notes / comments

[gmd]

Re: notes / comments

Garik,

Does Ara B. ever respond to you. I get the feeling he thinks he's above everybody. Do you get this sense?

Yes, he does.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Do you see an opportunity within the new Republic to create a clear and unifying identity which we lack?
I think at least among some there is a greater sense of pride in the success of Artsak. I realize this is not the same as an identity but it seems to provide a certain unifying factor on the political front.

Garik M.

sorry, i do not share your optimism. / ara

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Monday, February 12, 2007
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ON FASCISM
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Georges Bernanos: “The strength and weakness of dictators is rooted in their pact with the despair of the people.”
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Hitler relied on German defeat of World War I; Bush on 9/11; and our leadership on the Genocide. Hitler committed suicide; Bush is committing slow-motion political suicide; and our leadership…: why is it that whenever the subject of our leadership comes up, I feel an irresistible urge to go down on my knees and pray – pray not for them, but for the people…I almost said, for their victims.
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Every day I make a list of my failings to remind myself that I have nothing to brag about.
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He knows nothing but pretends to know better: portrait of an Armenian simpleton.
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George Sand: “The way to the simple truth is through many complexities.”
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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Tuesday, February 13, 2007
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MORE ON FASCISM
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Francois René de Chateaubriand: “I make visible that which is hidden in history.”
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Some readers complain that I don’t always reply to my critics. In my defense I will say that I have at no time knowingly ignored anyone willing to reason with me. As for the others: please ascribe my silence not to arrogance or indifference but to my sense of inadequacy. I do not feel equipped to deal with anonymous and faceless readers who don’t simply state their disagreement, which would be their privilege to do, but engage in verbal abuse and Internet hooliganism; and they expect me to rise to the occasion by going down into the gutter with them where they obviously feel at home and will thus be at an advantage. I don’t know how to deal with the type of reader who pretends to be better but allows his conduct (vocabulary, style, body language) to prove the exact opposite. What does one say to a reader who pretends to know better but refuses to share his superior wisdom with the rest of us? And by superior wisdom I don’t mean recycled clichés and slogans that were instilled in all of us when we were children. What could be more infantile, not to say absurd, than to confuse these clichés and slogans with patriotism? I question the patriotism of anyone who pretends to love his country (its mountains, rivers, lakes, and valleys) but has no respect for the fundamental human rights of his fellow countrymen – rights such as free speech, dissent, and dialogue without which democracy becomes unthinkable. Annoyed with all my talk of democracy, an angry reader once demanded to know: “Democracy? What good is it? Do we really need it?” My answer: Do we have any alternatives, except perhaps Stalinism without Stalin, and Ottomanism without a sultan? What other forms of government have we known?
#

[gmd]

Re: notes / comments

Tuesday, February 13, 2007
******************************************
MORE ON FASCISM
**********************************
Francois René de Chateaubriand: “I make visible that which is hidden in history.”
************************************************** **************
Some readers complain that I don’t always reply to my critics. In my defense I will say that I have at no time knowingly ignored anyone willing to reason with me. As for the others: please ascribe my silence not to arrogance or indifference but to my sense of inadequacy. I do not feel equipped to deal with anonymous and faceless readers who don’t simply state their disagreement, which would be their privilege to do, but engage in verbal abuse and Internet hooliganism; and they expect me to rise to the occasion by going down into the gutter with them where they obviously feel at home and will thus be at an advantage. I don’t know how to deal with the type of reader who pretends to be better but allows his conduct (vocabulary, style, body language) to prove the exact opposite. What does one say to a reader who pretends to know better but refuses to share his superior wisdom with the rest of us? And by superior wisdom I don’t mean recycled clichés and slogans that were instilled in all of us when we were children. What could be more infantile, not to say absurd, than to confuse these clichés and slogans with patriotism? I question the patriotism of anyone who pretends to love his country (its mountains, rivers, lakes, and valleys) but has no respect for the fundamental human rights of his fellow countrymen – rights such as free speech, dissent, and dialogue without which democracy becomes unthinkable. Annoyed with all my talk of democracy, an angry reader once demanded to know: “Democracy? What good is it? Do we really need it?” My answer: Do we have any alternatives, except perhaps Stalinism without Stalin, and Ottomanism without a sultan? What other forms of government have we known?
#

