notes / comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Saturday, December 16, 2006
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TOYNBEE, DESCARTES, ZARIAN, AND OTHERS
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If you say you disagree with Toynbee, you disagree with Descartes, and you disagree with Zarian, don’t be surprised if those who agree with Toynbee, Descartes, and Zarian disagree with you, and they disagree with you not because they are prejudiced against you or remotely interested in questioning your intelligence or honesty but because they respect more Toynbee’s understanding of history, Descartes’ philosophical judgment, and Zarian’s familiarity with recent developments in Armenian affairs, in most of which he was himself a participant in addition to being personally acquainted with the main players.
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Zarian: “Our political parties have been of no political use to us. Their greatest enemy is free speech.” Why free speech? Because it may expose their blunders and lies, which may spell their political and moral bankruptcy.
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Tell me what you are afraid of and I will tell you who you are.
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If you say your version of the past is the only true one, you do nothing but repeat the words of those who say exactly the same thing about their own version of the past, which may contradict yours.
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The problem with partisan versions of the past is that there will be other partisan versions.
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The statement “My party is infallible or morally superior,” will convince only fellow partisans and no one else. If I say I am a great writer, I may succeed in convincing only my mama at the cost of making myself ridiculous in the eyes of the world.
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If you write history with an ideological, religious, or nationalist bias, you can be sure that it will not be as objective, accurate and credible as that written by someone without an ax to grind.
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The trouble with people with an ax to grind is that even when they bury their ax, they remember where they buried it.
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Last night I heard an interview with a Catholic theologian who said, among other things, “All present wars are fought in the name of religion. Our only chance of preventing this from happening again is to alter our view of religion.” And I thought religions have had that chance for much more than a thousand years. Is there a single religion today willing to consider its history as one of failure?
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Sunday, December 17, 2006
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When speaking with an older and wiser person, assume you are wrong. When speaking with an infallible person, assume he is wrong.
*
Little mistakes we don’t mind admitting. But when it comes to big ones, we like to believe smart nations don’t make them. Which may suggest that in little things we are willing to be objective; in big things we prefer to follow the dictates of our vanity.
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Never ceases to amaze me -- the stupidity of self-assessed smart people.
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I don’t diminish Armenians; I only describe the many ways in which they diminish themselves.
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When I was young and foolish I too said many things that I now regret; and if someone had warned me I would have ignored him, the way I am ignored today by our dupes.
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Tolstoy: “The higher I rise in the eyes of the world, the lower I sink in my own.” The opposite is also true: the lower we sink in the eyes of the world, the louder bray and we brag.
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One of our editors once called me to complain that some people didn’t like my kind of writing. Who? I wanted to know. He mentioned the name of a benefactor’s flunkey. Shortly thereafter the editor stopped publishing me. The flunkey must have made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. As the old saying has it: “Parai veren duduyu chalar” (freely translated, “He who pays the piper selects the tune”).
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People are educated to recognize and question the propaganda of other nations, never their own. Why should we be an exception? – you may well ask. Too late. Now that the cat is out of the bag, can you really believe everything you have been told?
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Monday, December 18, 2006
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ALL IS VANITY
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When I first read ECCLESIASTES, I immediately assumed all that talk of vanity referred to others, not to me. I wonder how many readers of the Good Book make the same mistake. To read and understand simple sentences is one thing; to apply what you read to ourselves is something entirely different, perhaps because it takes a different set of faculties, among them the ability to perceive the many strategies we adopt to deceive ourselves into thinking we are better than we really are.
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Nothing comes more naturally to an Armenian than to hate Turks and to criticize fellow Armenians; and when I say to criticize what I really mean is to engage in verbal slaughter.
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I have heard Armenians, who treat minor disagreements with fellow Armenians as provocations to engage in verbal slaughter, say that they don’t hate Turks, they only love justice.
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Why is it that we are outraged when we realize others may be as bad as we are?
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Far better men than myself have dedicated their lives to writing hoping what they say will make a difference. It hasn’t! Why do I go one? The only plausible answer must be, self-deception. If only deceiving others were as easy as deceiving ourselves.
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Self-deception is such a common aberration that it is not at all unusual to meet a self-assessed and civilized man who speaks like a barbarian.
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People who don’t understand themselves and the consequences and implications of their actions and thoughts expect to be understood in a favorable light. Speaking for myself: I never felt so misunderstood as when I was understood.
#

[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

You once wrote that there were different ways one can gain wisdom, one being through reading. However, you pointed out that another, harsher method was learning from your mistakes. In this case, it is the surest way to learn our wisdom, however, I feel a combination of both is necessary to establish stability in whatever wisdom we've collected, because we need to practice our ability to communicate our wisdom in order for it to stay healthy.

