notes / comments

[crusader1492]

Re: notes / comments

...instead, muster some courage and go claim your right as a Armenian to your land, history, and culture, whatever that remains of it, as you cleaverly "point out".

I think effendi Ara lost the privilege to do that long ago.

[Virgil]

Re: notes / comments

Hitler had no use for xxxish scientists. As a result, he lost to America some of Germany’s ablest minds, including Einstein. Had he been less of a racists, he would have won World War II and I would now be writing this in German. Toynbee is right: civilizations and empires are not killed, they commit suicide.

Stop talking out of your ass, it took a allied power, comprised of three of greatest superpowers, to subdue the Third Reich. No nation in the history of "mankind" has as effectivly fought a 2 front war as well as the Third Reich. And once it was "subdued", it was robbed of its intellectual capital (Not the other way around!). They pardoned most of the German and Japanese scientist in order to steal their war time research. The 21st century hegemony of the United States has its roots in German science. You are grossly dillusional in thinking that it was few "xxxish scientist" that won the war, the atomic bomb came into existence after Berlin fell. What truly won the war and many Americans will disagree because it does not bolster the point of view of the American state, what won the war was the Russian ground forces that penetrated Berlin and pushed the German front back.

Yes, I agree, the atomic bomb was largly instramental in forcing the Japanese to surrendor and it did save countless of lives. However, was the actually using of the bomb really necessary, meaning, wouldn't the threat of the bomb have been more useful then relying on the bomb? Yes, the threat of the "bomb" would have forced the Japanese to surrender, they only dropped the bomb to declare that the United States has come out of the war as the "supreme" super power.

I would like to point out a few things with your "analysis" (A mule paints a more accurate picture), you are quoting Toynbee, but yet, you refuse to adhere to his principle view that if civlizations fail to strenghten and secure their military and economic development, respectivally, they will go into decline. As Toybee points out, a state that refuses to "accept" and "confront" these "challenges" will go into decline, this is what he means when he refers to commiting suicide. Incidently, this is exactly what I have championed on these boards, but yet at every corner, I am confronted with ridiculous "pseudo intellectuals" trying to derail me and my comrades.

And how might a state procure the assets to secure these investments for the glory of the state? They would have to convince each and every citizen on the micro level that there does exist a need for them to spend their lifetime fighting for the needs of a state (i.e. fundimental idea of "nationalism"), the idea that a nation groups together a people under one banner and under this banner every individual in the state strives to push forward the needs of the newly formed state. What you do when attacking nationalist feelings in Armenians is essentially, stripping them of their political handgun, their intrinsic need to champion their values.

When the Greeks executed Socrates, they did not just kill a man but someone who represented the very best of Greek wisdom. To silence a thinker is like burning down a library.

Socrates was not a "sophist", I agree, he was truly gifted, but Sophist (i.e. Greek intellectuals) did deserve what was coming to them because they were trying to sell the idea that their exist no "right" and no "wrong". They were motivated by wealth and did not care about how Greek society was developing, all that mattered to Sophist was to win the debate. Translated, Greek society was economically fragmented, you had the land owners and the people working on the land, this is what essentially lead to them colonizing the then "known world". In this kind of scenario where you have citizens that can offered a education that sophist provided, but a education that has no emphasis on "justice" and "moral values", then eventually, versus citizens that can not offered one, you create a fragmented society in which the rich continually exploit the poor because the poor do not have the means to protect their interests.

If character is destiny, as the ancient Greeks thought, the question we should ask is: To what extent our character as a nation has been shaped by 600 years of Ottoman oppression followed by 60 years of Bolshevik tyranny? If this question has so far gone unanswered it may be because our nationalists and masters of the blame-game have done their utmost to ignore or cover up that aspect of our identity.

Greeks thought many things, but what ever they did "think" and whatever you decide to "quote" from them, understand that the Greek state only existed as long as it did because the various city-states opted to unite and defend their interests and stop foreign invasion (i.e. Persians), unlike, what you preach which essentially amounts to Armenians just laying down and dying a cowards death.