Ara, have Armenians ever practiced democracy for themselves? We have only participated in the west in what is accepted as western democracy. I am not suggesting we give up on democracy. However, without an influx of "westernized" Armenians into the homeland willing and able to make the sacrifices necessary to protect democratic institutions, how would this change come about? Based on many of your comments and experiences that you have shared on dealing with diaspora institutions, are there Armenians in the west who know how to practice Armenian democracy?
I can only speak for myself. I have grown up in the US but never really been a strong proponent of free speach. By this I mean that I have never participated in any political action to protect or further democracy or its values at home or abroad. If anything I have been guilty of supporting (in my mind) many of the Imperialist policies of the US, for most of my life.

Garik

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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THE UNSPEAKABLE AND THE UNEATABLE
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Asked by NEWSWEEK magazine what he wants to do with the rest of his life, playwright and actor Eric Bogosian replied: “Learn to speak Armenian.”
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I know some highly educated and smart Armenians who neither read nor speak Armenian; and what is even more to the point, they have no interest in learning the language.
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In his LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE REALM OF VANISHING CULTURES, Wade Davis writes: “The ultimate tragedy is not that archaic societies are disappearing, but rather that vibrant, dynamic living cultures and languages are being forced out of existence.” He could have added: “…and this with the full consent and cooperation of their political and intellectual leadership.” And why? Because their central concern is not identity and culture but Turks. They remind me of Oscar Wilde’s definition of foxhunters: “The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable.”
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When it comes to their mother tongue, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more Armenian functional illiterates than Turks.
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Ernest Renan: “Elections promote charlatanism.”
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Lautreamont: “An elephant allows itself to be caressed, but not a louse.”
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Blaise Cendrars: “I dip my pen not in ink but in life.”
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Victor Hugo: “Friend can be a word devoid of all meaning, enemy never!”
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Joseph Joubert: “To teach is to learn twice.”
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Simone de Beauvoir: “What is an adult if not a child swollen with age.”
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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Ara, have Armenians ever practiced democracy for themselves? We have only participated in the west in what is accepted as western democracy. I am not suggesting we give up on democracy. However, without an influx of "westernized" Armenians into the homeland willing and able to make the sacrifices necessary to protect democratic institutions, how would this change come about? Based on many of your comments and experiences that you have shared on dealing with diaspora institutions, are there Armenians in the west who know how to practice Armenian democracy?
I can only speak for myself. I have grown up in the US but never really been a strong proponent of free speach. By this I mean that I have never participated in any political action to protect or further democracy or its values at home or abroad. If anything I have been guilty of supporting (in my mind) many of the Imperialist policies of the US, for most of my life.

Garik

the contradiction here is that we pretend to be smart and progressive but we behave in both the homeland and diaspora as hidebound authoritarian power structures wherein free speech and human rights are anathema. Allow me to quote Gostan Zarian, who was personally acquainted with our political leaders: "Our political parties have been of no use to us. Their greatest enemy is free speech." / ara

