notes / comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Monday, June 18, 2007
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PERSPECTIVES
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In the years preceding the Genocide we saw ourselves as an ethnic minority within the Ottoman Empire claiming what was rightfully ours. That was our perspective. Turks, on the other hand, saw us as part of an international infidel conspiracy (Russia and the Great Powers of Europe on the other side of their borders, Greeks and Assyrians from within) to dismember the Empire. For obvious reasons the Turks don’t like emphasizing this aspect of the conflict because doing so would mean alienating some important players in the European Union by identifying them as giaours. Our Turcocentric pundits pretend unawareness of it because awareness would somewhat moderate the image of the bloodthirsty Asiatic barbarian slaughtering innocent civilians for the fun of it.
To those who are itching to accuse me of pro-Turkism or anti-Armenianism, I say, my aim is to replace blind hatred and prejudice (the very same emotional state that is at the root of all massacres) with a touch of understanding. Granted, not a very popular undertaking in the eyes of those who are addicted to hatred and are too self-righteous and dogmatic to consider any perspective but their own.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
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JANISSARIES
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One reason I suspect some of my critics to be wrong is that they echo the very same sentiments and thoughts that were mine before I was successful in deprogramming myself. And I can understand why they are having difficulties abandoning their views: deprogramming oneself can be in some ways a painful undertaking.
Another indication that they are probably wrong is that they have a marked preference for thinking in black and white terms by painting their adversaries all black and themselves all white, not because reality is on their side but because it is flattering to their ego. What could be more naïve to the point of being infantile than to believe in something simply because it is flattering to one’s vanity? The rule is: if you assume everything that flatters your ego to be wrong, you will be right more often than wrong.
*
If we approach a subject objectively, a great many invisible things become visible.
*
In Mohsin Hamid’s THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST, I read the following definition of janissaries: “Children of defeated nations who conscripted into the army of the enemy, and fought to erase their own civilization.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
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THERE IS NO BUSINESS
LIKE SHOAH BUSINESS
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If you were brainwashed as a child, the chances are you will die brainwashed.
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If patriotism means total blindness to our own failings and 20/20 vision to the failings of adversaries, I am proud to assert I cannot qualify as a patriot.
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Have you ever tried to argue with a Jehovah’s Witness? What about an Armenian in whose mind politics is synonymous with theology?
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Whenever friends ask me why I bother reacting to nonentities, I explain that I was born and raised in a slum. I love slumming. Call it nostalgia.
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Some of my critics may think if most Armenians don’t contradict them, they must have the majority on their side. The sad truth is smart Armenians stay away from Armenian controversies because they know they are “sound and fury signifying nothing.”
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To sum up Armenianism in two sentences: “Once upon a time we were slaves. We are now slaves of former slaves."
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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, June 21, 2007
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CONTEXTS AND DIMENSIONS
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Truth is a dimension in which all contradictions are resolved. One way to explain this is to say that contradictions make sense only in sub-dimensions or false contexts. In a tribal, national, or political context, for instance, mankind will be divided into adversaries and allies, friends and enemies, victimizers and victims, butchers and sheep. But in a higher or religious context all men will be said to be brothers. It is up to us to choose in which dimension we wish to live and think.
In a world in which the truths of religion are only preached but the lies of politics are practiced, inevitably there will be more intolerance, hatred, and war, and less brotherhood and peace.
When mankind speaks with a forked tongue, double-talk, deception, and lies are sure to follow.
#

[melikianAvak]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, June 21, 2007
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CONTEXTS AND DIMENSIONS
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Truth is a dimension in which all contradictions are resolved. One way to explain this is to say that contradictions make sense only in sub-dimensions or false contexts. In a tribal, national, or political context, for instance, mankind will be divided into adversaries and allies, friends and enemies, victimizers and victims, butchers and sheep. But in a higher or religious context all men will be said to be brothers. It is up to us to choose in which dimension we wish to live and think.
In a world in which the truths of religion are only preached but the lies of politics are practiced, inevitably there will be more intolerance, hatred, and war, and less brotherhood and peace.
When mankind speaks with a forked tongue, double-talk, deception, and lies are sure to follow.
#

Nice dream your having, thanks for sharing.

The world is not what it should be, it is what it is.

[Armenian]

Re: notes / comments

To sum up Armenianism in two sentences: “Once upon a time we were slaves. We are now slaves of former slaves."

Your "intellectual" crap here is getting worst by the day. Sorry Ara jan, but you have become a pathetic looser in your old age. Your written crap is not even worth the paper its written on.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Friday, June 22, 2007
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CONFESSION
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There is a type of mediocrity who will sell his soul to see his name in print. This is well known to our editors who operate on the assumption that the views of these mediocrities are representative of the majority. The truth of the matter is, these charlatans don’t write what they really think and feel but what will have a better chance to be printed. If anti-Turkish venom and pro-Armenian crapola have a better chance than objective, impartial, and critical assessments, they will produce venom and crapola. As a result, what we see in our weeklies is not a multiplicity of views but a uniformity of predictable and unreadable nonsense. I know what I am saying because I was there once – that’s when I was popular with our editors and my things appeared everywhere.
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[melikianAvak]

Re: notes / comments

Your "intellectual" crap here is getting worst by the day. Sorry Ara jan, but you have become a pathetic looser in your old age. Your written crap is not even worth the paper its written on.

I agree, his stuff sounds like crap, I think he is impressing himself.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

#
Saturday, June 23, 2007
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REFLECTIONS
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Man has the peculiar ability to think he is absolutely right even when he is catastrophically wrong.
*
In war one no longer thinks in terms of right and wrong but only in terms of kill or be killed. Something similar could be said about our controversies, which may be said to be civil wars by other means.
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One should write as a human being and not as a member of a specific club, group, nation or race. To write in the name of a fraction of mankind is to elevate an accident of birth to a commandment from above.
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I have nothing but contempt for our charlatans but I have become as attached to them as a criminal is attached to the rope from which he hangs.
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The most dangerous and universal fallacy: Because I believe, it must be true. How many of our conflicts will vanish if we teach ourselves to say: Because I believe, it must be a lie.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

"Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving
offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my
country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven,
which I revere above all earthly kings." / Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775.