Sunday, May 29, 2005
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When an expert writes a book for laymen, he doesn’t write everything he knows, only that which will be accessible to the average reader; and as everyone knows by now, for every expert there will be another who will contradict him.
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I was born and raised in Greece. I have lived and dealt with Greeks and I have read a great deal about them. What do I know about Greeks and their history and culture? I know that there are more than a thousand books on the subject and if I were to read all of them I would discover something new in each one.
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I have lived in Canada for many years. What do I know about Canadians and Canadian history and culture? What do I know about the small city where I live? The truth is, I don’t even know the names of my next-door neighbors.
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What does the average Armenian layman know about Turks or, for that matter, Armenians? But then, what an Armenian knows is one thing and what he pretends to know another. In mathematical terms, if what he knows equals to zero or even minus one, what he pretends to know will be closer or equal to infinity.
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We are a nation of ignoramuses parading as experts on any given subject.
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Reality has been compared to a vast mosaic, puzzle, or Oriental carpet. What we know is only a tiny fraction of it. Sometimes an expert will discern a pattern but it will be only a guess, which will be contradicted by another expert.
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Entire books (incomprehensible to laymen) have been written about “the meaning of meaning” and about why 2+2=4. And no philosopher so far has been successful in answering (to the satisfaction of all philosophers) the question, “why things exist.”
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Perhaps the true meaning of knowing is, the greater the area of knowledge, the greater the area of ignorance. Or, to understand more consists in the awareness that what we don’t understand far outweighs what we understand and may never understand.
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Monday, May 30, 2005
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When an Armenian wants to validate his ideas, the chances are he will quote his grandmother rather than a boss, bishop, or benefactor. Perhaps what we need today, and what we have always needed in the past, is to be ruled by a committee of grandmothers.
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How to stop bullying in schools: this has become a hot topic in both Canada and the United States recently. There has been a spate of studies, hearings and recommendations. I wonder why is it that so far bullies have been allowed a free hand. The only answer I can come up with is that capitalism and militarism legitimize and promote bullies, who are seen as future captains of industry, generals, and men with leadership qualities.
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Because I was brought up with anti-Turkish prejudices, I make up for it by being against all prejudices, including, and above all, pro-Armenian prejudices.
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When I speak of Ottomanized Armenians or Ottomanization in general, it is not because I am prejudiced against Ottomanism (whose abuses may not be worse than the abuses of many others -isms, beginning with nationalism, imperialism, Stalinism, Nazism, fascism, anti-Semitism, and so on…). Rather, I am against Armenians who preach Armenianism but practice Ottomanism and are totally unaware of the contradiction.
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I committed some of my most unforgivable blunders when I was sure I was right.
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Since there is no humor in the Bible and some of the most brilliant comedians today are Jewish, one must conclude that one of the preconditions of acquiring a sense of humor is five thousand years of persecution. As for common sense and decency: that may take a little longer.
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Whenever I say something that makes sense, I make another enemy.
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Once upon a time we thought the world was on our side. We now think it’s against us. Some day when we grow up we may discover to our astonishment that nobody gives a damn.
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Am I wrong? Probably. Since I have no political ambitions, I don’t mind admitting that I don’t know much and I understand even less.
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Tuesday, May 31, 2005
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ON CRITERIA
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You can tell a man’s character by the criteria he uses to judge other men.
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A rule without exceptions:
Only the scum of the earth assert moral superiority.
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Even the smartest Armenian is not qualified to judge the dumbest Armenian, probably because it is the dumbest Armenian who assesses himself as the smartest. And because a really smart Armenian knows that he may be smart in one, two, or three fields, but he might as well be a complete ignoramus in a thousand others.
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Only a mentally challenged kibitzer suffering from verbal diarrhea will assess himself as a competent judge of men, and only a moral moron will judge his fellow men by the number of their university degrees. According to Franklin D. Roosevelt (or one of his speechwriters): “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.”
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Mario Puzo, who ought to know what he is talking about: “A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns.”
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I remember to have read somewhere that more university graduates become criminals every year than policemen, janitors, or garbage collectors.
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There are good men and bad men. Likewise, there are good Armenians and bad Armenians as there are good and bad Turks. If it had been up to good Armenians and Turks there would have been no massacres. And if some day Turks and Armenians learn to coexist to their mutual benefit it will be because of the good men on both sides. Because if it were up to the bad, history would repeat itself; and history tends to repeat itself because bad people are more ruthless in their pursuit of evil aims. One reason: good people use only good means to rise to the top, whereas bad people use both good and bad means.
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Good men know that all massacres are alike in the sense that the victims are invariably innocent and defenseless women, children, and old men. Only bad men say, “When we massacre our enemies, it’s good. When they massacre us, it’s bad.”
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Wednesday, June 01, 2005
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Since 1922 Armenians have killed more Turks than Turks have killed Armenians. At the going rate we may have a good chance of getting even in about two million years, give and take a millennium or two.
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In this context it is also worth mentioning that since 1922 Armenians have killed many more Armenians than they have killed Turks. At the going rate, and if you add up the assimilated (or victims of our self-inflicted “white massacre”) we may be extinct long before we settle our score with the Turks.
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It is not unusual to meet the proud Armenian who thinks he has a license to behave like a bad Turk.
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To those of my readers who get all worked up whenever they disagree with me, I say, “Relax, take it easy, you have nothing to worry about. I am only a slum-dwelling failure on my way to oblivion.”
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I am not complaining. There are advantages to being a failure. You don’t have to put up with agents, accountants, lawyers, editors, and psychiatrists. I see only one advantage in being a success: you get a better class of critics.
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Whenever I run out of things to say, I read my critics. Nothing stimulates me more than unspeakable perversity coupled with loudmouth arrogance.
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If historians criticize one another of misunderstanding or misinterpreting the past it may be because, as more or less reasonable men, they cannot grasp the fact that, the absurd and the irrational play a more important role in human affairs than reason, common sense and decency.
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Deep Throat is a Jew. One more reason why I love Jews. Haldeman and Ehrlichman were loyal to the boss. One more reason why I loathe bosses and fascists.
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