Let me ask you, since you are talking about the "blame game", Ara, did you go the Nagorno-Karabagh? What were you doing in the early 1990's? Writing? "Thinking"? "Arguing"? "Blaming"? Blaming who? The "nationalist", but yet like a coward you opted to sit behind a "intellectual" safe haven and attack the very same "nationalists" that were in the front lines fighting for the Armenian cause of self determination. The door swings both ways, so can you at least have the courage to admit that "nationalist" and "nationalism" is not entirely evil? The picture you paint is a illusional, a world that does not exist. You are derailing our national struggle and motivation with your incoharent writing that contributes to nothing but your inflated ego. You need to take some of your own advice and stop blaming others, instead, muster some courage and go claim your right as a Armenian to your land, history, and culture, whatever that remains of it, as you cleaverly "point out".

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Sunday, December 16, 2007
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THE DEATH OF SOCRATES
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When the Greeks executed Socrates, they did not just kill a man but someone who represented the very best of Greek wisdom. To silence a thinker is like burning down a library.
*
The difference between an editor violating someone’s human right of free speech and a head of state ordering a massacre is one in degree. In both instances power is being abused at its maximum. Promote the editor (or a forum moderator) to head and state, and vice versa, demote a head of state to editor, and they will behave the same way.
*
Stalin or Hitler saying they have no use for intellectuals is the same as an architect saying he has no use for higher mathematics. The result will be buildings that collapse as surely as Stalin’s USSR and Nazi Germany did.
*
Hitler had no use for xxxish scientists. As a result, he lost to America some of Germany’s ablest minds, including Einstein. Had he been less of a racists, he would have won World War II and I would now be writing this in German. Toynbee is right: civilizations and empires are not killed, they commit suicide.
*
What our critics were saying about Levon Der Bedrossian and Robert Kocharian, they are now saying about each other; and if what they say is true, they both deserve the hangman’s noose.
*
Those who declare wars have a better chance to survive them than those who do the actual fighting.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Saturday, December 15, 2007
************ ********* ********* ********* ********
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
************ ********* ********* ********* *
Where charlatans are in charge,
honest men will be silenced.
Where ignoramuses are in charge,
knowledge will be outlawed.
Where the blind are in charge,
the one-eyed will be blinded.
*
I don’t tell you things I already know.
I tell you things that I discover as I write.
*
Why should I trust the judgment of underdogs whose sole ambition in life is to be top dogs so that they will have the pleasure of stepping on underdogs, even when the underdogs happen to be their brothers?
*
The worst mistake we can make is to assume that Comrade Panchoonie is a character in a satirical novel by Yervant Odian written a century ago. Every other day I get a letter from him that ends with the word “mi kich pogh…” something similar could be said of Hagop Baronian’s “honorable beggars.” Characters in great literary works live much longer than their creators. Or rather, great writers achieve immortality through the characters they create.
*
Our standards have fallen so low that every panchoonie, honorable beggar, and ghazetaji parades as a defender of the faith and the savior of the nation.
*
What if I am wrong? There is always that possibility, of course. In my defense I will say that if only the infallible were allowed to speak, the only voice would be that of the Pope of Rome, we would all be Catholics, and Latin would be the most widely spoken language in the world.
*
I.B. Singer: “I am not a vegetarian for the sake of my health, but for the health of the chickens. For animals, every day is Treblinka.”
#




