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[Guest arabaliozian]

WORDS OF WISDOMCaucasian saying: "He who parades wearing a tiger’s skin is sure to be a coward."I am reminded of my ferocious critics who hurl insults at me either anonymously or from a distance of a thousand miles.MORE WORDS OF WISDOMTurkish saying: "Among ten men nine are sure to be women."ON ARMENIAN LITERATUREIn one of his letters to Krikor Keusseyan, Shahn Shahnour writes: "I know now that our literature is less than mediocre. And it is useless as well as cruel to chastise writers without talent – writers with heat but no flame, with sentiments galore but without means to communicate them."Elsewhere and on the subject of the royalties of his next book: "If there is any profit, it should go in its entirety to a cultural foundation provided it has not partisan affiliation." In one sentence, two naпve misconceptions: that there may be profit from the publication of an Armenian book in the Diaspora and that there may exist a non-partisan cultural foundation.  I suppose, even some of our most objective writers preferred to live in a world of dreams and illusions, alas!HISTORY AND LITERATUREAmerican scholars agree that there has always been a strong anti-intellectual current in American history. The same applies to Armenian history, but the only thing Armenian scholars agree on is covering up this fact.BARBARIANSThe man who knows everything worth knowing except how to behave in a civilized manner knows nothing. Less than nothing. The knowledge of a barbarian, he wisdom of a fascist or fanatic, the understanding of a racist: add them all up and what you get is ignorance, concentration camps, and massacres.CHAUVINISMEvery nation, including the most backward, brags about something, and every nation is a figure of fun to every other nation. The same applies to every tribe within the same nation.WORDS OF WISDOMEric Hoffer: "You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."CROOKSCrooks spend so much time honing their act of projecting an honest image that they end up appearing more honest than truly honest men.WORDS OF WISDOMOlaf Stapleton: "A nation is just a society for hating foreigners."A SERMONEvery misfortune can be a blessing in disguise or so I like to believe. I cannot imagine god or the mighty forces that have created the universe to have anything against me personally if only because I am too insignificant. Likewise, I find it difficult to believe that the Almighty allowed the Turks to oppress and massacre us for no reason at all. But even assuming that were true, thenit is up to us to either profit or lose from our collective experience.We profit when we practice tolerance. We lose when we practice intolerance, which might as well be a synonym for Ottomanism.Intolerance is the seed, massacre the tree. If a genocide cannot teach us, what can?WHY I WRITE THE WAY I WRITE***********************************I don’t write for Armenians; I write for human beingsand against bigots regardless of national identity.I believe to blame others for all our problems is toallow the corrupt and the incompetent to continuemisleading and deceiving the people.I believe those who uphold tribalism in the name of patriotism orthis or that orthodoxy or ideology are our gravediggers.I don’t believe in moral victories in an amoralworld; I believe our so-called moral victories arefabrications whose sole aim is to justify the blundersof bunglers.I believe in the rule that says: "The larger the egothe smaller the brain."I believe if I were to live another hundred years andpublish a hundred more books I would make nodifference, but I go on writing anyway. Figure that one out if you can.