Thursday, September 08, 2005
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“Never trust someone who goes out of his way to be nice to you – he is after something,” an older friend once warned me. I dismissed his warning as that of a cynic and forgot all about it. A big mistake on my part.
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When at the turn of the last century the Great Powers expressed concern about our condition within the Empire and took our side against the oppressors, we did not question their motives. A big mistake on our part for which millions of innocent civilians paid dearly.
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When you shake hands with a brown-noser, count your fingers and immediately after wash your hands with soap and water. If his nose is brown, the rest of him can’t be white.
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When in his initial phase as a writer Zarian said some very nice things about the Armenia voki [ethos], he was believed, respected, published, and achieved some degree of popularity. But when he realized he had been wrong and was not afraid to say so, he was dismissed by his contemporaries as a loudmouth egomaniac and acquired the status of a non-person.
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All religions have produced their share of prophets, martyrs, and saints – that doesn’t make them the only true religion. All political leaders and parties have had their share of partisans — that doesn’t make them superior to any other political party.
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Political leaders know that all they have to do to acquire followers is to utter such clichés as “You are the brains of the people,” or “You have leadership qualities,” or “You belong to a superior race,” or “You are the Chosen people.” Of course, it takes some degree of cunning combined with some kind of ruthless stupidity to voice such nonsense and believe in it, and when it comes to stupidity, it has been said, “even the gods cannot compete with men.”
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“If you want our support, you must learn to kiss ass,” is the unspoken message in some of the criticism leveled against me. I was there once and I have no desire to revisit the place. All I want to do now is to echo Zarian’s warning, “Danger, danger, danger!”
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Friday, September 09, 2005
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A BRIEF HISTORY
OF THE ARMENIAN NATION
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If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. If you don’t live by the sword, you will die on the cross.
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Two Armenians were having a quiet conversation. It could happen.
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Advice to a young Armenian writer:
Don’t write; but if you write, don’t publish; but if you publish, be prepared to perish.
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Being an Armenian is hard work. I wouldn’t apply for the job even if they promised a fat salary, the very best in fringe benefits, and a sky-is-the-limit expense account.
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I could have been a far better writer if I had had critics instead of riffraff hurling insults at me. But alas, it looks like I am destined to remain a minor, negligible, and forgettable scribbler.
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Self-esteem is not a reliable index of worth, in the same way that dogmatism is not an index of certainty.
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There is a natural tendency in the brainwashed to resent anyone who refuses to be brainwashed.
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Saturday, September 10, 2005
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PUNDITS
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A pundit who is very critical of Turks, Jews, and the West in general but never of his fellow Armenians is no better than a one-eyed Jack who sees evil only in others, never in himself. When I once met one of these pundits face to face I asked him if he had any political ambitions, and he replied, yes, he thought he could be useful to the regime in Yerevan. When I dismissed our leadership as a bunch of opportunists and crooks, he said he was willing to concede that, very much like the rest of mankind, we were not perfect. But why stress the imperfections of others and cover up our own? I demanded to know. Because, he explained, at this stage in our history, we needed help and encouragement, not opposition and obstruction. Since he was not a lawyer, he did not know or pretended not to know that if you help a crook you become an accessory.
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In an encounter with another one of our pundits, I was told that our only solution was to get rid of all our politicians and to replace them with our own religious leaders. When I said that would be like trying to extinguish a fire by pouring gasoline over it, he changed the subject.
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The trouble with some of our pundits is that they seem to be totally unaware of the fact that all our major writers, from Khorenatsi in the 5th century to Massikian in our own days have been very critical of our political as well as religious leaders; and I suspect one reason they don’t read our writers is that they think, as intellectual giants, they have no use for the input of midgets. I should also add that some of them might read English, French, German, Russian, and sometimes even Turkish fluently, but not Armenian.
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