notes / comments

[Armenian]

Re: notes / comments

If I ever became an Armenian dictator, "Armenian the Great," I would order the burning of every single one of these so-called "notes and comments."

There will be no room for such nonsense in 'MY' world, damit.

[Anonymouse]

Re: notes / comments

If I ever became an Armenian dictator, "Armenian the Great," I would order the burning of every single one of these so-called "notes and comments."

There will be no room for such nonsense in 'MY' world, damit.

I urge you to seriously reconsider. Dictatorship is a road to stagnation, no matter how warped many of Mr. Baliozian's writings may be.

[Armenian]

Re: notes / comments

I urge you to seriously reconsider. Dictatorship is a road to stagnation, no matter how warped many of Mr. Baliozian's writings may be.

But I shall be a righteous dictator

[Anonymouse]

Re: notes / comments

One of the things that has been a recurring theme in Mr. Baliozian's "notes and comments" has been his unflinching and relentless support of the immoral system known as democracy. It is almost as if the alternatives are not even allowed and democracy is the endpoint of it all like in Fukayama's "The End of History and the Last Man". It's as if the premise of democracy is accepted as default and nothing contrary is allowed.

Mr. Baliozian claims he is for the victims, for fairness, justice, honesty and all things good and moral, yet how can one claim those things while supporting the backwards and stagnant system of democracy? Democracy is nothing more than the promotion of mediocre man and a system based on the tyranny of one group over another, albeit with the box of chocolates and cute phrases of satisfying and appeasing the appetites of knaves and eager fools with catch phrases and ballot boxes.

The world has been nothing more than a pendulum swinging between despotism and anarchy, and at least, under despotism, there is honesty and clarity between the ruled and the ruler. And I am far more inclined to respect the despot and the subject, than I am to respect the democrat and the mindless voter. In democracy, tyranny only exists through subterfuge and deception. There is no bigger lie than the "people are the government". Indeed such euphemisms must exist, and people must believe, in order for the system to survive. And today, there is no more wisdom and nothing more higher or moral for an intellectual to claim than the democracy bromide.

"Intellectuals" from left and right, from Nepal to Mexico all believe this guff and write about it and preach it as if it makes them seem wise or somehow suggesting some new wisdom that has never before been tapped by man. They are quick to point to America and other corrupt governments and say "Well, that is not how democracy works. If only WE worked it we would then establish TRUE democracy". But in their blindness and haze they don't realize that this IS democracy, and that this is the logical ramification of the idea taken to its full effect. In fact, the "people are the government" is the exact double think that is one of the main holes in the democratic line of reasoning, its appeal to the masses, mob rule, majoritarianism.

