This And That

[arabaliozian]

Thursday, April 05, 2012

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C’EST LA VIE

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We are seduced by a glance and a smile

and by the time we realize we have been taken in,

it’s too late – we find ourselves in a hole

with only one option: to dig deeper.

*

I once worked with a cute blonde

who didn’t say much and what she said

was more often than not a quotation from the movies.

In an interview, Updike once said Errol Flynn

had been a greater influence than Jesus.

*

How many of our deepest convictions are quotations of clichés

based on hearsay evidence by dupes and compulsive liars?

*

One man’s hero is another’s villain.

General Antranik is a hero to us

and a villain to Azeris who believe

he massacred innocent and defenseless civilians.

Who is right?

*

When there are two sides to a story,

the chances are both are wrong.

*

Which belief system is right and which wrong?

Does it matter when all belief systems

are manipulated by cunning operators

whose number one concern is number one?

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Friday, April 06, 2012

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ON SECOND THOUGHT

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It is not ideas and belief systems that I criticize

but their propaganda.

It would be even more accurate to say that

I expose killers who feel justified to murder those

who disagree with them.

I attack speechifiers and sermonizers

who legitimize intolerance and hatred

in the name of God and love.

*

What is intolerance if not fear of truth?

What could be more absurd than opposing lies with bigger lies?

Isn’t that what popes, imams, and rabbis to?

Read the Old Testament and

count the number of murders, wars, and massacres.

Review the history of Islam.

Consider the abuses of nationalism

and the crimes committed in the name

of colonialism, communism, and the brotherhood of all men.

*

The real atheist is not he

who questions or doubts the existence of God.

The real atheist is he who kills in the name of God.

Who are the enemies of dissent?

if not killers who hide themselves behind pious platitudes

that convinces only dupes.

Isn’t it the quintessence of double-talk

to divide the community and the nation

and to ignore the Biblical injunction

“A house divided against itself cannot stand”?

And as if that weren’t enough,

to brag about our genius for survival.

A house in ruins may exist,

but can it survive?

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Saturday, April 07, 2012

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ON MODERATION...

AMONG OTHER THINGS

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If women are less warlike than men

it may be because they know how easily men are seduced by,

among other things, empty verbiage.

*

Greeks praised moderation above all other virtues,

and yet their history is an endless catalogue of wars –

and whenever they ran out of enemies,

they fought one another

until they were themselves defeated, conquered, and colonized

by Macedonians, Romans, and Turks – that’s what I call

a steady decline and degeneration of enemies.

So much for progress.

*

What about us?

Because our history is a nightmare

we like to modify it by nationalist propaganda –

that is to say, transparent lies.

*

If you ever get close to one of our so-called leaders,

you may be shocked to discover that

what he says publicly stands in direct contradiction

to what he says privately.

That’s another way of saying,

they are habitual compulsive liars.

When it comes to being brainwashed,

it takes one to know one…

and I bear scars to prove it.

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