notes / comments

[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

to be undiplomatic is to never treat enemies as potential friends/allies in the future, and vice versa. Don't know how much this applies to individuals with other individuals though, I'm not counting on it being much.

Anyway, is it necessary to doubt everything our nationalists have to say about geopolitics? I'm becoming more and more convinced, the more and more I read about history, leadership and puppet rulers and puppet idealists that your showcase of excerpts from philosophers and intellectuals talking about morality do not apply to geopolitics very well, but to an individual and his or her personal commitment to themselves and their conduct.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Thursday, February 21, 2008
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GETTING WISDOM
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If your aim is the acquisition of wisdom, real time-tested wisdom, rely on popular sayings by Anonymous, the greatest philosopher of all time.
“Don’t believe everything you are told.” “Don’t believe everything you read in the papers.” “Believe what you see, ignore what you hear.” “Drumbeats sound better from a distance.” “Don’t stir the pot too much, you may expose the manure.” “Some people will say and do anything for money.”
Cases in point: During the Soviet era, a highly respected Armenian academic taught “scientific atheism” in Yerevan. But when the Kremlin collapsed, he immigrated to America, saw the light, was born again, and is now making a comfortable living as a professor of theology.
After being paid a goodly sum by the Gulbenkian Foundation, a British academic and notorious drunkard, wrote a lavishly illustrated book titled ARMENIA: CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION.
When another one of our brilliant academics, whose education and political career were subsidized by one of our political parties, was made a more attractive offer by the opposition, he promptly switched loyalties.
Moral: Our “betters” may well be our worst.
If you find all this depressing, remember, “Better to sob with the wise than to laugh with fools.”
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[jgk3]

Re: notes / comments

I'm sure as a Canadian, you also see this with some of our MPs, who hop around between different political parties, like lawyers who don't believe in anything, except making a fatter sum of money.

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Friday, February 22, 2008
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ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN ARMENIAN LIFE
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In his REPUBLIC, Plato writes that in an anti-intellectual environment, a philosopher cannot but be like “a man who has fallen among wild beasts, who is unwilling to share in their misdeeds and is unable to hold out singly against their savagery.”
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Our bishops represent the Almighty, our benefactors represent another Almighty, and our bosses represent their respective little mafias. Who represents the people? The voice of the people continues to be an absent factor in our collective existence.
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Albanians are ahead of us. They are now willing to concede that they allowed themselves to be manipulated and moronized by a petty dictator like Enver Hoxa because he was successful in convincing them they were just about the smartest people on earth. (For more on this subject, see Paul Theroux’s THE PILLARS OF HERCULES.)
Something similar happened to Germans under Hitler: by convincing them they belong to a superior race, Hitler was successful in making them behave like swine. Mussolini, Stalin, and Mao – the secret of their success was flattering the masses by brainwashing them to believe a glorious destiny awaits them.
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What happened to our intellectuals? Even after Talaat and Stalin slaughtered two generation of our ablest writers, we had giants like Shahnour, Zarian, Oshagan, and Massikian. We don’t even have midgets today. And why? The answer is obvious. Consider the way we treated Zarian. Insulted, abused, and ignored in America, he was lured behind the Iron Curtain with promises none of which were kept. Shahnour was forced to write in French in order to survive as a ward of the State. Oshagan spent an important part of his life flattering idiots. And when Massikian offered to give away his books free of charge, there were no takers.
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Somewhere Antranik Zaroukian writes: “Even as they speak of crucifixion, they nail us to the cross.” And by “they” he didn’t mean the people, but their “betters” and their gangs of dupes, who, even as they praise dead writers, they bury living ones.
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[Virgil]

Re: notes / comments

Let's not give this Ara Baliozian character the satisfaction of thinking that he is one of our "writers" and/or "intellectuals." As far as an Armenian writer is concerned, Ara is only worthy of being considered a mediocre writer, at best. As far as his intellect is concerned, Ara is an intellectual midget, at best. And as far as him being an Armenian is concerned, Ara is not an Armenian. The aforementioned characteristics of Ara are the fundamental reasons why he has been rejected from the Armenian society. While Armenians adore, even worship, their poets and writers - Kaputikyan, Sevag, Charents, Isahakian, Tumanyan, Ishkhan, Varujan, Raffi, Emin - just to name a few, this "Ara Baliozian" character remains virtually nameless. And this is the essential why we see his anger, his disgruntlement and his self-hate.

