arabaliozian

February 1, 2014

Sunday, January 26, 2014

**************************************

THE BLAME GAME…

AMONG OTHER THINGS.

*****************************************

If you master the rules of the blame-game

you can easily represent yourself as a statesman of vision

and the opposition as a cesspool

of corruption, incompetence and stupidity.

*

When in doubt

I always do that which is against my own interests.

*

Whatever I have done,

I have done out of necessity and under duress.

The choice was thrust on me

the way subservience is thrust on the 99%.

*

Bishops, imams, rabbis:

they share a common wish to be trusted and respected,

but they neither trust nor respect one another.

*

If a single man can be wrong,

so can two or two thousand or two million,

especially when they speak of

the Incomprehensible and the Unknowable.

*

The Scriptures tell us to turn the other cheek

not to drop our pants...

*

We are midgets perched on the shoulders

of lesser midgets.

*

We are told there are two kinds of statistics,

lies and damn lies.

What about belief systems?

#

ALPHA MALES

****************************

Bosses, bishops, benefactors:

alpha males whose #1 concern is #1.

The rest is propaganda.

*

PATRIOTISM

*****************************

There are Armenians – and I know some of them myself –

who view intolerance, ignorance, and stupidity

as authentic expressions of their patriotism

and moral superiority.

*

DIALOGUE

*******************

In dialogue there are no losers

because both sides learn from each other.

Which may explain why dialogue

happens to be quintessentially un-Armenian.

*

WRITING

*********************

I write.

It’s an inexpensive hobby – the cheapest I know.

It costs me nothing.

#

ON WHAT WE KNOW

*************************************

Nobody knows everything about anything.

Some of the worst blunders in the history of mankind

were committed by very smart men

(self-assessed, of course) who thought

they knew all there is to know about the enemy.

*

We know now that even Wall Street

doesn’t know everything about Wall Street.

*

The 99% hate the 1% -- their secret role models.

*

The 1% are at their best

when it comes to deceiving and exploiting the 99%.

*

We like to pretend we know more about ourselves

than anyone else until we are cornered, assaulted and defeated

by our own irrational impulses.

*

Once upon a time we were ruled by kings.

We are now ruled by moneyed morons

with the charisma of apes.

*

There are always two schools of thought

and we tend to favor the school

that is more favorable to our vanity.

*

We say “shit happens”

even when we micro-managed the catastrophe.

#

AS I SEE IT

******************************

Leaders: Blind men who pretend to have 20/20 vision.

*

There are two kinds of failures:

(a) those who make less than minimum wage

(Armenian writers come readily to mind) and

(b) those who make a million a day (guess who).

*

In the eyes of the 99% the 1% might as well be Turks.

*

Speaking of Turks:

We know what they did to us.

My question is: What did we do to them?

If something, what?

If nothing, why not?

*

You tell me I simplify complexities?

Am I then the only one?

*

MORE ON OBAMA

****************************

He made many mistakes?

Maybe. But had he done the opposite of what he did,

he would have been impeached.

Who wants a pope in the White House?

#

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

****************************************

If you speak the truth you will be contradicted not only by liars but also by dupes and idiots.

*

I don’t understand everything. Only god does; and if god wanted me to understand everything he would have created not men but gods.

*

For every truth there is a lie and sometimes a thousand of them.

*

A man who is his own worst enemy cannot be anyone’s friend.

*

The closer I get to the final answer the more certain I feel of my final failure.

*

Two mosquitoes may achieve more than one; a thousand of them may inflict serious damage.

#

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

**************************************

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

****************************

...to one and all!

*

ON LEADERSHIP

**************************

Political leaders hate to admit error. Hence the existence of hirelings – meant to say, nationalist historians – and the importance of patriotism which is easily confused with loyalty to the leadership even when the leaders happen to be swine.

*

ON COMFORT & JOY

******************************

When told I am a comfort to our enemies, I say, we are a greater comfort when we divide ourselves.

*

ON HUMAN NATURE

**************************

No matter what you say, you will get on someone’s nerves. Consider what happened to Socrates and Jesus. You say that was then and this is now? I say: technology may change but human nature stays the same. There are as many violations of human rights today as there were in the 5th century BC and 1st century AD.

#

INTOLERANCE

************************

Intolerance makes men stupid. You can guess a man’s IQ fairly accurately by the manner in which he welcomes new ideas.

*

At least once every day we should remind ourselves of the vastness of the universe and our own insignificance in it.

*

Inaction can create as many problems as wrong action.

*

Some of the greatest men in the history of mankind were persecuted, even executed, for daring to challenge the authority of the 1%. What does that tell you about the IQ of mankind?

#

ON POPULAR MUSIC

************************************

Popular music is incapable of achieving greatness.

*

There is something fundamentally wrong in a culture whose musical standards are set by teenagers and the CEOs of the recording industry.

*

I am reminded of the king who, after visiting America, said he was impressed by the manner in which parents obeyed their children.

*

One of the things that I love about America is the readiness with which they acknowledge their “ugly” specimens. There is even a best-selling book titled THE UGLY AMERICAN and a movie based on it with Marlon Brando in the title role.

#

NOTES & COMMENTS

************************************

As a child I don’t remember an adult saying “I don’t know.” What they said was “You’ll find out when you grow up.”

*

I don’t write for readers; I write against them beginning with myself.

*

As a failure I am free; as a success I may be a slave to my success. Isn’t that what happened to Arlen and Saroyan?

*

When we divide ourselves the message we send to our enemies is: “No need to kill us; we are committing suicide.”

*

Armenians may be said to have a Turkish problem. I am that rarest of all Armenians: an Armenian with Armenian problems.

*

In a disagreement, you cannot defeat your adversary by insulting him; you can only expose your own limitations and inability to entertain new ideas.

#

ON WRITING

****************************

The best opening line is the one you delete, according to Chekhov who probably wrote more opening lines than any other writer.

*

I remember to have read somewhere, as soon as you write a brilliant line, delete it. As far as I know, Simenon, one of the most successful and prolific writers of all time, never wrote a single brilliant line in his life.

*

Q

**********

Who benefits from wars, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis? Surely, not God. Who then? Is Mother Nature in cahoots with the Devil? What else?

*

ON PROFIT

*****************

If you are in the business of making money, your greatest assets are the ignorance and stupidity of the masses. Something similar could be said of politics.