Of all fears, fear of free speech is the most cowardly.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Friday, December 14, 2007
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FRAGMENTS
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When nine out of ten are unanimous in believing one thing, go with the tenth, for believing and thinking are mutually exclusive concepts.
*
I disagree with anyone who holds views that were mine thirty years ago; and if I don’t stand on ceremony with them it may be because I don’t stand on ceremony with myself.
*
The man who views the world and his fellow men in black and white terms, as opposed to shades of gray, will invariably classify himself as all white even when he is pitch black.
*
If character is destiny, as the ancient Greeks thought, the question we should ask is: To what extent our character as a nation has been shaped by 600 years of Ottoman oppression followed by 60 years of Bolshevik tyranny? If this question has so far gone unanswered it may be because our nationalists and masters of the blame-game have done their utmost to ignore or cover up that aspect of our identity.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, December 13, 2007
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CAIN’S ANSWER
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Political lies have been with us for a long time. Even Plato discusses them in his Dialogues, which where written 2500 years ago.
*
No one lies as surely as he who speaks in the name of truth or God. In the Bible we read that God asked Cain where Abel was, the implication being that Cain knew something God did not. And Cain replied: “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9).
*
Speaking of lies, murder, and brotherhood: Our Turcocentric ghazetajis tell us they don’t hate Turks. Their sole aim, they say, is justice. But justice, like truth, is an abstraction. No one has ever laid eyes on it. Instead of abstractions, let’s speak of reality. The truth about reality is that we cannot speak about it, only fractions of it. That’s because we have only a limited number of words and reality has an infinite number of levels and complexities. That’s one reason why when we speak we lie.
*
Does that mean Cain did not kill Abel? No. Of course not! It only means we don’t know why Cain became a murderer. Was it envy? Why should envy lead to murder? What is envy? What has made us capable of envy? Or rather, who has instilled envy in man? For what purpose? The infinite number of complexities generates an equal number of questions until the final one, which is also Cain’s: We don’t know because we are not God’s keeper.
#

[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

looks like I have a lot of learning to do of our language first! But it is a goal of mine to be able to read their works. It's part of the reason why I'd like to learn many languages actually, so that I can read works that are only published in those languages.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

I agree, though I haven't read much about the intellectuals we apparently had at the turn of the last century. Who should I look up as a starter?

Zohrab, Baronian, Odian, Voskanian are only 4 random names. most of their works remain untranslated, alas! / ara

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
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CONFESSIONS OF A LIBERAL
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In one of his books Ben Bagdikian says that conservatives like Murdoch, Conrad Black, and Buckley control most of the media in America, and yet they xxxxx about the liberal media. Something similar could be said about our own pro-establishment right wingers, who control not only our media but also our community centers, schools, university chairs, and institutions. Hence the misconception that we never had it so good because we are in good hands. As for the one or two minor problems, like our mafia democracy in the Homeland: they will fix themselves in twenty or thirty years. What about dissenting voices? What dissenting voices? I don’t hear them. They don’t hear them because they have been ruthlessly and systematically silenced.
*
There is a tendency in America to exaggerate the importance of words spoken in anger – Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic tirade when arrested for drunk driving, for instance. When angry we say things we don’t always mean. I have myself said many harsh things in anger even about my mother whom I love very much. That doesn’t make me anti-motherhood or for that matter, God forbid, anti-apple pie.
*
Speaking of motherhood: some Armenians look down at fellow Armenians who cannot speak their mother tongue. To them I ask: What’s the use of speaking Armenian if the sentiments you express are Ottoman?
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I have been called a variety of names, none of them remotely close to honest. And yet, that has been my sole aim in life: to be an honest witness.
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If you think you are a better Armenian, it is of course your privilege to do so and I will say nothing to disabuse you -- only warn you: if you expect all Armenians to agree with you, be prepared to be disappointed and end your days as a bitter old man.
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As for our ultra-conservative Turcocentric pundits and their ubiquitous, predictable, and cliché-ridden commentaries: the only way to describe them is to say they are ideal instances of diarrhea of words and constipation of ideas.
*
As Brahms used to say on his way out from a party: “I apologize to anyone I may have neglected to offend.”
#

[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

at the turn of the last century we had intellectuals but not academics. today we have academics but not intellectuals, and academics are as a rule pro-establishment hirelings. / ara

I agree, though I haven't read much about the intellectuals we apparently had at the turn of the last century. Who should I look up as a starter?