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[Guest arabaliozian]

Thursday, August 29, 2002***********************************8In all political movements, lust for power is invariably hidden beneath noble slogans: the greater the lust, the nobler the slogans.*Most Armenians who assimilate don’t see themselves asbad Armenians or turncoats. On the contrary. They seeassimilation as a step in the direction ofenlightenment, progress, and above all, liberationfrom the shackles of ignorance, fanaticism, andsubservience to rituals and traditions that haveoutlived their usefulness.*To the perpetrators, massacre is never massacre butthe will of Allah or some other abstract principle(territorial integrity, historic necessity, moralimperative, patriotic duty, manifest destiny, and soon). It is the same with our bigots: with them toobigotry is not bigotry but superpatriotism;intolerance is not intolerance but opposition totreason and betrayal (if not actual than potential).Q/A*******************Q: What does it take to be an Armenian writer?A: A willingness to work for nothing, to be criticized by fools, and to be insulted by imbeciles. Q: Why would anyone want to be an Armenian writer? A: As far as I know, no one! Q: What about you?A: I no longer think of myself as a writer, let alone an Armenian writer, but as a witness who is doing his utmost not to commit perjury.Q: How would you define a good Armenian?A: Anyone who is on our side.Q: Including a Turk?A: A friendly Turk would qualify as an honorary Armenian, yes. Q: And how would you define "our side"? A: Armenians for solidarity. You may now define our enemies.LATER [8/29/02]*************************Almost everyone I know has been either mugged or burglarized at one time or another. I have been very lucky in that department. But then, as an Armenian writer, I have been verbally assaulted and hacked so many times during the last thirty years that it’s a miracle I am alive.*To say that a story with a happy ending is better than a story with a sad ending, or a comedy is a superior genre than a tragedy, is nonsense. Likewise, to say that optimists are better people than pessimists, or, for that matter, brown-nosers are morally superior to critics, is empty verbiage. The world is big enough to accommodate all kinds, including fools who speak not because they have something to say but because they have to say something.*At one end of the spectrum we have decent human beings who happen to be Armenian, and at the other, carcinogenic agents who wrap themselves up in the flag in order to hide their true colors.