*

PARTY DISCIPLINE

***************************

It has happened to the best of my childhood friends. On their own they were more like wolves; but after joining a political party, they turned into sheep. Were they emasculated by party discipline?

#

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December 28, 2013

BAH-HUMBUG

*********************************

Where would the 1% be

without the full cooperation, dedication, and hard work

of the 99%?

*

To be a good Armenian it is not necessary

to be a bad human being with a closed mind.

*

Crooks have their uses:

they make us appreciate the importance of honesty.

*

Being smart also means not repeating idiotlc blunders

like dividing the community

and abusing children by brainwashing them

to brag about our genius for survival.

#

MEMO TO A WRITER

*******************************

If you say the opposite

of what your average reader wants to hear

you can’t go wrong.

*

ON POPULARITY

***********************

Popularity is an American aberration

and best-sellers the surest symptoms of mediocrity.

*

A CRITIC SPEAKS

***************************

“You have been writing for thirty years now

and you have changed nothing,”

a reader writes implying

either shut up or change your tune.

Change begins in the heart

and what happens there doesn’t make headlines,

neither does it penetrate the hick skulls

of those in a position to change things,

especially if the status quo has been good to them.

*

WHY ENGLISH?

*******************************

I write in English because 99% of what I write

would be considered unprintable by our 1%.

#

My greatest liability:

I never mastered the art

of flattering the powerful and the rich --

i.e. the scum of the earth.

#

Was Santa good to you?

*

Both capitalism and communism

have been good to their 1%.

What does that tell you

about ideologies and belief systems?

*

My own answer:

They introduce meaningless divisions

even when they know the result may be

the slaughter of countless innocent victims;

even when they have been warned

“a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

#

TO MY CRITICS

******************************

Gentle reader:

Unlike you, I don’t pretend to speak the truth,

the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Think of me only as the voice of another school of thought.

*

Knowledge and understanding are not your enemies.

There is no need for you to defend yourself against them.

*

To think that you can speak the truth

and be popular is an American fallacy.

*

So many first-class literary works

have been rejected by publishers

or ignored by the public that

one is tempted to define writing

as composing music for the deaf.

#

A HISTORY OF DECEPTION

***********************************

Turks have been successful in convincing the Yanks

(a) we are their Red Indians, and

(b) whenever we don’t get our way

we engage in acts of terrorists;

which is what happened in the Ottoman Empire

at the turn of the last century and more recently

all over the world including America.

*

DUPES

****************

We are born dupes.

First we believe in the friendly disposition

of the Young Turks and now

we believe our own leaders

when they tell us with our financial support

they will have the Genocide recognized by the Yanks.

*

DUPES (II)

******************

Where would tyrants be

without cowardly dupes?

*

Q

*******************

“Melonsmellonous osculations.”

Can you guess what’s being said

and the identity of the author?

#

LESSONS

*****************

If history teaches us anything it is this:

we can be wrong;

we can be wrong even when we are right;

we can be dead wrong even when

God and the Great Powers are on our side.

*

The #1 concern of our 1% is not to solve our problems

but to defend and protect their powers and privileges,

which means Plan B only for themselves.

*

My ideal reader is one who hates to read;

which means he has been at the mercy

of speechifiers and sermonizers and is thus

virgin territory easily impregnated with new ideas.

*

When I was young, unemployed and unemployable,

two senior members of the Party came to see me.

Someone had told them I love books and reading.

“We are willing to subsidize your university education,”

they said, “provided you agree to work for us.”

Meaning: We have no use for your garbage;

we have our own.

Which may explain my present status

as an abominable no man.

Mart bidi ch’ellank!

#

December 21, 2013

IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE

*************************************

Some of my critics take pleasure in the knowledge

that I am a failure and a loser.

To them I say, that may well be why

I understand the nation.

*

FANS

***************

It is true that our leaders have their share of admirers.

But then so did Nero, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin,

Nixon, and Reagan.

*

LAWYERS AND POLITICIANS

****************************************

Can you finish the following sentence?

“If the world is in deep shit today it’s because…”

*

Q

*********

Is it possible that I am the only one

who thinks the world would have been a better place

without Elvis and the Beatles?

*

Q/A

************

What will happen next?

That which you least expect it.

#

RAFFI'S WARNING AND

CHARENTS'S MESSAGE

*************************

To prove to a visiting Venetian painter

what the neck of a beheaded man really looks like,

Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent,

also known as the Lawgiver,

had a prisoner brought before him

and beheaded.

It is said that the Venetian painter

(one of the Bellini brothers)

was so shocked by the bloody spectacle

that he left that same night under cover of darkness.

That is the difference between that Venetian painter and us.

The Venetian left.

We stayed

We stayed even after Raffi warned us

the Ottoman Empire was no place for us

because Turks had no respect for human life.

We ignored Raffi's warning in the 19th century

as we ignore today Charents's final message

concerning our “salvation.”

By “we” I mean less the people

and more the leaders who speechify during the day

about survival and turn into gravediggers

under cover of darkness at night.

#

We are few.

We are weak.

We are vulnerable.

Therefore, we are divided.

Which is like saying:

“I think.

Therefore I am not.”

#

DISAPPOINTMENTS

************************************

What is life if not

an endless series of disappointments?

A monster of human frailties,

my ambition was to achieve perfection.

I wanted to be the wealthiest man on earth

but never made more than minimum wage

with many intervals of unemployment.

As a writer I have failed again and again

to convince my readers that

the smartest man in business

may be an idiot in politics;

in the same way that

the loveliest woman in the world

worshipped from a distance

may be no better than a living corpse –

all because man is not yet equipped

to tell the difference between love and lust.

You want to know more about the human condition?

Take a good look at yourself in the mirror.

#

ON UNDERSTANDING

**********************************

You want to develop your understanding?

Teach yourself to view things through alien eyes

including your worst enemy.

*

Don’t speak of your problems to a friend

unless of course you want to make him happy.

I remember once, many years ago,

when I mentioned a problem to a co-worker

– a cute little blonde – she cut me off

with the words: “I’ve got problems of my own.”

*

Wisdom can be found in the most unlikely places.

*

When I speak of a nation

I mean of course its leaders and their dupes.

The average law-abiding citizen

may not be as smart as his political leaders,

but he will be more honest.

*

Socrates is right: one can guess

how honest a man by his income.

#

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December 14, 2013

THE DEFENSE

************************

The Turkish line of defense is simplicity itself:

“We did to the Armenians what you did to your Indians.”

