notes / comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Monday, September 24, 2007
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JOKES
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G.B. Shaw: “If you want to tell a person the truth, make him laugh or he’ll kill you.”
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George Orwell: “The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind him that he is already degraded.”
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xxxs make great comedians. They love to laugh at themselves. We don’t! Perhaps because we are a joke.
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“Why did Hitler kill himself? He got his gas bill.”
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Woody Allen: “I’m very proud of this pocket watch. My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch.”
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Jimmy Carr: “Mother always said, ‘If you haven’t got anything nice to say, then f*** off!’”
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Terry Pratchett: “Build a man a fire and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.”
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Groucho Marx: “These are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others.”
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Woody Allen: “My grandmother left me nothing. She was too busy being raped by Cossacks.”
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Denis Leary: “I’d kill for a Nobel Peace Price.”
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“Does the tailor Rabinowitch live here?”
“No.”
“Who are you?”
“Rabinowitch.”
“And aren’t you a tailor?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Then why did you say you didn’t live here?”
“You call this living?”
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Rowan Atkinson: “Never before have I encountered such corrupt and foul-mouthed perversity. Have you considered a career in the church?”
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Noel Coward: “You live and learn. Then you die and forget it all.”
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Wanna read more jokes? See ONLY JOKING: WHAT’S SO FUNNY ABOUT MAKING PEOPLE LAUGH? By Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves (New York, 2006). Not a single Armenian mentioned in it.
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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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THE ART OF OBJECTIVITY
AMONG OTHER FALLACIES AND MISCONCEPTIONS
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If after making an assertion you are not haunted by its contradiction, it means you have decided to act as your own attorney, and as is well known in the legal profession, you have a fool for a client.
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All the misfortunes of mankind may be ascribed to the fact that bad men outnumber good ones and they know how to organize themselves and impose their will on others.
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In George Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM, the favorite slogan of the pigs (who represent Stalinists) is “four legs good, two legs bad.” The aim of all slogans is to legitimize prejudice and to organize hatred, and hatred not only of the enemy but also of fellow countrymen who dare to question their infallibility.
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There are good men in all nations, but they are so few that it would be a serious blunder to alienate even one of them.
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What’s the difference between an idiot and a dupe? An idiot believes in his own lies; a dupe believes in someone else’s. But that’s semantics. In reality, an idiot will also qualify as a dupe and vice versa. And there is this peculiarity about dupes and idiots: they will never admit to being dupes and idiots.
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I have spent enough time among Greeks, Italians, Canadians, Americans, and Armenians to know the kind of vicious idiot nationalism can create.
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Duke of Wellington: “The real test of a general is to know when to retreat and dare to do it.” This is exactly what our heroic revolutionaries did at the outset of the Genocide. They made a strategic retreat and lived long enough to write their multi-volume memoirs in which to recount in great detail their deeds of valor and self-sacrifice. As they are fond of saying in Latin America: Long Live the Revolution!
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I once heard an Armenian define free speech thus (I abridge and paraphrase as is my wont): “Free speech is what I say it is. If you disagree, shut the f*** up!”
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We all share the same daydream: to be loved for who we pretend to be.
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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Wednesday, September 26, 2007
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ON MORAL SUPERIORITY
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Remember the case of Zohrab’s Kurdish assassin? If you don’t, allow me to refresh your memory. Shortly before he died, it seems, this Kurd experienced a crisis of conscience, confessed his crime, and provided details as to time, place, and manner, all of which was duly published in the ARMENIAN REVIEW, a Tashnak organ emanating from Boston. We know that this Kurd was acting on orders from Talaat, in the same manner that two decades later and acting on orders of Stalin, our commissars in Yerevan murdered an entire generation of our ablest intellectuals. Now, my question is: Has any one of them come forward, identified himself as a killer, and expressed regret for his actions? My guess is – correct me if I am wrong – these commissars and their offspring are now busy sucking the blood of the people in the Homeland, and in the Diaspora, they are parading as superpatriots and delivering speeches on self-sacrifice and dedication to principles to the rest of us renegades.
I once met such a specimen. He had transparent blue eyes, an open face, and a sincere look. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth or anywhere else for that matter. He spoke at some length of corrupt practices and related atrocities, but added, such things were totally alien to him and he was as appalled by them as any man of integrity. I believed him. I wanted to believe him. Which once more confirms my status as an incurable dupe. Later, I heard from two different sources that this blue-eyed, moon-faced, and Oscar-caliber performed was one of the most corrupt operators in all of Armenia.
There are many forms of denial. When a fool pretends to be smart, or when a crook pretends to be honest, or when a charlatan pretends to be a role model, or when a total ignoramus pretends to have all the answers, is he not a denialist too?
Casting aspersions? No, of course not!
Asking questions? Yes, certainly.
Present company suspected? No comment.
#