Democracy is the worst form of government because it emancipated war and democratized it. That is why in the age of democracy, we have "total war" which is something that we didn't have before. Further evidence of the violence that came with the democratization of war can be seen in the 200 million deaths that were to befall humanity in the 20th century alone.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, August 03, 2006
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We like to bend reality in our favor, but reality being much older and more “cunning” (Hegel) than us, has its own ideas. Had he lived long enough to witness Stalinism, Marx would have been the most disappointed man on earth. It is said of Elias Canetti that he was disappointed to realize that his book, CROWDS AND POWER, failed to prevent a single war. And think of Napoleon spending his last years in exile in a rat-infested villa on the island of St. Helena in the middle of the Atlantic and at the mercy of a sadistic English governor. And then there is Einstein: when told he had helped invent the atom bomb, he is quoted as having said, “If only I had known, I should have become a plumber.”
*
We like to portray ourselves as innocent victims of Turkish atrocities, but in our relations with one another our first priority seems to be to verbally abuse, humiliate and insult anyone who dares to disagree with us, and we do this without any sense of guilt or doubt as if we were on a mission from god. I shiver to think what may happen to the rest of the world on the day and by some satanic miracle we become an imperial power.
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To be able to smile once a day is worth a small fortune.
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The decency of a people can be judged by the way they treat their pets and poets.
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The encounter of the ruthless with the inept: our history in a nutshell.
#
Friday, August 04, 2006
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Is friendship between Armenians and Turks possible? I am not sure. Some day in the distant future we may be able to bury the hatchet, but I suspect we will never forget where we buried it.
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To say all our misfortunes are due to our geography is to imply that Armenia is a good place to die.
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Never argue with a man whose most powerful argument is his bad breath.
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The certainty of being right is what’s wrong with most people. All crimes against humanity begin with the conviction on the part of the perpetrators that they are right and their victims wrong.
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As a rule, fanatics who say God is on their side are not in the habit of wasting any time worrying whether or not they are on His.
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The more ignorant they are, the more patriotic they pretend to be, as if to say, “We may know less, but we love the flag more.”
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A small group of thoughtful, committed men can change the world; but an even smaller group of thoughtless fanatics can destroy it.
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Dying is easy. Writing for Armenians is hard.
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There is more truth in the advertisements of our partisan weeklies than in their commentaries and editorials, and I have never even been remotely tempted to buy anything they advertise.
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As children we are brought up to trust our fellow Armenians and to suspect odars. As adults we learn to trust crooked odars more than honest Armenians.
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Saturday, August 05, 2006
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Nothing gives me more pleasure than to be contradicted by someone who makes sense – I may learn something. And nothing annoys me more than to be contradicted by someone who recycles the kind of nonsense I was taught as a child.
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Unanimity is easily achieved among moral morons and mental midgets.
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“Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Armenian translation: Scream at the top of your lungs and carry a toothpick.
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Hating is easy – any child can hate. What’s difficult is understanding.
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We begin to think only on the day we learn to think against ourselves.
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Our partisan weeklies print 99% anti-Turkish propaganda and 1% nonsense and they tell me I am consistently negative. In their eyes all talk of Turks, massacres, hatred and intolerance is positive, understanding and truth negative.
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I chose Armenian literature for the same reason that some people choose suicide.
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Because the dead cannot speak, our “betters” say, “We did what’s best for the people.”
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Never trust the judgment of a nation whose perennial best sellers are cookbooks.
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[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Sunday, August 06, 2006
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Being on the side of the victim and against his victimizer is easy. What’s hard is to determine who’s who. Israel today is surrounded by two hundred million hostile Arabs and many more anti-Semites around the world who would like to see it bite the dust. If you add to that their status as perennial victims throughout their millennial existence, you may have to admit that the line between victim and victimizer is blurred.
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Something similar may be said about Turks and us. In 1915 Turks saw themselves as victims and Armenians, together with Russians, Greeks, Kurds, Brits, and Australians, among others, as their victimizers.
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In my efforts to explain the Genocide am I justifying it? No. What I am doing is trying to understand it without resorting to the crude clichés and simplistic slogans of our nationalist historians and propagandists.
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Speaking of nationalist historians: another factor that complicates matters is that in a political context victims are almost always double victims, as we were in 1915 and as Palestinians are today – namely, victims of their enemies as well as victims of their misguided, non-representative (in our case) or theocratic and fascist leadership (in the case of Palestinians and Muslims in general). To say otherwise is to imply that mullahs and our own tribal leaders are objective observers, impartial judges, and competent statesmen, to which I can only say, “Give me a break!” and “Nothing further, your honor.”
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And now a question: what would happen to a nationalist historian if, like Toynbee, he were to adopt a more objective and impartial stance? The answer is: he would no longer be a nationalist historian, which means he would cease to enjoy the support of our bosses, bishops, and benefactors, his books would no longer be sold in community centers and churches, he would be thought of as a traitor to the cause, and he would thus acquire the status of an outsider, an internal exile, a persona non grata, a pariah, and a pro-Turkish revisionist. He would no longer be an Armenian but a non-person and an abominable no man. I know what I am saying: I have been there. I still am.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

One of the things that has been a recurring theme in Mr. Baliozian's "notes and comments" has been his unflinching and relentless support of the immoral system known as democracy. It is almost as if the alternatives are not even allowed and democracy is the endpoint of it all like in Fukayama's "The End of History and the Last Man". It's as if the premise of democracy is accepted as default and nothing contrary is allowed.