*

The only people who refuse to acknowledge

the finality of this statement are our fund-raisers and

Hai Tahd (Armenian Case) tax collectors.

*

If the Greeks in their Golden Age ...

found Socrates guilty of a capital offense

and executed him,

how dare we hope we can get justice

from a jury of convicted liars and cut-throats?

#

ON STATESMANSHIP

****************************************

You say he was a great statesman?

Tell me, how many of our problems did he solve?

A statesman is first and foremost a man of action:

he formulates and implements policies

which he can do only after developing a consensus.

*

You say Armenians are ungovernable?

In that case a statesman’s function is

to make the ungovernable governable.

If he cannot do what must be done,

he is a failure or, at best, a man not of action

but of contemplation.

He is more like Naregatsi

and less like Gandhi, Churchill, and Mandela.

*

“He was a man of vision, a great patriot,

sincere in his commitments to ideals?”

So were Hitler, Mussolini, and Mustapha Kemal Ataturk.

#

A STORY WITH A HAPPY ENDING

*******************************************

When asked to name his favorite role model,

one of our intellectuals

(let’s call him Comrade Panchoonie)

named one of our benefactors

(let’s call him Jack S. Avanakian)

and was amply rewarded.

*

SHAHAN SHAHNOUR SPEAKS

****************************************

"A French whore is a whore.

A German whore is a whore.

A Greek whore is a whore.

But a whore who writes is an intellectual."

*

QUESTION

***********************

To the anonymous critic

who reads and curses everything I write:

“Are you the one I once called an inbred moron?”

*

JUST A GUESS

**************************

I wouldn’t be surprised if they said:

“Let’s do to our Armenians

what the Americans did to their Indians.”

But I would be surprised

if one of our revolutionaries said:

“What if they do to us

what the Americans did to their Indians?”

#

December 11, 2013

HOW TO SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS

**************************************

Tribal divisions are not a verdict without appeal.

All we need is a Mandela.

If Africans can do it, why can’t we?

To those who say,”

Why don’t you apply for the job?”

I say: I am a failure as a writer.

I would be a disaster as a political leader.

My job consists in telling it like it is.

Mandela?

Hell, we couldn’t even come up with an Ataturk.

#

IN PRAISE OF OLD AGE

***********************************

I have been young

and I have been old

and old is better.

*

If you are young and you assume to be right,

you will be closer to the truth

if you assume to be not just wrong

but dead wrong; so wrong, in fact,

that you may have to spend the rest of your life

suffering the consequences of your blunder.

*

One advantage of old age is that

you exercise more freedom

in your choice of misery.

*

I write for dupes and idiots like myself

when young.

#

EXPLANATIONS

***********************************

If you have trouble understanding why

successive American administrations

have refused to recognize the reality of the Genocide

here are some easily accessible explanations:

Even when dead wrong, might is right.

(Please note, I don’t make rules;

I only state them as I see them.)

Empires speaks a language

tribal people don’t understand.

Taking care of #1 is their #1 concern.

Regimes don’t have principles, only interests.

If you refuse to see the light

it may be because you prefer to live in darkness

(isn’t that what we did for 600 years?)

Ignorance is a heavy burden.

Lincoln was wrong.

You can fool all the people all the time.

Consider the long history of organized religions

According to Toynbee

(who quotes the Bible on almost every page he writes)

our demands were unreasonable.

It follows; the Turks did what they did

because they had no other choice.

To those who dismiss my short list

of explanations as bullshit,

allow me to quote another familiar proverb:

“Life is a shit sandwich.

The more bread you have

the less shit you eat.”

#

NOISE

****************************

The Chinese pictograph for noise

is three women under the same roof –

or so I remember to have read somewhere.

The same word in an imaginary Armenian pictograph:

two men.

*

Homo sapiens? Hell, no!

Homo capable of being sapiens? Maybe.

*

Compared to nothingness

(before we were born and after we die)

being is an ephemeral dot so tiny

that it might as well be invisible to the naked eye.

One is almost tempted to say

the reason we exist is to experience

our own insignificance or nothingness.

*

When two selfish individuals meet,

they learn the importance of altruism.

#

December 7, 2013

DECEPTION (I)

***************************

Everything that needs to be said has been said. The role of our propaganda today is to deceive us into thinking everything that needs to be done is being done when in fact nothing is being done.

*

DECEPTION (II)

In our official version of the story the Genocide was inevitable. Which raises the question: if our leaders cannot foresee the inevitable, what are they good for besides raising funds?

*

OVERHEARD

***********************

“Make friends when you don’t need them.”

*

“You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince.”

#

TWO OBSERVATIONS

********************************

If a closed mind makes you happy, by all means, follow your bliss. Only be warned. A fool’s happiness is a house without foundations.

*

In the eyes of some I am a self-hating Armenian because I refuse to rely on the support of men who could be useful to me – bosses, bishops, benefactors, their hirelings, hangers on and dupes. They fail to see the obvious: if I am against these gentlemen it is out of self-respect, and I suggest self-respect and self-hatred are mutually exclusive concepts.

#

ON THE ORIGINS

OF PATRIOTISM

*********************************

If I had a choice between visiting Venice or Paris and the ugly little Greek slum where I was born and raised, I would choose the slum but I can’t because it’s no longer there – it was reduced to rubble by the Germans during World War II.

*

My doubts outnumber my certainties a thousand to one. I am one of those who feel guilty even when they say the right thing and do what must be done.

*

Judge an underdog by what he would do if he were a top dog.

#

December 4, 2013

ON POPULARITY

******************************

Popularity is overrated.

Neither Socrates nor Jesus was popular.

Bach was neglected for a hundred years.

Kafka was known only to a handful

of close friends.

Hegel’s last famous words:

“No one understood me except one,

and even he didn’t understand me.”

My guess is Elvis and the Beatles

made more money in a year than

Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms combined

throughout their lifetime.

*

Have I said this before?

No matter.

Some things are worth repeating.

#

HOW TO BE OBJETIVE

***********************************

The only way to be objective

is to see oneself through alien eyes.

The alternative is to view Catholics

through the eyes of the Pope,

the Soviets through the eyes of Stalin,

and the Chinese through the eye of Mao

on the grounds that these gentlemen know better.

*

One of the most important rules in dialogue:

neither side is allowed to say “Yes, sir!”

*

Ideas like “All men are created equal,”

should be judged by their history

and not by their intentions.

