
                    *
                    Arrogance combined with stupidity: there you have it, the source of all our defeats, tragedies, and catastrophes.

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