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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

ARA HOME PAGE click on:

http://www.narek.com/store/search.php?mode=search

http://baliozian.blogspot.com/

http://arabaliozian.org/

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, September 27, 2007
************ ********* ********* ********* *****
EXPLAINING THE INEXPLICABLE
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For a long time I thought being Armenian allowed me to know all there is to know about Armenians, Turks, and the Genocide. I even wrote several books and reviewed hundreds more based on that false assumption. I know now that it is almost impossible for a victim to be objective about his victimizer. It is true, Turks behaved like racists when they punished the many for the crimes of a few. No doubt about that. But then, at the turn of the last century and even during World War II, which nation was not racist? Or which civilized and progressive nation today does not have racists among its people who in time of war may assume leadership positions and implement racist policies towards its minorities? I am not justifying, only explaining.
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[zourna]

Re: notes / comments

Any reflections on death, Life after death at this stage of your life?
I'm not ridiculing just so you know.
It seems that it's out of a simpleton's league to put unscrupulous thoughts into words beyond the compass of criticism, mockery... Instead I'll stick around rousing questions and "casting aspersions" in the hope of ascertaining some of my doubts.
Hope you don't mind my stay here.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Friday, September 28, 2007
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COMING TO TERMS WITH REALITY
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Did Khorenatsi and Naregatsi have their critics? If they had readers, they had critics, and their critics had their critics who had their own critics… In our reality it’s critics all the way down. Nothing and no one stands on terra firma. Only the blind and the mute have no critics.
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When propaganda meets truth, truth is bound to lose. Propaganda has one advantage over truth: it flatters the ego. It tells Pepe le Pew, “You smell like roses,” and there is an el Pepe in all of us.
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I can save nothing and no one. Those who are on my side were already there long before they read a single line by me. Those who are against me will be against me even after they begin to agree with me. That’s because their pea-sized brain is no match for their inflated Goodyear-blimp sized ego.
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“Nutritious ain’t delicious.” I speak of carrots and broccoli, propaganda of Big Macs with fries.
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Somewhere C.G. Jung explains that our subconscious is more visible to others than to ourselves. Propaganda speaks to the ego and its assets; criticism focuses on the subconscious and its liabilities. Not exactly a formula that may lead to popularity and success.
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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

GOTT MIT UNS
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Propaganda may also be defined as whatever you were told as a child or at any other stage in your life when you were not yet capable to think for yourself. I am not suggesting everything you were told as a child is a lie, unless of course you define a lie as a fraction of the truth or a carefully edited version of the facts.
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The aim of propaganda is to create dupes.
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Anyone who thinks propaganda is positive and anything that contradicts it is negative lives in a parallel universe in the company of invisible creatures who are on his side. Remember the Nazi slogan GOTT MIT UNS (God with us).
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Propaganda cannot be contradicted because it is an extension of a closed system of thought. It can only be defeated by another closed system, but sometimes not even then. Communism was defeated by capitalism, and fascism by democracy but both communists and fascists continue to have their share of dupes today who are convinced their defeat is only a temporary setback.
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I’d rather be wrong than recycle propaganda. If I am wrong I can be contradicted, corrected, and exposed. But a fascist cannot be corrected in a fascist environment, or a communist in a communist environment, or a denialist in a denialist environment, and in the eyes of some we are all denialists, subversives, and infidels.
#


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[axel]

Re: notes / comments

Communism was defeated by capitalism, and fascism by democracy but both communists and fascists continue to have their share of dupes

Believe it or not, even democrats still have their own.

http://forum.armenianclub.com/showthread.php?t=9195

Hadn't had the opportunity to see a picture of yours until recently.