*

Archie Bunker is dead,

long live the Tea Party!

#

ON LAWYERS

& RELATED ATROCITIES

************************************

Where lawyers prosper, justice suffers.

The function of a jury, it has been said,

is to decide which side had the more competent

legal representation.

*

Where advertisers prosper,

the line that separates fact from illusion

will be blurred.

*

Where there is great wealth,

there will also be crooks.

Plato’s explanation for this phenomenon:

unlike honest men who will employ only honest means,

crooks will employ honest as well as dishonest means.

*

We live in a land of bankers, investment brokers,

public relations men, advertisers and lawyers.

It follows, we are in deep sh*t.

#

BOOK REVIEW

***********************

130 TALISMANS. By Kardash Onnig.

Foreword by Alexander Boccialini Shundi.

Illustrated. 2013. Published by Baraka

(P.O. Box 145, Stanfordville, NY 12581).

**************************************

Are talismans, also known as “charms,” objects with mystical powers over evil or mumbo jumbo? My reason tells me they belong to the mumbo jumbo department of life, but my subconscious sings a different tune.

After a black cat crosses my path, I feel better if I find a penny on the sidewalk. Accuse me of being superstitious and I will deny it. Figure that one out if you can.

This illustrated booklet of 130 talismans is the latest opus by our Renaissance man of arts and letters, Onnig Kardash. Each talisman costs $400.00. If they weren’t beyond my income bracket I would love to buy a dozen of them (one for each room in the house) and forever after feel less vulnerable.

(For more information write to Transformer @gmail.com).

#

November 30, 2013

RANDOM THOUGHTS

******************************

After moronizing its own people America

is now engaged in moronizing the world.

*

Describe someone objectively

and deep inside somewhere

one of his defensive walls is bound to collapse.

*

Most of my critics are not idiots

but they appear to enjoy acting the part.

*

More often than not

when I try to solve a problem

I succeed only in compounding it.

*

My piano teacher taught me

the only way to learn a piece marked presto

is by playing it lento.

*

One way to be brilliant is

by writing a hundred different versions

of the same line and choosing the best.

#

MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE CONCEPTS

*********************************************

A wolf and a vegetarian diet.

A closed mind and dialogue.

An Armenian and a Turk.

An Armenian and an Armenian.

*

What I write is free –

like cheese in a mousetrap.

*

American saying: “90% of everything is crap.”

Armenian translation: “99%.”

#

NOTES & COMMENTS

***********************************

If the world were a room,

the U.S. would be the elephant in it.

*

If you assume to be right

you are automatically disqualified to engage in dialogue.

*

A liar’s best friend is another liar.

*

A snake’s ideal food is another snake.

*

Thirst for knowledge and thirst for blood

are mutually exclusive concepts.

*

A dupe cannot have an open mind.

*

When the Nazis said “Gott mit uns”

they meant of course the Devil.

*

I repeat myself?

What about our sermonizers, speechifiers,

and Turcocentric fanatics?

*

All corrupt regimes need enemies.

Hatred is a glue and all politicians need scapegoats.

#

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November 27, 2013

REFLECTIONS

**********************************

A single priest may brainwash

as many as a thousand children,

but a thousand bishops cannot convert

a single imam.

All victimizers are experts at least in one field:

in their choice of victims.

*

If you are an adult,

you know something about history,

and you are a nationalist,

you may safely declare yourself

a public nuisance and a retard.

*

If we were to judge a religion by its history,

who would dare to brag about

being a religious person?

*

I have never said none of our

bosses, bishops, and benefactors is an honest man.

What I have said is that

I never had the pleasure of meeting one.

#

MASTERS & SLAVES

********************************

As the offspring of perennial losers,

I tend to divide my fellow men

into masters and slaves,

or top dogs and underdogs.

*

I fear and respect top dogs

and I have as much respect for underdogs

as I have for myself, which is none.

That’s why my respect

for our bosses, bishops, and benefactors

knows no bound.

Sometimes I even go as far as classifying them

as architects of our collective destiny,

when in fact they have as much power

as a sardine in a pool of sharks;

and when speechify and sermonize

in the name of God and Country

what they really mean is

the KGB and the CIA.

*

HOW TO RECOGNIZE

A RIGGED ELECTION

**************************************

If the winner is an enemy agent,

he has the charisma of a robot

and the eyes of a reptile, it’s rigged.

#

JUNKIES

****************************

Notwithstanding the fact that

our writers have been consistently misunderstood,

rejected, starved, even betrayed

and murdered in cold blood,

there are boys and girls today

whose ambition is to be a writer.

There is a reasonable explanation

for this strange phenomenon:

ignorance of history.

*

The official version of our past

has been bowdlerized so drastically that

if reality and our school texts ever met

they wouldn’t recognize each other.

*

We have this in common with Turks:

we are junkies of state propaganda.

There are well-established academics today

(not all of them Turks)

who believe Talaat was a great statesman.

*

Talaat’s arrogance was such that

he dared to parade in the streets of Berlin

as if he were a universally respected royalty in exile.

Until reality caught up with him,

as it caught up with us

in successive waves of massacres

whose message we

(or rather our leadership)

chose to ignore.

*

The problem with compulsive and habitual liars is that

they end up believing in their lies.

#

MEMO TO A CRITIC

**********************************

My aim in life is to understand reality.

Your aim, if I understand it correctly,

is to assert some kind of superiority

motivated by patriotism,

which is also the aim

of all speechifiers, sermonizers,

and propagandists, who at

least get paid for their work,

*

You may have noticed by now

that I have a handful of favorite themes

on which I compose endless variations.

To those who accuse me of repeating myself

I plead guilty as charged.

My aim is not to achieve immortality

or even earn minimum wage,

but to speak of reality as I see it

and not as I am told to see it

by someone who may or may not be

a compulsive liar, a child molester,

or an inbred moron.

*

The trouble with Christianity

as an organized religion is that

99% of Christians were brainwashed as children.

The same applies to all organized religions:

they are organized to lie, deceive

and when necessary to kill and die

in defense of a god who has no need

of their protection.

*

We need to talk!

#

November 23, 2013

********************************

INTERVIEW

****************************************

Q: Raffi writes about bad as well as good Armenians.

You write only about the bad. Why?

A: Raffi was a great writer and a good man.

Obviously I am not qualified to tie his shoes.

Q: If propaganda is bad, why so many engage in it?