Mr. Baliozian claims he is for the victims, for fairness, justice, honesty and all things good and moral, yet how can one claim those things while supporting the backwards and stagnant system of democracy? Democracy is nothing more than the promotion of mediocre man and a system based on the tyranny of one group over another, albeit with the box of chocolates and cute phrases of satisfying and appeasing the appetites of knaves and eager fools with catch phrases and ballot boxes.

The world has been nothing more than a pendulum swinging between despotism and anarchy, and at least, under despotism, there is honesty and clarity between the ruled and the ruler. And I am far more inclined to respect the despot and the subject, than I am to respect the democrat and the mindless voter. In democracy, tyranny only exists through subterfuge and deception. There is no bigger lie than the "people are the government". Indeed such euphemisms must exist, and people must believe, in order for the system to survive. And today, there is no more wisdom and nothing more higher or moral for an intellectual to claim than the democracy bromide.

"Intellectuals" from left and right, from Nepal to Mexico all believe this guff and write about it and preach it as if it makes them seem wise or somehow suggesting some new wisdom that has never before been tapped by man. They are quick to point to America and other corrupt governments and say "Well, that is not how democracy works. If only WE worked it we would then establish TRUE democracy". But in their blindness and haze they don't realize that this IS democracy, and that this is the logical ramification of the idea taken to its full effect. In fact, the "people are the government" is the exact double think that is one of the main holes in the democratic line of reasoning, its appeal to the masses, mob rule, majoritarianism.

Democracy is the worst form of government because it emancipated war and democratized it. That is why in the age of democracy, we have "total war" which is something that we didn't have before. Further evidence of the violence that came with the democratization of war can be seen in the 200 million deaths that were to befall humanity in the 20th century alone.

we armenians have at no time experienced democracy; neither have our conquerors.

you may now go to bed with the certainty that the armenian nation has been and continues to be the luckiest nation on earth, a virgin nation untouched and unsullied by democracy, eh?

[Anonymouse]

Re: notes / comments

we armenians have at no time experienced democracy; neither have our conquerors.

you may now go to bed with the certainty that the armenian nation has been and continues to be the luckiest nation on earth, a virgin nation untouched and unsullied by democracy, eh?

Many Communists argue that Russia never saw "true Communism". What is your point?

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Monday, August 07, 2006
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It has been said, “Academic politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are small.”
Corollary I: The smaller the stakes, the more vicious the arguments.” Corollary II: When nonentities disagree on nothing, the result is bound to be verbal massacre.
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In our controversies we are like Oscar Wilde’s foxhunters: “The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable.”
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“Why do you always find fault with us?” a reader demands to know. “Why are you afraid to criticize odars?” Odars interest me only in so far as they make visible that which we pretend not to see in us. And before I undertake the daunting task of collecting the garbage on Main Street, I like to clean up the mess in my own backyard.
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Let others preach hatred of the Turk; I prefer to get busy recognizing the Turk within me.
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The answer to conventional wisdom is not unconventional stupidity.
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It is in their efforts to appear deep that the shallow expose their lack of depth.
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Even the most ruthless dictator depends on the subservience of the majority, provided of course the majority remains unaware of this.
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My experience with Levantines is that, they think they are ahead of you if they are better at making money. Nothing runs deeper than the contempt of the merchant for the poet. One of our national benefactors is quoted as having said to one of our poets: “I hire and fire people like you every day.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Many Communists argue that Russia never saw "true Communism". What is your point?

you think a benevolent dictator will solve all our problems?
can you name a single benevolent dictator in our history or anyone else's?