I wonder if this is agreeable to you, in which case it might be a good reason for why you continue to write.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Tuesday, December 19, 2006
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Everything that is negative in our collective existence is based on fact; everything positive is based on hope.
*
If there is a constant in our political leadership is its mediocrity. If you hear someone say leader A is better than leader B, remember the old Muslim saying: “If you hear a mountain has moved, believe it. If you hear a man has changed, believe it not.”
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Is there a single Armenian boss or bishop in whose hands you would be willing to trust the future of your child? And yet, when it comes to the destiny of the nation, we repeat the mantra “It will take two or three generations...”
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One reason baby Tarzan survived in the jungle is that he had apes as parents and role models.
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If an Armenian hasn’t hated you, you don’t know what hatred is. An Armenian hates with the accumulated venom of six centuries – seven, if you count the Soviet era – of brutal oppression. Compared to Armenian hatred, all other forms of hatred might as well be expressions of affection.
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Armenians and Turks share the same illusion: trust in the official version of the past. Perhaps because their past is so unbearable that it would shatter their self-esteem if it were presented to them objectively. Turks see themselves not as victimizers but as heroes, and Armenians see themselves less as victims and more as martyrs.
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Concerned friends tell me it’s a waste of time writing for Armenians. They may be right. But if I were to write for odars I would use only my brain. When I write for Armenians, I use my brains as well as gut.
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To encourage others to give generously, fund-raisers publish periodic press releases with headlines announcing the amount of dollars collected. What they don’t tell you is how much of it ended in the wrong pockets.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

You once wrote that there were different ways one can gain wisdom, one being through reading. However, you pointed out that another, harsher method was learning from your mistakes. In this case, it is the surest way to learn our wisdom, however, I feel a combination of both is necessary to establish stability in whatever wisdom we've collected, because we need to practice our ability to communicate our wisdom in order for it to stay healthy.

I wonder if this is agreeable to you, in which case it might be a good reason for why you continue to write.

one reason i go on writing is that
writing has become a habit
and habits are eeasier to keep than to give up.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

PRESS RELEASE / NEW BOOK
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Moscow. THE HORRIBLE SILENCE by Ara Baliozian,
has just come out in a Russian translation by
Ara Hakopian and Tigran Zakoyan. It is an
autobiographical novella wherein we read about
the author’s daily existence in a distant
Canadian town: his encounters and conversations
with friends, relatives, neighbors, and members
of his family, about his life in Greece, Italy,
and about Armenians and the Armenian Diaspora.

In addition to the novella, the reader will find
here a comparative fictional study of the life
and achievements of two Armenian personalities
titled BILL AND BASIL, Bill being William
Saroyan, and Basil, the founder of the mightiest
imperial dynasty in Byzantium. The book also
contains selected passages from another book by
Ara Baliozian titled PAGES FROM MY DIARY.

Ara Baliozian was born in Athens, Greece, and
educated in Venice, Italy. Widely published in
English and Armenian, he has been awarded many
prizes and grants for his literary work. He is a
regular contributor to many publications in the
United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East.

His books include THE GREEK POETESS AND
OTHER WRITINGS, ARMENIA OBSERVED: AN ANTHOLOGY,
FRAGMENTED DREAMS: ARMENIANS IN DIASPORA, and the
best-selling study, THE ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY
AND CULTURE. His translations of such Armenian
classics as Grigor Zohrab, Zabel Yessayan, and
Kostan Zarian have been described as
“valuable,” “eloquent,” and
“brilliant”
contributions to world literature. He has himself
been translated into French, German, Greek,
Spanish, and Armenian.

“I read everything Ara Baliozian writes with
fascination and gratitude,” William Saroyan has
said.

The book can be purchased at

http://www.armeniaonline.ru/product.php/1730

or directly from Ara Hakopian,
<[email protected]>, ( price $10.00, postage
included).
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[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

one reason i go on writing is that
writing has become a habit
and habits are eeasier to keep than to give up.

haha, I guess so. How long can you last without writing?

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Wednesday, December 20, 2006
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Body language is to the spoken word what style is to writing. Words may lie but style does not. I have yet to read a single decent line written by a hoodlum.
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We all make mistakes, yes, certainly. But what if we are not equipped to do the right thing, and our worst mistakes are made when we think god is one our side?
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Whenever I think of making a reference to myself in my writings, the first thought that crosses my mind is: Why should anyone give a damn about what a nobody who lives in the middle of nowhere thinks? After which I switch my focus on reality.
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If you must speak of yourself, speak of your weaknesses. Let others speak of your strengths, assuming you have any.
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I write to confess my megalomania and the doubletalk of sermonizers and speechifiers.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, December 21, 2006
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HO, HO, HUMBUG!
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A gentle reader insults me on an open Internet discussion forum. Being human I am not always successful in ignoring such abuse: I return the compliment. No harm done. A minor scribbler in the middle of nowhere and a faceless anonymous denizen of an unidentified suburban gutter somewhere call each other names. Not the end of the world. So what if we both lose? As for Armenian image: what image? No one gives a damn about our image except perhaps our phony superpatriotic propagandists and pundits whose empty verbiage impresses no one but themselves. What about Armenian honor? No such thing. There are only good men and bad men. Why shouldn’t we, like the rest of mankind, have our share of bastards?
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Another one of my gentle readers once remarked that I deserve to be insulted because everything I write is an insult to the Armenian nation. A statement worthy of a commissar of culture who views literature as a collective effort on the part of writers to kowtow and say “Yes, sir!” to our semi-sultans, mini-Stalins, and dealers of verbal manure like himself, who operate on the assumption that all it takes to be a concerned citizen is to assess oneself as one. Zarian is right: we do with words what the Turks did with yataghans, except that we use our tongues, which happen to be sharper and cut deeper. There you have it, the Armenian identity. Even as we die the death of a thousand self-inflicted cuts we speechify, sermonize, and editorialize about justice and patriotism, God and Country, martyrdom and survival. God help us, if there is a god and we deserve his help.