A: So many also engage in adultery, drugs,

smoking, war and massacre.

You see, like you, I have more questions than answers.

Q: Is it true that you love Turks and hate Armenians?

A: I hate all liars and dupes regardless of nationality.

Q: Why are you against patriotism?

A: Because the ultimate aim of all patriotism is slaughter.

I therefore say: F*** politicians who motivated by lust for power

invent conflicts and brainwash the brainless.

#

TRYING TO MAKE SENSE

************************************

Leaders are first and foremost moronizing agents.

The world is being systematically moronized today

by Americans as surely as

the Middle East and the Balkans were moronized

by the Ottomans and the Soviet republics

were sodomized by the Russians.

*

What we think of ourselves

is never the same as what others think of us.

In that sense we are not much different from the groupie

who once declared:

“I am not a groupie! I don’t have sex with the boys.

I don’t use my body. I only do blow jobs.”

*

The secret ambition of all victims is to be a victimizer.

This may explain why an Armenian

is another Armenian’s Turk.

*

Where propaganda is over-developed,

literature will be under-developed,

and in our case, non-existent!

#

MEMO TO MY CRITICS

********************************************

Please note that I hate neither myself

nor my fellow countrymen.

What I really hate is the Turk in all of us

and when I speak of Turks

I don’t mean Turks as they are

but as they appear to be in our history

and collective experience.

*

READERS

***********************

I don’t write for readers who know better.

I write for readers who know as much as I did

when I was a dupe.

*

ON A COMMON FALLACY

**************************************

We all share the same illusion:

namely, that people will judge us by our propaganda

and not by our history.

*

ON LITERATURE

*********************************

There is nothing wrong in admiring great writers

provided you remind yourself that

even the great ones, like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky,

had their share of contradictions

which they could not resolve.

*

MORE ON TURCOCENTRISM

*********************************************

Turcocentrism may also be defined

as an ideology that says

we are not the architects of our destiny.

It follows, the only logical explanation

of our misfortunes is: “Shit happens.”

*

Consider earthquakes as a case in point.

What we are not told is that

according to experts

“Earthquakes don’t kill people; buildings do.”

*

Nothing comes more naturally

to a compulsive and habitual liar than

to cover up and to lie.

*

The priority of all businessmen is profit.

The more profit the better.

Likewise, the priority of all politicians

regardless of race, color and creed is power –

the more power the merrier,

even if it means the destruction of the nation.

*

Our dealers in chauvinist crapola

expect us to believe

what applies to all politicians

does not apply to our own

who rule and divide by the grace of God.

#

FOREIGNER

***********************

To me, the ultimate odar (foreigner)

is the Ottomanized and Sovietized Armenian.

*

ON SURVIVAL

********************

We have survived – no one denies that –

but survived as what?

*

PARADOX

*************************

Armenians who classify themselves as the best,

sooner or later expose themselves as the worst.

#

“We are a people like any other people.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

#

ZOHRAB & CHARENTS

**********************************

“We are a people like any other people.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.

Even our greatest intellectuals and poets,

like Zohrab and Charents, were dupes

of enemy propaganda.”

“What would you have done in their place?”

“Probably what they did and having done so

I would deserve universal ridicule and contempt.”

*

SAROYAN

*********************

I will never forget the angry letter

one of our elder statesmen sent me

after reading one of my anti-Soviet tirades:

“Saroyan loves the regime.

You think you are smarter than Saroyan?”

*

GUILTY AS CHARGED

*****************************

You say I simplify complexities?

What does propaganda do?

What is propaganda if not the mother tongue

of self-satisfied idiots and their dupes?

*

GUILTY AS CHARGED II

*************************************

“You repeat yourself.”

“Not as often as our propagandists.”

#

November 2, 2013

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

**********************************

Loyalty or subservience to authority

is not patriotism but fascism.

*

My guess is, we produce

more speechifiers, sermonizers and pundits

per capita than any other nation on earth.

*

Who speaks today in the name of the people,

and when I say people I mean

not the dead but the living.

*

The most important questions in life

are destined to remain unanswered.

Even belief systems that pretend

to have all the answers

are willing to acknowledge this fact.

There is a well-known story about a theologian

who on informing the Pope that he had written

a 1000-page treatise explaining the mystery

of the Holy Trinity was ordered to “burn it!”

#

LIVE AND LEARN

**********************************

Until very recently I wasn’t aware of the fact

that fund-raising is a profitable enterprise

and that some chief executive officers

of charitable organizations

are paid million-dollar salaries.

*

Wee are more civilized.

Our charitable organizations

don’t have chief executive officers;

even more to the point,

they are accountable only to God,

which in practice, means no one.

*

Question: Do CEOs of charitable organizations

contribute to charitable organizations?

#

SCENARIOS

******************************

On the day Azeris open their borders

we will bleed from three open wounds:

East, West, and North.

*

At the present rate of exodus,

they will not have to fight us

to reoccupy their lands,

they will just walk in.

*

I am a comfort to our enemies?

What about our dividers?

What is their message?

Let me guess:

“No need to kill us,

we plan to commit suicide.”

What else?

#

October 30, 2013

ON CRACKPOTS

***********************************

In a recent issue of TIME magazine

there is an interview with Andre Agassi

in which Armenians and massacres are not mentioned.

*

The best thing Saroyan ever said about the Genocide is that

he felt sorry for the Turks.

*

Now you may understand why I refer to

Genocide ghazetajis, Hai Tahd activists and fund-raisers

as Turcocentric crackpots.

*

There is a baloney artist in all politicians

and ours are no exception.

#

THREE MAXIMS

***************************

Thinking against oneself

is one of the cardinal virtues.

*

Politicians and honesty are

mutually exclusive concepts.

*

To believe when you are right

you have God and Truth on your side

is to be a potential assassin and terrorist.

#

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

********************************************

We all have our share of limitations

with one difference: some of us

are infatuated with them.

Erasmus of Rotterdam was right when he said:

“Everyone loves the smell of his own sh*t.”

*

The need to be understood

always exceeds the need to understand.

*

Where lawyers and politicians enter,

injustice and lies are sure to follow.

*

Never contradict a politician or a lawyer:

remember, they are professionals.

*

To my anti-American friends

from the Middle East I say:

“I agree with you provided you also agree with me

when I say the rest of the world is no better.”

*

Nobody ever said to be an honest man among crooks

comes without a price.

