notes / comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Monday, December 04, 2006
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ON PRIDE
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“I am proud to be the offspring of a persecuted nation,” writes a reader, thus proving that one can be or pretend to be proud of anything, including degradation. Speaking for myself, I can’t say I am proud of anything, and I have every reason to suspect no one who has ever been persecuted, really persecuted, can be proud of it.
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We were persecuted because we were defeated. We were defeated not because God made our enemies strong and us weak but because they were united and we were divided. We were divided because our wheeler-dealers parading as representatives of God on earth and leaders of men failed to unite us. To say we are proud of being the offspring of a persecuted nation amounts to bragging about being divided, defeated, persecuted, massacred and scattered to the four corners of the world like unwanted, uninvited, and useless autumn leaves. I have heard of people bragging about their success. Leave it to Armenians to brag about their failures.
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“I am glad we never had an Ataturk,” I read elsewhere. As a matter of fact we had several potential Ataturks, among them General Antranik and Nejdeh, but we also had many more mini-sultans and crypto-commissars who excel in only one endeavor – obstructing the path of all those who attempt to achieve solidarity. This minor detail is not stressed in our textbooks because that would amount to admitting incompetence. I say these things not to gloat over our failures but to point out the simple fact that only after we admit failure we may aim at success. To be satisfied with our incompetence and failures also means to perpetuate them.
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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Tuesday, December 05, 2006
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ON GOD, ETC.
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Like most of my fellow Christians I was brought up as a believer. In my teens I lost my faith. Today I am not longer sure what to believe. I can say the same about so many other things, including my Armenian identity and everything that is connected with it. Lucky are those who are born, raised, and grow old with certainties, which they never question, doubt, or lose.
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I agree with Descartes who once said the only way to reason and make sense is to assume that everyone, including an army of invisible cunning demons, were out to deceive you. One of my very few certainties is this: if I ever see the light and regain my faith, it will not be a belief in the god of our priests, televangelists, imams, and mullahs.
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I don’t mind admitting that I tend to simplify complexities, but my simplifications are more akin to counter-simplifications: I simplify to expose the simplifications of meaningless clichés and slogans of propaganda, which are simplifications twice removed from reality, and not so much lies as absurdities whose ultimate aim is to remove us from the demands that life makes on us.
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As long as we say to our leaders “You are our best and brightest,” they will never try harder, and even as we sink into oblivion they will continue to brainwash a new generation to brag about our genius for survival. And if you were to accuse me of always seeing the dark side of things, allow me to remind you that (one) optimism thrives in insane asylums, and (two) it was optimists who said if we rise against a tottering empire (with the blessing of the Lord and the support of the West) we will recover our historic lands and live happily ever after. What they didn’t know or refused to consider is that the Good Lord may or may not care what happens to His Chosen People (which we may or may not be), and the mighty West may be too divided (very much like us) to be in a position to help us, or for that matter, itself. Our revolutionary heroes were too naïve and simple-minded in their simplifications to know what Herzen knew nearly a century before they went into action, namely that “nature and history are full of the accidental and the senseless, of muddles and bungling.”
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[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

yes, you do simplify a great deal in your assertions, which is why I have questions.

When you speak of those who obstruct the path of those who wish to achieve solidarity, who are you refering to, and what is the cause which they are trying to achieve solidarity for?

Also, divisions exist in all nations. Which of our "enemies" were united when they defeated us? Were they not instead populations repressed by fear of persecution by their own governments who forced unto them their own line of propaganda? Or do you suggest that these peoples were enlightened in some way and mastered the art of mass consensus without sacrificing the lives of a few free thinkers who stood in the way of attaining such an achievement?

Your very deviance from the standpoint of the nationalists on this forum is an example of our divisions, whether or not your arguments are valid is besides the point.

Our nationalists wish to repress these deviances in order to establish this brand of "unity".

I assume you resort to repetition and simplifications because you understand that this is not a war or right vs. wrong, but a war of interests that must resort to such practices as placing faith in ideologies or making arguments economically without viewing the matter from various points of view first (which I cannot blame anyone for as this seems so natural to human beings to do) in order to resist the other.

I cannot place my faith in anything so long as I view things in differing perspectives whenever I can. I can never hold onto a belief without denying a piece of myself, no matter how small it this piece may be. However, I won't go as far to assume that this is the same for others. Perhaps those like Armenian will always feel as though the interests of the Armenian nation will always remain a highest priority to them as it will perpetually fulfill his deepest interests so long as it has potential to thrive. Perhaps his standpoint will always make complete sense to him and nothing else. Why should I criticize him for what he believes in when in fact I'd merely end up criticizing his innermost core that compels him to assert whatever he has to say?

Tell me, did you ever have such an innermost core as Armenian's? Or was a piece of yourself ignored and denied throughout your entire time as a pro-Armenian writer (as you seem to suggest)?

[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

Also, on your response to Descartes' phrase...

I find whenever we find something agreeable, we are deceived by it's logic that is relative to our own.

We are constantly deceived by everything around us in life... Our entire logical process and understanding of ourselves is based on the circumstances we perceive or believe we live under and the parameters we've established of what is acceptable and what is not through a mixture of instinctual and cognitive developments throughout our lives.

Basically, we were born to be deceived, there's no way around it so long as you have to make a choice, an analysis, a thought... Perhaps when our time on Earth is up, we can stop being deceived.

An odd concept I must admit... Not even choosing death over life will solve our dilemma either, because alas, we're choosing, we're thinking, we're being deceived by whatever circumstances, feelings and impulses we're feeling, pondering.