In Ara's twisted mind, had he been an American, or a Canadian, or simply a westerner, he would have gained fame... However, since Ara writes for "Ottomanized Armenians" and "Gazetajis" he has gotten no where...

Nevertheless, this thread called "notes / comments" is essentially a depository of Ara's self-hate, egomania, delusion, hysteria and disgruntlement. As any self-respecting Armenian can see from his written crap, the depth of Ara's emotional/intellectual problems are bottomless. I personally read Ara's rants just to observe firsthand the kind of psychological damage diasporan Armenians suffer from. In short: Ara's written crap is nothing but the 'brain-farts' of a self-hating egomaniac living in the twilights of his life.

There are Armenians who assimilate and disappear without a trace. And then there are assimilated ones like Ara... The problem with his kind, however, is that once they 'assimilate' they continue sticking around to give us 'advise.'

If I was to describe Ara's literary work with one word it would undoubtedly be - GARBAGE

Bump!

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Saturday, February 23, 2008
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B ITCHING
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What have we learned from our genocide? “All you do is b itch,” a Turcocentric ghazetaji tells me. “Isn’t that what you do too?” I wanted to know. He replied with an insult. End of discourse.
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“After reading four or five of your posts, I can guess what you are going to say next,” a reader informs me. “Why bitc h, if you can stop reading me?” I am tempted to ask. Instead I say: “Sorry to be a source of disappointment to you, my good friend.” Perhaps from now on I should append the following lines after everything I post: “If not perfectly satisfied, your money will be cheerfully refunded.”
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We see the best in ourselves and the worst in others. Or perhaps what we really do is project the worst in us on others, and it makes no difference who the other is – a Turk, an Armenian, or, like Sultan Abdulhamid II, a half-Armenian. If only we could see the worst in ourselves and the best in others! Am I bitc hing again?
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[arabaliozian]

to virgin and armenian

i am willing to concede that i lack your intellectual integrity, honesty, vision, and wit! / ara

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Sunday, February 24, 2008
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A PROBLEM EXPOSED
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A clearly stated problem has a better chance to be solved than one that is covered up, ignored, or explained and justified as an integral part of the human condition, like death and taxes. Perhaps one reason we have so far failed to solve our problems is that we consider them to be so complex that they might as well be insoluble, when all we need to solve them is a touch of honesty, such as a more or less independent judiciary. I am not talking here about total honesty, which in a political context may well be a utopian daydream, but only a touch or even a willingness to move in that direction. What is so complex to the point of being insoluble about an independent judiciary? Have all honest Armenians been systematically eliminated by Stalin and his neo-Stalinist and crypto-Stalinist successors? These gentlemen are neither invisible nor grey eminences working behind the scenes. Their names and the names of their victims are not buried in inaccessible archives written in invisible ink. They are familiar figures to the natives. Let’s talk to them. Let’s publish their stories. Let’s expose the crooks instead of allowing them to make headlines in our diasporan press as if they were statesmen or servants of the people. And if so far we have failed to do that, is it because they enjoy the full support of our equally corrupt and incompetent leadership in the diasporan? What else? And if we can’t take care of our own backyard, how can we ever hope to clean up the mess in Yerevan?
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[Virgil]

Re: to virgin and armenian

i am willing to concede that i lack your intellectual integrity, honesty, vision, and wit! / ara

Well, it has already been established that you lack integrity, honesty, a vision, and wit, what is new here?

[arabaliozian]

Re: notes / comments

Monday, February 25, 2008
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THE ROAD TO HELL
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It is not easy for a human being to kill another human being, but much easier if one of them hangs a label on the other. Labels are useful because they reduce, simplify, and dehumanize. Facing an enemy (a useful label) you don’t feel the need to think of him as a fellow human being or someone’s son, husband, brother, friend, or even uncle or neighbor. If it weren’t for labels, nations would not declare war on other nations, religious leaders would lose an important fraction of their powers and privileges, and prejudices would be exposed for what they really are -- extensions of ignorance. Labels are good for the few (the men at the top) but bad for the overwhelming majority. The road to hell is paved with labels.
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