*

I don’t always like or agree with what I say

but once I put down 2+2=

I have no choice but to say 4.

#

READERS

*************************

There is a type of reader

(and I have my share of them)

who is programmed to disagree and reject

anything that is not recycled propaganda.

Such a reader doesn’t even bother or begin

to understand what’s being said.

He just hangs a label on you

and forever after identifies you

as the lowest form of animal life –

namely, an Armenian

who doesn’t love all Armenians

and hate all Turks.

Such a reader is convinced

anyone who has more power or money

must know better.

He is Bolshevik in his pragmatism,

capitalist in his value system,

and Catholic in his dogmatism.

#

Reply, Reply All or Forward | More

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Wine

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ON CRACKPOTS

***********************************

In a recent issue of TIME magazine

there is an interview with Andre Agassi

in which Armenians and massacres are not mentioned.

*

The best thing Saroyan ever said about the Genocide is that

he felt sorry for the Turks.

*

Now you may understand why I refer to

Genocide ghazetajis, Hai Tahd activists and fund-raisers

as Turcocentric crackpots.

*

There is a baloney artist in all politicians

and ours are no exception.

#

THREE MAXIMS

***************************

Thinking against oneself

is one of the cardinal virtues.

*

Politicians and honesty are

mutually exclusive concepts.

*

To believe when you are right

you have God and Truth on your side

is to be a potential assassin and terrorist.

#

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

********************************************

We all have our share of limitations

with one difference: some of us

are infatuated with them.

Erasmus of Rotterdam was right when he said:

“Everyone loves the smell of his own sh*t.”

*

The need to be understood

always exceeds the need to understand.

*

Where lawyers and politicians enter,

injustice and lies are sure to follow.

*

Never contradict a politician or a lawyer:

remember, they are professionals.

*

To my anti-American friends

from the Middle East I say:

“I agree with you provided you also agree with me

when I say the rest of the world is no better.”

*

Nobody ever said to be an honest man among crooks

comes without a price.

*

I don’t always like or agree with what I say

but once I put down 2+2=

I have no choice but to say 4.

#

READERS

*************************

There is a type of reader

(and I have my share of them)

who is programmed to disagree and reject

anything that is not recycled propaganda.

Such a reader doesn’t even bother or begin

to understand what’s being said.

He just hangs a label on you

and forever after identifies you

as the lowest form of animal life –

namely, an Armenian

who doesn’t love all Armenians

and hate all Turks.

Such a reader is convinced

anyone who has more power or money

must know better.

He is Bolshevik in his pragmatism,

capitalist in his value system,

and Catholic in his dogmatism.

#

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

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



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

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October 23, 2013

TO KNOW IS TO REMEMBER

******************************************

To write also means to repeat

what has been said and forgotten;

to shout that which is whispered;

and to expose that which is covered up.

As for solutions to our problems:

I can only say and repeat:

solutions, like the Kingdom of God,

are within you.

*

Be honest with yourself and others

even when to be honest means

to be outnumbered a thousand to one.

*

Thou shalt not deceive yourself,

especially when the deception is disguised

as tradition, the laws of the land,

or the word of a king, pope, or

some other phony representative of god on earth:

in short, propaganda.

*

If belief systems don’t tell us

not to be dupes of propaganda

it may be because that would be like

digging their own graves.

But I maintain being a dupe

is one of the most dangerous transgressions.

Wars and massacres are perpetrated

by dupes whose sole justification has been,

“I was following orders,” or

I trusted the word of god as spoken

by a rabbi, imam, or bishop.

#

BIG BROTHERS,

AMONG OTHER THINGS

********************************

The Russians are our Big Brothers

only in the sense that for 600 years

Turks were our Big Brothers.

So was Cain to Abel.

*

When you are young

you pull up your pants

and go wherever you want to go.

But when you are old

someone else pulls up your pants

and takes you where you don’t want to go.

I am now paraphrasing the Bible

which may suggest it is not the Word of God

but of men with a credibility problem.

*

Lies that flatter are infinitely more dangerous

than mad dogs, venomous snakes, and mad elephants.

#

HOLIER-THAN-THOU

**************************************

There is a type of holier-than-thou reader

who likes to point out the fact that

my criticism of Armenians is nothing

but a projection of my own shortcomings.

Such a reader is convinced he knows better

because he is better.

His unspoken aim is not to understand reality

but to explain it in such a way

as to prove his moral and intellectual superiority;

and to prove it to others

in order to convince himself.

#

MEIN KAMPF

*********************************

All my efforts are now concentrated

on being readable. As for saving the nation:

I leave that to our bosses, bishops, benefactors

and dime-a-dozen superpatriots

with messianic ambitions.

*

ON SERMONIZERS AND SPEECHIFIERS

**********************************************

One way to define them is to say

they are men who know what must be said

but consistently and unanimously avoid

doing what must be done.

*

RIGHT AND WRONG

************************************

It is not enough to say we did nothing wrong.

Did we do anything right?

Even more to the point:

Can we even tell right from wrong?

*

OUR SHISH-KEBAB PARTIES

**************************************

Members of the Tea Party in America

are the offspring of individuals

who in the second half of the 19th century

fought a bloody civil war –

some say the bloodiest in history –

in defense of slavery.

They remind me of our

bosses, bishops, and benefactors

who, to save the nation, they divide it.

*

WORDS OF WISDOM

********************************

There is an old Armenian saying:

“He is so smart he even knows

where the devil sleeps.”

The devil, my friends, sleeps where he resides

and he resides in our hearts.

*

TELL ME

************************

Am I saying anything

you don’t already know?

#

October 16, 2013

THE BOTTOM LINE

****************************************

Our problems were thrust on us by others. We reject their solutions on our own.

*

Only the rotten succeed in a corrupt environment.

*

The greater the political control of schools, libraries, newspapers, community centers and churches, the greater the number of yes-men and dupes.

*

The challenge is to speak of serious things without taking oneself seriously; to be critical of others and even more critical of ourselves.

*

In a totalitarian environment to say your ambition is to succeed as a writer is like saying as a virgin it is your ambition to be a bordello madam.

*

When wolves are in charge, sheep will be useful only as lunch.

#

ORWELL SPEAKS

********************************

In one of his essays

George Orwell speaks of

“the corrosive digestive juices

of the British imperial leviathan.”

You may now have a better understanding

of the depths of our own degradation.

*

Elsewhere he speaks of

“the smelly little orthodoxies

contending for our souls.”

