notes

[Guest arabaliozian]

Wednesday, August 07, 2002**********************************All our blunders may be said to be rooted in the fallacy that we are the center of the universe. We may no longer think so consciously but there remains an inborn tendency in all of us to overestimate our powers and importance, to have, in short, a far better opinion of ourselves than others have of us.*I am reading a history of Russia. When divided, Russians were defeated and colonized by far smaller nations. When united under a strong leader, like Peter the Great, they were successful in defending and extending their territories in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. There is no such a thing as manifest destiny, and if there is, it must be an extension of solidarity.*If every Armenian who unleashes his fury against his fellow Armenians were to unleash it against the Turks, Turkey would be reduced to rubble in no time.*Falling for flattery can be as lethal as falling into a deep well crawling with reptiles.THE TROUBLE WITH PUNDITS ************************************ Pundits are like expensive lawyers: if you have enough money you can always produce a counter-pundit. But even after you somehow manage to develop a consensus among all pundits, the chances are you will end up with a small group of fanatics who will continue to assert the earth is flat.Likewise, even after all the historians and political leaders of the world were to agree that the Armenian Genocide is an amply documented historic fact, there will be Turks who will continue to believe Armenians were guilty of treason, Turks did nothing wrong, and anyone who says otherwise is either an ignoramus or an enemy of the Turkish people.Moral I: Even if we were to dedicate 99% of all our resources on proving the reality of our Genocide, we may fail in our final objective.Moral II: No one in the history of literature and philosophy of the world, from the beginning of time to the present, has yet been successful in inventing a fail-safe method of communicating with fanatics.Speculation: What if the devil himself was a fanatic with whom even the Good Lord could not communicate?