notes / comments

[arabaliozian]

to virgin & armenoid:

two shining examples of armenianism.
may they live long enough
to serve as a warning
to all future generations
of fascist hoodlums!

[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

what is armenianism? Armenian Nationalism?

You have a point about how labels aren't very good for the masses who can't read or think beyond grade 8 level.

Yet you use them yourself. If you write, it is very hard to escape the use of labels unless you start writing very abstractly and without addessing anyone or anything beyond its bare, raw, individual form. That means, you have to stop calling us Armenians, or human beings. You have to stop branding people as fascists, hoodlums, charlatans, dupes, etc... You'd have to speak your message without labels. In my opinion, it can be a very effective tactic, both for a reader's benefit and for the author's introspection. If you want to know what you are, don't compare yourself to others, look at yourself, and don't use a mirror or photograph.

[Virgil]

Re: to virgin & armenoid:

two shining examples of armenianism.
may they live long enough
to serve as a warning
to all future generations
of fascist hoodlums!

This coming from a man that makes lude generalizations, lacks any level of commonsense, and claims to be "educated", but can not grasp and apply basic economic and political theory, can be taken with a grain of salt. The reality is that you ignore how your opinions hurt others, but get offended when others step on your feelings, maybe it is time you start taking your own advice and realize that your statements insult some members on the message board. You can post opinions in a more schalorly and educated manner versus "all Armenians are this and all Armenians are that", chow.

[zourna]

Re: notes / comments

The man had his verbal abuses toned down, yet you want him to reinstate resentment, Armenian?!

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
**********************************************
DUPES
****************************
Pro-establishment arguments travel with the speed of light, become common currency, and are repeated ad nauseam. By contrast, anti-establishment arguments are immediately buried, ignored, and forgotten. An example of pro-establishment argument: It may take two or three generations before our brothers in the Homeland are de-Sovietized. Examples of anti-establishment arguments: Avedik Issahakian’s reference to our leaders as “brainless” and Zarian’s as “useless” -- and more precisely: “Our political parties have been of no political use to us. Their greatest enemy is free speech.”
The absence of free speech may explain why our pro-establishment bias has become a permanent condition. When the establishment controls the press, the podium, and the altar, the result will be a brainwashed community that will behave like sheep even when the sheepdogs behave like ravenous wolves.
Where everyone thinks alike, no one thinks. And when our panchoonies say “mi kich pogh oughargetsek,” they will never add, “to support the status quo, that is to say, number one,” but “to help the needy.”
As for those who ascribe our present condition to factors beyond our control, I ask: Why should war, earthquake, and the collapse of a morally and politically bankrupt regime promote profiteering, corruption, incompetence, lies, and cannibalism? When Zarian said, “Armenians survive by cannibalizing one another,” he did not have in mind hard-working stiffs who survive by cheating and exploiting no one, but our sermonizers, speechifiers, and holier-than-thou parasites, charlatans, and bloodsuckers.
A final note on free speech: If Armenianism (whatever the hell that means, because as far as I know, so far no one has bothered to define it)…if, I say, Armenianism cannot be reconciled with human rights, then it is time that we consign it to the dustbin of history.
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[arabaliozian]

to virgin & armenoid:

you can behind behind your cowardly anonymity from me and the readers on this forum, but you cannot hide from yourselves. and if you don't know who and what you are: that indeed is your worst punishment. you may now wallow in your ottomanized ignorance.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
************************************************
AN ARMENIAN PROPHET
*************************************
The only way to survive during the Soviet era was to be critical of the world but not the commissars and everyone connected with them. We don’t have commissars in the Diaspora. What we have instead are bosses, bishops, and benefactors – a holy trinity as untouchable as Marx, Engels, and Lenin. Hence our academics and dime-a-dozen Turcocentric ghazetajis whose number two concern is Turks -- number one being number one. As for the welfare of the nation: Nothing could be further from their thoughts. That’s as good a definition of Armenianism as any. And if you think what I am saying is new or unpatriotic, listen to Raffi: “Every man for himself: that’s the prevalent mentality among us. As long as I can take care of myself, why should I give a damn about anyone else?”(English translation: “I’m all right, Jack!”)
Here is Raffi again, in a prophetic message to our academics and ghazetajis: “What’s done is done. What we must do now is assess the damage and figure out how to avoid the next catastrophe.”
And here is Raffi again on our leadership: “We are like sheep without a shepherd…We have no leaders. What we have are merchants and clergymen. Merchants are trash. As for the clergy: they have always been against individual freedom.”
*
Shaw once said that he had solved all of mankind’s problems but people went on speaking about their impenetrable complexities. To those who speak about the complexities of our problems, I say, “Read Raffi!”
*
What to do about our problems? You have a number of options: (one) Shut up about them; (two) pretend they don’t exist; (three) blame them on everyone else but our leadership; and (four) speak of massacres.
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[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

which option is most constructive to you?

[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

I thought of this phrase today...

Don't we use labels to have human perception? To have human emotion?

Essentially, a label is a symbol that we attach a biased or conveniently limited perception to. I'm looking at a lock right now on my desk and when I look at it, I think of it's function, how it works. I don't think of what kinds of plastic and metal are in there, I don't count the number of lines drawn on it's dial, although those are all parts of the whole picture, at least of the picture I can investigate on this lock. The only reason I just thought of them was because it was in my interest to search for alternative observations of this object, so as to include them in my paragraph.

Extrapolate this to human organisms and you will see how hard it is to consider their blood type for example when you are labeling them "dupe, or commissar". You aren't seeing the whole picture, you just see what is emotionally relevant, what may bring about a degree of fulfillment, to your state of mind at that moment.

This issue disturbs me greatly at times and makes me wonder... "If I am to take sides on any issue, let me first acknowledge my own biases, my own ignorance of the whole picture. Let me acknowledge that I am joining a frenzy of people trying to construct meaning out of their convictions, and trying to draw from this a reward of feeling useful, accomplished, of finding fulfillment."

How do you respond to this? Where does the pain from your memory of your past blunders as you call them really come from? From objective reasoning? Or is it from something else?

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, February 28, 2008
*********************************************
AGHBER
***********************
There are Armenians who think they are better Armenians because they speak, read, and write in Armenian. They may speak nonsense, read only ghazetajis, and write b.s., but they feel fully qualified and authorized to rate themselves as superior types. Others rate their patriotism by the number of times they have visited the Homeland or the amount of money they have invested there (not always for altruistic reasons); still others because they are members of this or that political party, congregation, or club.
One of the most repellent aspects of Armenianism is the very ease with which some Armenians rate themselves as better. Ours is an environment in which even garbage-mouth skinheads assert superiority.
Only arrogant fools assess themselves as better and expect to be believed.
I have never visited Armenia. I am told if I ever do, the natives will call me “aghber,” meaning brother. The fact that aghber also means trash in Armenian may well be a pure coincidence, of course, but being a skeptic, I am not always disposed to believe everything I am told. Speaking of patriotism: Charents is one of our greatest patriotic poets, and his “Yes im anoush Hayastani” (To my sweet Armenia) is one of his most beloved poems. Even children of five are taught to learn and recite it by heart. All this is well known. What is less well known is that Charents was driven to commit suicide in a Yerevan jail by banging his head against the wall. In addition to being a great poet, Charents may also have been an alcoholic, a drug addict, a womanizer, and an attempted murderer. Socrates and Christ were none of these things. But in the eyes of their morally superior fellow countrymen they were judged to be criminals guilty of capital offenses. I mention this to point out the fact that some of the worst crimes in the history of mankind were committed by self-righteous, holier-than-thou superior scum.
What about me? Am I a good Armenian? Am I even an Armenian? I don’t know and I no longer care to know. Trying to be an honest man among crooks and charlatans keeps me so busy and requires so much effort that I have no other ambition in life.
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