#

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS

******************************************

There is an old saying:

“When you’re down, the only way is up.”

Like all rules this one too has its exceptions:

Armenians.

*

The Greek jury that condemned Socrates to death;

the men who crucified Christ;

the solitary Hindu who assassinated Gandhi:

they all shared one thing in common:

they were brainwashed to believe

the gods, truth, and historic necessity were on their side.

*

If you brainwash children to believe

in the myth of the Holy Trinity,

they will be inclined to believe in many other trinities

like liberté, fraternité, egalité;

thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis;

Marx, Engels, Lenin…

*

A nation that hates together stays together.

*

Judge a tree by its fruit and a propaganda line

by the number of its victims.

*

I quote to enhance my credibility.

What the hell does an Armenian scribbler know?

An odar author, that’s different.

Prof. Hamalian on Zarian,

after reading my translations:

“He writes like one of my bright students.”

*

Academics: they all proceed from the assumption

that they know better.

Question: With over a thousand Armenian academics

in America alone, why is it that our collective existence

is in such a mess?

#

I COULD BE WRONG

***************************************

Certainties are the source of all evil.

But I could be wrong…

*

Has anyone ever said

I could be wrong

but let’s divide the community anyway?

Or, I could be wrong

but let’s go to war …

*

To some a belief system is nothing

but a source of income and power.

*

Where there are idols

there are idol-makers.

Where there are dupes

there are deceivers.

I think it was Luther who said:

“The God of Christians (meaning Catholics)

is an idol.”

*

What is patriotism?

In theory, love of God and Country.

In practice, to brainwash children

and manipulate adults.

*

We should teach our children to say

“I could be wrong.”

*

Socrates was condemned to death

because he spoke in defense of doubt and uncertainty.

“Of the gods,” said he, “we know nothing!”

#

October 9, 2013

FREEDOM

*************************

Everyone speaks of freedom of religion

as if it were a good thing,

a mark of progress and civilization.

What if what will civilize the world

is not freedom of religion

but freedom of dissent and heresy?

But as long as rabbis, bishops and imams

are allowed the freedom

to poison the minds of children

we will have wars and massacres.

*

Why is this so difficult to understand?

Empires decline and fall

not when its prostitutes, pimps,

thieves and degenerates prosper

but when its spiritually superior individuals

(self-assessed of course) assume leadership positions.

*

Moral I: Freedom of religion is freedom to enslave.

*

Moral II: Freedom to brainwash children

is a crime against humanity.

#

JAGADAKIR

**************************************

We have a school of thought that says

Christianity was a bad choice for us.

We should have converted to Islam.

The unmistakable implication being,

since we cannot change the past,

we cannot change our present and future.

What’s done is done and it cannot be undone.

It is our jagadakir (destiny) therefore

to remain perennial losers.

Let us therefore, in legal parlance,

drop our pants and bend over to whoever is on top –

be he a shah, pasha, padishah, sultan or commissar.

*

But I maintain our problem is not our choice of religion.

Our problem is ignorance of the world,

divisiveness, corruption, incompetence, treason,

and intolerance of any idea

that may shatter our image as la crème de la crème

and expose us as la crème de la scum.

#

IN BRIEF

************************

On our present situation:

Losers at the mercy of other losers.

*

SWINE

******************

The 1% are cold-blooded swine

who think they will not burn in hell

because hell is their own invention.

*

KNOWN UNKNOWNS

************************************

We know that Sultan Abdulhamid II’s mother

was Armenian. We also know that Talaat himself

was probably part-Armenian.

What we don’t know is

how many of our own present leaders are Turks.

*

INTERNET

***************************

Is the Internet making us smarter or dumber?

I don’t know. All I know is that

if an ape uses it he will not be born-again

as a human being.

*

ON ASSAD

**********************

Tina Brown on Bashar-al-Assad:

“A creepy, lisping, giraffe-necked liar.”

*

LOLITA

**********************

I don’t read and reread LOLITA

to be enlightened or instructed.

I read it because it is compulsively readable –

from the first (“fire of my loins”)

to the last sentence.

#

NOTES & COMMENTS

**************************************

There is a general in every solider

(according to Napoleon),

a pope in every seminarian,

a master in every slave,

a capitalist in every proletarian,

and (according to a schoolteacher)

a Turk in every Armenian.

*

Nothing disarms a man

with a highly developed spirit of contradiction

than agreement.

*

We read so many obituaries

and hear of so many deaths when we are alive

that we end up thinking of ourselves

almost as immortal.

#

October 9, 2013

WHY WRITERS WRITE

*******************

When asked why he writes, a writer is quoted as having replied: "So that idiots may have something to think about in twenty years."

*

The problem with most Armenian writers is that

they want to achieve popularity

long before they are murdered by a foreign tyrant

or starved by their fellow Armenians.

*

Am I right or wrong?

I am not sure. But I know this:

if I am wrong, my voice will be drowned

by a chorus of loud-mouth chauvinists, charlatans,

partisans, skinheads, and panchoonies,

none of whom will ever dare to question the authority

of any one of our bosses, bishops, and benefactors.

*

If all Turks vanished from the face of the earth tomorrow,

Armenians wouldn't miss them because an Armenian friend

wouldn't be much different from a Turkish enemy.

*

Charles Péguy: "Out of ignorance and a sense of duty

most decent people are liable to turn into criminals."

*

You can't talk ethics with a bishop:

he thinks he has a monopoly on the subject.

You can't talk sharing power with a boss:

he thinks he is the best-qualified man for the job.

You can't talk money with a benefactor:

he won't listen to anyone who makes less than he does.

*

Scottish proverb: "The devil's boots don't creak."

*

All persecuted minorities and victims tend to view freedom

as the freedom to persecute and victimize.

*

La Rochefoucauld: "No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does."

*

"I paint with my prick," Renoir is quoted as having said.

Some of my readers think with theirs.

#

October 2, 2013

INSPIRATION

**********

The eternal snow of Mt. Ararat .

Nightingales serenading the moon.

I leave these things to our versifiers.

The written word is my main source of inspiration.

When I agree with something,

I compose a variation.

When I disagree,

I improvise a contradiction.

When I read an irresistible passage,

I quote it.

I love to quote.

i love to read books of quotations.

So much so that I have myself compiled two of them:

one published (A DICITIONARY OF ARMENIAN QUOTATIONS),

the other (much more extensive) in manuscript form.