I must say you look very much like the quintessential democrat.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Sunday, September 30, 2007
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“THE ART OF DIALOGUE”
BY JACK S. AVANAKIAN
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You begin by establishing your infallibility.
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The best way to avoid criticism and contradiction is to brag as forcefully as you can about how much you know. The more forcefully and aggressively you brag, the more invulnerable you make yourself. After all, who in his right mind would want to tangle with a foul-mouthed ignoramus?
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I once met an Armenian who asserted no one knew as much about Armenian history and culture as he did. When asked where he had studied these subjects, he replied, “In Zimbabwe.” (May have been Timbuktu or some other remote corner of the Dark Continent – please, don’t ask me to quote verbatim the utterances of an idiot). After that no one dared to question his expertise and infallibility. It worked. See what I mean?
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As children we are brought up on stories, myths, fables, legends, and fairy tales, and eventually become addicts of fiction. This may explain why as adults we develop a violent allergic reaction to facts. Hence our preference of propaganda and illusions, and our intolerance of straight talk.
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The Brits have a favorite slogan: “We have neither friends nor enemies, only interests.” An original and practical, even if cynical, approach to diplomacy? Not quite. I read the following in Polybius (2nd century BC): “Kings look on no man as a natural friend or foe, but ever measure friendship and enmities solely by the standard of expediency.”
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There are no new ideas and Hemingway is right: “Why plagiarize if you can steal?” And speaking of garbage-mouth braggarts and diplomacy: We brag about Mikoyan’s skill and cunning as a diplomat even though he engineered the Stalinist purges in Armenia that in its ruthless efficiency and number of victims has been rivaled only by Talaat’s purges of Armenian intellectuals in 1915). We brag about Byzantine emperors of Armenian descent even when they adopted an anti-Armenian foreign policy. We brag about our heroic revolutionaries who took over the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul at the turn of the last century even when this publicity stunt resulted in the massacre of several thousand innocent civilians.
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Where did our leaders, diplomats, and nationalist historians study their subjects, you may wonder. Since I don’t know everything there is to know about Armenian history and culture, I can only guess: it was either at the Saddam Hussein University in Basra or the Ayatollah Khomeini Center of Higher Learning in Qum. It may also have been somewhere in Libya, Namibia, or Botswana. Go ahead, I dare you to make a damn fool of yourself by questioning my infallibility!
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Monday, October 01, 2007
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TWO SAINTS AND
TWO THOUSAND RASCALS
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There are a number of good reasons why I prefer to emphasize the negative, one of them being, the positive has been repeated and instilled in us for so long that we have lost all awareness of our failings. So that we see more merit in pride, arrogance, and prejudice than in humility, objectivity, and tolerance.
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In the Prologue of her autobiography, Santa Teresa of Avila tells us it is at the request of her superiors that she is undertaking to write a book about her spiritual experiences. She goes on to say, she wished she had been asked instead “to make a detailed list of all the things I have done wrong in my life,” and “I would be so much more comfortable disclosing my imperfections.” All this in the first brief paragraph of her preamble. She goes on to describe herself as “wicked” and “incorrigible.”
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“Wicked” and “incorrigible”: Naregatsi’s LAMENTATIONS may be said to consist in endless variations on this theme. By acknowledging Naregatsi as our Shakespeare, we also express a tacit admiration for the “method in his madness.”
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I don’t expect our bosses, bishops, benefactors, charlatans, and commissars to behave like saints; neither do I want them to behave like rascals. If we want to improve things we can’t begin by saying we are God’s chosen and he has created us in his image, we are therefore models of perfection and the envy of the world. Another reason I emphasize the negative is that no matter how hard I try I don’t see any positives. If you do, ask yourself: Why is it that the world, including some Armenians, and our literature in general (and not just Naregatsi) does not agree with me?
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The mark of a good quotation is this: once heard or read it is not forgotten. One such quotation is by Santa Teresa of Avila, which I remember to have read twenty or thirty years ago: “Never submit your intelligence to someone who doesn’t have much of it himself.” Hence my inability to say “Yes, sir!” to our dupes, morons, and rascals.
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