Deception is part of human life.

[Anonymouse]

Re: notes / comments

Also, on your response to Descartes' phrase...

I find whenever we find something agreeable, we are deceived by it's logic that is relative to our own.

We are constantly deceived by everything around us in life... Our entire logical process and understanding of ourselves is based on the circumstances we perceive or believe we live under and the parameters we've established of what is acceptable and what is not through a mixture of instinctual and cognitive developments throughout our lives.

Basically, we were born to be deceived, there's no way around it so long as you have to make a choice, an analysis, a thought... Perhaps when our time on Earth is up, we can stop being deceived.

An odd concept I must admit... Not even choosing death over life will solve our dilemma either, because alas, we're choosing, we're thinking, we're being deceived by whatever circumstances, feelings and impulses we're feeling, pondering.

Deception is part of human life.

Such phrases "We are born to be deceived", are nice catch phrases but they must be approached with care. For such statements, in any form, relating to any thing or idea, prove everything and also prove nothing.

[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

yeah, it's true. First of all, if we all share a common quality, it may become meaningless to state it unless we can attain some kind of useful alternative by doing so, which is not always the case.

Also, this is a response meant to sort of neutralize this phrase of Descartes. Why should we be so concerned with being deceived by the world when the deception begins within ourselves is what I'm saying. Perhaps if we recognize how we are deceived by ourselves, we'll gain an understanding "the rest of the world" anyway because afterall, everyone acts on information, circumstances, choices, ideas, sentiments, etc...

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Wednesday, December 06, 2006
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ASSERTIONS AND CONTRADICTIONS
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Confronted with an assertion, I think of its contradiction and if I see any merit in it, I know the assertion to be full of holes. The roots of some of the most important ideas are not to be found in life or reality but in contradictions. Hating the enemy comes naturally to all of us, but only a revolutionary of genius could come up with the idea of loving the enemy. For centuries kings were thought to be representatives of god on earth, until someone had the brilliant idea that they may well be representatives of the devil, and as such they deserved to be “strangled with the guts of the last priest.” Closer to home, the loudmouth dupe who preaches Armenianism and practices Ottomanism.
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I look forward to the day when the English language will acquire a new verb – “to iraq” (pronounced I rock), meaning to make a royal mess of things in the name of god, freedom, progress, justice, and everything else that is good in life. After Saddam sodomized Iraq, Bush iraqed it. But when it comes to iraqing things, no one can beat our “best and brightest.”
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The first four words from god’s memoirs: “Big mistake – creating man.”
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To those who brag about being fluent in more than one language, I say: “What’s the use of speaking seven or seventy-seven languages if you are going to make an ass of yourself in all of them?”
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A nation needs heroes willing to die in its defense, yes, certainly! But what a nation needs even more are leaders who value peace over war, especially wars they cannot win.
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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

yeah, it's true. First of all, if we all share a common quality, it may become meaningless to state it unless we can attain some kind of useful alternative by doing so, which is not always the case.

Also, this is a response meant to sort of neutralize this phrase of Descartes. Why should we be so concerned with being deceived by the world when the deception begins within ourselves is what I'm saying. Perhaps if we recognize how we are deceived by ourselves, we'll gain an understanding "the rest of the world" anyway because afterall, everyone acts on information, circumstances, choices, ideas, sentiments, etc...

if today's notes/comments (see above) do not answer your objections and criticisms, i promise to try again, provided you refrain from telling me that i repeat myself. / ara

[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

yeah, they do answer them. I don't have any further criticism or objections.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, December 07, 2006
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IN DENIAL
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Even when I behaved like an idiot I thought I was being smart, and I thought I was being smart because I was in denial. And I am in denial today at this very moment when I think my words may change someone’s mind.
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To be in denial is an easy concept to understand but difficult to detect in oneself. Censorship is a symptom of denial that masquerades as dedication, respect, and love of truth. If you say 2 plus 2 makes 4, and I say it makes 22, you don’t feel threatened. You may even smile. That’s because when truth is on your side, you don’t feel threatened by lies. But if you believe in an ideology or religion and someone questions its validity, you are tempted to punch him in the nose because you are afraid to be exposed as a jackass who has been betting on the wrong horse.
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Tribes, nations, empires, and civilizations can be in denial as surely as megalomaniacs (which means being in denial of one’s mediocrity). I have a xxxish friend who is as close to me as a brother that I never had. We have exchanged hundreds perhaps even thousands of letters and e-mails. But whenever I question the validity of xxxs being God’s Chosen People he refuses to talk to me for months.
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The USSR was harsh on its dissidents not because it valued truth over lies but because it saw truth as a threat. How could a few words by (in their official estimation) harmless eccentrics and misfits in need of psychiatric care shake the foundations of a mighty empire?
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To believe in propaganda amounts to saying all propagandists are liars except ours, who are men of honor and butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths, or anywhere else for that matter.
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The aim of propaganda is to legitimize, promote, and reinforce a state of denial, but since everyone, except perhaps a handful of individuals who have mastered the demanding art of thinking for themselves, subscribes to a propaganda line, being in denial is considered a perfectly normal and healthy condition.
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Under normal conditions murder is a capital offense, but in time of war soldiers are brainwashed by propagandists to believe that 2 plus 2 makes 22 and if anyone dares to disagree, he will be accused of treason, which happens to be a capital offense too. There you have it, another case of Catch-22.
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I think it was Aldous Huxley who once observed that our planet is the insane asylum of the galaxy. If you reject or question the truth in this observation, it may be because you happen to be in denial.
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