*

As for originality:

How much of Plato is Socrates?

How much Socrates owes to the pre-Socratics

most of whose works have survived, if at all, in fragments.

*

It was Hemingway who once said:

“Minor writers plagiarize. Major writers steal.”

And sure enough, at one time or another all major writers

have been accused of being plagiarists –

Sartre, Garcia Marquez, Toynbee, Zarian...

*

Toynbee once described himself as someone

who moves old furniture around.

Garcia Marquez’s style has been traced back

to the 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS and Faulkner.

An American academic, Stern by name

(that’s the only thing I remember about him)

once wrote a book in which he traced all of Sartre’s ideas

to predecessors.

It was Oshagan who accused Zarian.

Need i say more?....

#

TWO GERMAN PHILOSOPHERS

**********

On Nietzsche:

When asked what he thought of Nietzsche,

Jules Renard is said to have replied:

"There are too many useless letters in his name."

*

On Heidegger:

The son-of-a-bitch was a Nazi

who fell in love with one of his students

who happened to be a Jewess.

*

LOATHSOME IMBECILES

**********

In his THE ITALIANS, Luigi Barzini writes:

"There comes a day in every man's life

when he realizes his leaders are loathsome imbeciles."

*

COUNTER-PROPAGANDA

**********

I repeat myself because I write counter-propaganda.

If propaganda repeats itself, what choice do I have?

#

September 14, 2013

ORSON WELLES SPEAKS

************************************

He hated the Irish, beginning with Spencer Tracy.

In his recently published CONVERSATIONS he explains:

“Seven hundred years of bitter oppression

changed their character, gave them

that passive meanness and cunning.”

*

By contrast, he loved Hungarians:

“I love Hungarians to the point of sex!

I almost get a hard-on when I hear a Hungarian accent;

I am so crazy about them.”

*

On Israelis: “The only time they make good music

is when Zubin Mehta, a Hindu, comes to conduct.”

*

On Coppola: “THE GODFATHER is the glorification

of a bunch of bums who never existed.”

*

More to follow….

#

ORSON WELLES SPEAKS (II)

******************************************

On intellectuals:

“They are the biggest pushovers.

They love power.

They cluster around whatever golden boy,

or man, is in power and begin to justify it.”

*

On writers:

“I don’t like Dostoevsky.

Tolstoy is my writer.

Gogol is my writer.

I’m not a Joyce guy…”

*

On women:

“They are another race.

You can’t tell them the truth.

You have to lie.”

*

On Russians:

“They have terrible taste.

They are a people of genius;

and they are very literal.

They are ‘machine-made.’

Poor people.”

*

On American journalists: ‘

“Cocksuckers with typewriters.”

*

On Laurence Olivier:

“He was so in love with his own image

it was terribly hard for him

to resist going down on himself.”

#

ONCE BRAINWASHED

ALWAYS BRAINWASHED

*********************************************

That’s the only way to explain why so far

Christians have failed to convert Muslims

and vice versa.

*

Both bishops and imams agree that

when it comes to brainwashing

children are more receptive candidates;

and what’s even more outrageous,

they call it education.

*

The overwhelming majority of people

are born, live, and die as dupes.

*

I judge the importance of a book

by the number of prejudices and preconceptions

it exposes and shatters beyond repair.

*

An honest Christian will be honest

only in the eyes of his co-religionists.

An honest infidel or hetanos is an oxymoron.

*

An Armenian has no use for writers.

He is a man of action who understands everything

and knows nothing – or is it the other way around?

#

September 11, 2013

CONFESSION (XXII)

*************************

Since I have no political ambitions

I don’t mind admitting that

I have been wrong most of my life

and I am probably wrong today.

If to be right means to kill someone

I’d much rather be wrong.

*

My favorite illusion:

As human being most people are equipped

to see the light of reason.

*

Addicts of the blame-game

refuse to believe that we have played a key role

in our history and we continue to do so today.

*

Anonymous: “History does not repeat itself,

but it rhymes.”

#

WORSE THAN A CRIME

*************************************

A friend of mine once wrote a book

titled AS OTHERS SEE US

but was careful to quote and discuss

mostly friendly witnesses.

*

I committed a worse blunder:

I wrote a book on Armenian history

from which I excluded anything

that may be remotely classified as negative;

and what’s even more repellent to me now,

I never thought of what I was writing

as propaganda. Like all idiots and dupes

I believed it was my patriotic duty

to treat my readers as idiots and dupes.

*

Assad’s crime we are told is using poison gas

to kill his own people.

What we are not told is that

his blunder consisted in having made no effort

to reconcile and unite his fragmented nation.

*

I think it was Talleyrand who once said to Napoleon:

“It was worse than a crime, Sire, it was a blunder.”

#

ON TEXTBOOKS

*********************************

There is one past but there are

ten thousand historians.

*

ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY

*********************************

There are two basic approaches to the study of history:

objective and hysterical.

*

FROM AN OBJECTIVE STUDY

OF ARMENIAN HISTORY

***********************************

We were divided by Turks;

we were divided by Bolsheviks;

and we are now being divided by our own

Ottomanized, Stalinized, and moronized bureaucraps (sic).

*

FROM A TEXTBOOK

ON POLITICAL SCIENCE AND DIPLOMACY

**************************************************

Never fight your enemies if you can divide them.

Remember the Armenians.

*

FROM A TEXTBOOK

ON BRAINWASHING

*******************************

After you moronize them

you can even convince them to be

just about the smartest people on earth.

#

DISAGREEMENTS

*********************************

Many readers disagree with me.

That does not surprise me in the least.

In human affairs disagreement is the rule

rather than the exception.

*

Lawyers and politicians disagree all the time;

so do bishops and imams; and in our case

bishops (Etchmiadznagan) and bishops (Anteliassagan).

*

More often than not however,

disagreements are rooted not in ideas

but in sources of income, or power and prestige.

We live in a world where ideas have become

as relevant as the song of a non-existent bird

in an imaginary forest.

*

Speaking of our ruling classes,

and more specifically our neo-commissars

and crypto-Panchoonies: they have discovered

a new way of dealing with their critics:

they refuse to acknowledge their existence;

and it seems to work provided of course

you ignore the high assimilation rate in the Diaspora

and the exodus in the Homeland.

Criticizing them might as well be an exercise in futility;

and exposing their would be like trying to kill a man

who is committing suicide.

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