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, February 15, 2007
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DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES
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Maurice Barres: “…the magnificent self-assurance of imbeciles.”
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You can see the mountaintop from the valley, but the higher you climb and the closer you get to it, the less visible it becomes. After a while you may even be justified in suspecting it was a mirage. Something similar may happen to our ambitions.
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Childhood dreams have a tendency to become the nightmares of old age. Had I been a carpenter or bus driver I would have been more useful to my fellow men. Take it from me: if your ambition is to be a writer, I suggest you write to entertain. The masses want to be amused not to be reminded of their moral and intellectual bankruptcy.
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Tell a self-assessed smart man he is no better than a dupe and make an enemy for life.
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The author of a book, titled THE END OF DETROIT, on the radio this morning referred to recent development in the American auto industry as an “existential crisis.” There was a time when no self-respecting American pundit would have dared to use the word existential in a serious context. It took fifty years for the academics to catch up. What is the difference between a crisis and an existential crisis? Nothing. But the qualifier existential seems to lend the word crisis an authority it doesn’t have on its own.
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Don’t expect reality to catch up with you. It is you who must do the catching up.
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Marquis de Sade: “More often than not charity is a vice of pride rather than a virtue of the soul.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Friday, February 16, 2007
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SUMMING UP
*****************************
What can I tell you that you don’t already know or suspect but pretend otherwise? What can I add to what far better men than myself have already said?
*
When asked if I dislike Armenians, I reply that I don’t know all of them. If I give the impression that I don’t particularly care for them it may be because I have never cared for dupes who pretend to be smart, or for charlatans who will say and do anything for minimum wage (which happen to be two of my own youthful transgressions). When it comes to judging my fellow countrymen, I rely more on the judgment of our writers as opposed to pseudo-pundits, speechifiers, and sermonizers whose aim is not to speak the truth as they see it but to flatter their audience on whose goodwill and financial support they depend -- and as everyone knows by now, brown-nosing pays and criticism leads to the poorhouse.
*
When I speak of writers, I don’t mean poets who sang the eternal snows of Mount Ararat and our “sun-flavored words,” but writers, who unlike me, lived among Armenians all their lives and wrote about and for them in Armenian. By contrast I live in the middle of nowhere, write in English, and I don’t go out of my way to meet them.
*
When I read writers like Baronian, Odian, Massikian, Shahnour, and Zarian (especially the Zarian of the posthumously published diaries and notebooks) I cannot help thinking, yes, we have somehow managed to survive, but to what end? – besides lamenting our dead and bragging about our survival? (Do you see the shadow of a contradiction there somewhere?)
*
About our survival: Should we ascribe it to our courage, initiative, solidarity (what solidarity?) adaptability, obstinacy, intelligence (don’t make me laugh!) and other positive factors, or to Turkish inefficiency?
*
We live in a world where there are many more answers than questions, even if most of the answers are wrong. Consider the answers provided by religious and political leaders as a case in point. As for answers provided by science: even when the right answers are available, some people (like flat-earth theorists and astrology buffs) will prefer to believe in the wrong ones.
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[gmd]

Re: notes / comments

Why do you sell yourself short? I am not trying to flatter you. I think there are people who view and/or participate on these forums to learn and try and understand Armenian identity. I know this applies to me. Regardless of agreement on our individual views, reading your posts has made me aware of Armenian writers and critics that I may not have otherwise discovered. Additionally, reading your posts has raised more questions for me... In pursuing answers to your questions I find myself drawn deeper into my Armenian identity and eager to seek out a path of balance.
By presenting a critics view you are helping to balance out the ultra-nationalism some of us adhere to. I cannot tell you that I have given up on nationalism, but I search for a deeper meaning in it that strives to provide a benefit to all Armenians, not just the elite.

Regards,

Garik

Friday, February 16, 2007
****************************************
SUMMING UP
*****************************
What can I tell you that you don’t already know or suspect but pretend otherwise? What can I add to what far better men than myself have already said?
*
When asked if I dislike Armenians, I reply that I don’t know all of them. If I give the impression that I don’t particularly care for them it may be because I have never cared for dupes who pretend to be smart, or for charlatans who will say and do anything for minimum wage (which happen to be two of my own youthful transgressions). When it comes to judging my fellow countrymen, I rely more on the judgment of our writers as opposed to pseudo-pundits, speechifiers, and sermonizers whose aim is not to speak the truth as they see it but to flatter their audience on whose goodwill and financial support they depend -- and as everyone knows by now, brown-nosing pays and criticism leads to the poorhouse.
*
When I speak of writers, I don’t mean poets who sang the eternal snows of Mount Ararat and our “sun-flavored words,” but writers, who unlike me, lived among Armenians all their lives and wrote about and for them in Armenian. By contrast I live in the middle of nowhere, write in English, and I don’t go out of my way to meet them.
*
When I read writers like Baronian, Odian, Massikian, Shahnour, and Zarian (especially the Zarian of the posthumously published diaries and notebooks) I cannot help thinking, yes, we have somehow managed to survive, but to what end? – besides lamenting our dead and bragging about our survival? (Do you see the shadow of a contradiction there somewhere?)
*
About our survival: Should we ascribe it to our courage, initiative, solidarity (what solidarity?) adaptability, obstinacy, intelligence (don’t make me laugh!) and other positive factors, or to Turkish inefficiency?
*
We live in a world where there are many more answers than questions, even if most of the answers are wrong. Consider the answers provided by religious and political leaders as a case in point. As for answers provided by science: even when the right answers are available, some people (like flat-earth theorists and astrology buffs) will prefer to believe in the wrong ones.
#