random thoughts
Sunday, June 06, 2004
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Dogs attack to protect you. Critics attack to expose you as a phony. That's why dogs are more popular than critics.
*
If a thousand people agree with you and only one disagrees, that one will make a disproportionately deeper impact; and if he makes sense, the result may be deadly. Which is why tyrants silence, exile, jail or even murder dissidents, and they do so in the name of self-defense. They consider themselves the victims rather than the victimizers.
*
It is the destiny of an Armenian writer to starve, and no one can be as vulnerable to bribe as a starving beggar. That's why we have an overabundance of scribbling brown-nosers and a scarcity of writers willing to criticize benefactors or reject the worship at the altar of the Almighty Dollar. The names that come to mind are Raffi, Baronian, Zarian, Massikian - strike Massikian: he was not a beggar but a successful lawyer. But as far as our multimillionaires go, even one critic in every generation is too many; hence their view of all writers as potential ingrates. The irony here is that all writers, including the brown-nosers, are indeed ingrates because they are not treated as the best but as one among equals. The greed of our capitalists is exceeded only by the vanity of our mediocrities.
#
Monday, June 07, 2004
******************************
He who cannot yet think for himself cannot be educated; he can only be brainwashed.
*
At a very early age I was taught to brag about Mt. Ararat and Lakes Van and Sevan. I was even taught to brag about the fact that Armenians had been the first nation to suffer a genocide in the 20th Century. I was also taught to brag about a thousand other things including, and above all, our talent for survival.
*
If our dead could speak, what would they brag about? Our genius for contributing victims to sadistic Mongoloid morons?
*
Only idiots brag about their failures.
*
We are not smart if only because we have been and continue to be at the mercy of idiots - if it's not Ottoman or Soviet idiots, it's our own.
*
To be at the mercy of idiots means being lesser idiots.
*
Just because something is never said it does not mean it is not thought; and just because something is not thought it does not mean it cannot be true.
*
There may be more truth in what is covered up than what it is proclaimed from the rooftops. Contrary to what roosters may believe, it is not their crowing that makes the sun rise.
*
"Armenians are smart!" A statement that consists in 99% wishful thinking and 1% cunning in the marketplace.
#
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
****************************
From Avedik Issahakian's posthumously published notebooks:
*
"Armenia labors under three curses: bad geographic location, bloodthirsty neighbors, and dumb leaders."
*
"Contrary to Soviet propaganda, the Revolution does not change men into angels but into beasts of prey."
*
"We owe to the 20th Century two great discoveries: the disintegration of the atom and the disintegration of the soul. The first discovery was made by Europe, the second by the Russians."
*
"Socialism is the enemy of culture."
(And I cannot help reflecting: If one were to add socialism Russian style, or Sovietism, to Ottomanism, the result would be an idiot who brags about how smart he is.)
*
"Ah! If only life lasted as long as death!"
*
"The eye cannot see that which the mind cannot perceive."
*
"If only men were born and died like the stars: part mortal, part immortal."
#
Sunday, June 06, 2004
****************************
Dogs attack to protect you. Critics attack to expose you as a phony. That's why dogs are more popular than critics.
*
If a thousand people agree with you and only one disagrees, that one will make a disproportionately deeper impact; and if he makes sense, the result may be deadly. Which is why tyrants silence, exile, jail or even murder dissidents, and they do so in the name of self-defense. They consider themselves the victims rather than the victimizers.
*
It is the destiny of an Armenian writer to starve, and no one can be as vulnerable to bribe as a starving beggar. That's why we have an overabundance of scribbling brown-nosers and a scarcity of writers willing to criticize benefactors or reject the worship at the altar of the Almighty Dollar. The names that come to mind are Raffi, Baronian, Zarian, Massikian - strike Massikian: he was not a beggar but a successful lawyer. But as far as our multimillionaires go, even one critic in every generation is too many; hence their view of all writers as potential ingrates. The irony here is that all writers, including the brown-nosers, are indeed ingrates because they are not treated as the best but as one among equals. The greed of our capitalists is exceeded only by the vanity of our mediocrities.
#
Monday, June 07, 2004
******************************
He who cannot yet think for himself cannot be educated; he can only be brainwashed.
*
At a very early age I was taught to brag about Mt. Ararat and Lakes Van and Sevan. I was even taught to brag about the fact that Armenians had been the first nation to suffer a genocide in the 20th Century. I was also taught to brag about a thousand other things including, and above all, our talent for survival.
*
If our dead could speak, what would they brag about? Our genius for contributing victims to sadistic Mongoloid morons?
*
Only idiots brag about their failures.
*
We are not smart if only because we have been and continue to be at the mercy of idiots - if it's not Ottoman or Soviet idiots, it's our own.
*
To be at the mercy of idiots means being lesser idiots.
*
Just because something is never said it does not mean it is not thought; and just because something is not thought it does not mean it cannot be true.
*
There may be more truth in what is covered up than what it is proclaimed from the rooftops. Contrary to what roosters may believe, it is not their crowing that makes the sun rise.
*
"Armenians are smart!" A statement that consists in 99% wishful thinking and 1% cunning in the marketplace.
#
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
****************************
From Avedik Issahakian's posthumously published notebooks:
*
"Armenia labors under three curses: bad geographic location, bloodthirsty neighbors, and dumb leaders."
*
"Contrary to Soviet propaganda, the Revolution does not change men into angels but into beasts of prey."
*
"We owe to the 20th Century two great discoveries: the disintegration of the atom and the disintegration of the soul. The first discovery was made by Europe, the second by the Russians."
*
"Socialism is the enemy of culture."
(And I cannot help reflecting: If one were to add socialism Russian style, or Sovietism, to Ottomanism, the result would be an idiot who brags about how smart he is.)
*
"Ah! If only life lasted as long as death!"
*
"The eye cannot see that which the mind cannot perceive."
*
"If only men were born and died like the stars: part mortal, part immortal."
#
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