Sunday, September 18, 2005
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Armenians are smart, progressive, civilized, compassionate, peace-loving, creative, brilliant…as long as you agree with their own assessment of themselves. Disagree with them and out pops the yataghan.
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When as a boy I read Baronian and Odian, I thought they were writing about Armenians of the Ottoman period – Armenians with fezes, mustaches, and shalvars. It was much later that I realized they might as well be our contemporaries. Flattery, subservience, double-talk, and worship of money are as much with us today as they were under the sultans. Even the final lines of letters from organizations presided over and subsidized by our multimillionaires echo Comrade Panchoonie’s celebrated punch line – “Mi kich pogh oughargetsek” (Send us a little money). As the French are fond of saying, “Plus ca change plus c’est la meme merde.”
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What have we learned from the Genocide except to publish memoirs by survivors and anti-Turkish commentaries by our dime-a-dozen pundits?
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We sometimes confuse perseverance in error with principle, and success in the market place with statesmanship. Perseverance in error is arrogant obstinacy (“I am right because I say so and anyone who says otherwise is an enemy of the people”); and success in the market place is cunning. To see more in them is a symptom of ignorance compounded by subservience: subservience to anyone with more money or power (even when he happens to be a moral moron).
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Monday, September 19, 2005
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Our lives are long lists of blunders and it makes no difference whether you are the leader of a mighty empire or an ordinary Joe who can’t make ends meet. The only difference is that if you have power or money on your side, you can afford to hire PR men, lawyers, and pundits, who will make your blunders look like an integral part of a vision whose sole aim is to further the interests of the people. If, on the other hand, you are like myself, an ordinary Joe, even idiots will call you an idiot.
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But as the invasion of Iraq and more recently Katrina have shown, even the President of the mighty U.S. cannot always be successful in misrepresenting his failures as triumphs of statesmanship.
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What have been some of the major blunders of our own leaders? When this issue was raised in reference to the Genocide, I once heard one of our so-called pundits say: “What we have here is an extremely complex concatenation of events and conditions, and none of us is in a position to know what happened behind the scenes.” Of course, no one will ever know everything there is to know about any historic event. We do know however that a million and a half innocent civilians were slaughtered in 1915, and more recently about the same number emigrated from the Homeland in search of minimum-wage employment in foreign countries, including Turkey; and as I write, more millions are being alienated and assimilated.
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Where does the buck stop? The politically correct answer recycled ad nauseam by our dime-a-dozen pundits: all our misfortunes and tragedies must be ascribed to Turkish barbarism, and geographical, historic, cultural, and social conditions beyond our control. But if you were to ask our writers (from Khorenatsi in the 5th Century to Zarian in our own days) they would give you an entirely different answer. They would say the buck stops within us, beginning with our lack of solidarity; and solidarity is a responsibility not of the people but of its leadership.
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Could solidarity have prevented the Genocide? I will let facts speak for themselves. At the turn of the last century our leaders in the Ottoman Empire were divided between those who said revolution was a necessity imposed on us by history, and those who said any revolutionary activity would result in the wholesale massacre of defenseless and innocent civilians. There was no dialogue, compromise, and consensus. Both sides adopted a dogmatic stance; and when that happens, those who are right become powerless, and those who are wrong prevail.
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As for the people, they had no say in the matter. No one asked for their opinion. Throughout our millennial history the voice of the people has been an absent factor in the decision-making process. The only time we hear about them is when they are slaughtered, drowned, or buried beneath the rubble of badly constructed buildings.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
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Let conflicting interests escalate and even Abel will behave like Cain.
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To Blacks “white man is the devil.” Gandhi once called the British “a satanic force.” Jews have their anti-Semites and Palestinians their Jews. Tutsis have their Hutus, and we have our Turks. And the merchants in the temple had Jesus.
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The evening news. An angry mob of merchants around the TV camera all shouting at the same time, anxious for their 15 seconds of fame:
-I was minding my own business when this madman barges in with a whip screaming profanities!
-A lunatic, that’s what he is.
-An anarchist.
-An enemy of free enterprise.
-Gave me a bloody nose!
-Blinded me in one eye.
-He should be arrested and fried.
-I say crucify him.
-I am a law-abiding, respectable entrepreneur. I have never done any harm to anyone. I pay my taxes. What the hell does he want from me anyway?
-That wild-eyed fanatic is still running amok vandalizing the place.
-He broke my cell phone. Has anyone called the cops?
-He pushed me, I fell and broke two teeth.
-For all I know he could be a terrorist.
-Maybe even Al Qaida.
-Blinded me in one eye.
-Broke my arm, he did.
-Has anyone called the cops?
-I have no insurance. My inventory flew the coop . I am bankrupt.
-Does anyone know who he is?
-I think he’s Joe’s son.
-Which Joe?
-Joseph the carpenter.
-Can’t be. I know Joe. He is a quiet fellow, a law-abiding citizen like the rest of us here.
-I have heard it said that his real father is a Roman soldier.
-That figures.
-Where the hell is the police?
-I called 911 ten minutes ago.
-They are never around when you need them.
-This town is going to hell. No law and order.
-I pay my taxes like everyone else. I am entitled to some protection.
-Blinded me in one eye he did…
-Broke my nose and at least two ribs.
-I am ruined.
-I say, crucify him!
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
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Not guilty by reason of insanity is a plea reserved for individuals with diminished capacity. It does not apply to political leaders with an unlimited capacity to kill millions. Which may suggest that man may be successful in dealing with minor and isolated aberrations but faced with major scandals he is helpless by reason of cobra fascination.
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Men of faith and brainwashed dupes in general have an unlimited capacity to rewrite history and make the guilty look innocent and vice versa.
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There may come a time when politics or the exercise of power will be seen as an unmistakable symptom of mental instability and anyone harboring political ambitions will be too ashamed to admit it in public.
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Do we need politicians? As long as they have the power, they will be successful in convincing us that we can’t live without them.
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You may have noticed that the heads of the most efficiently run states are almost anonymous. And the more headlines a political leader makes the more damage he inflicts on his fellow countrymen and the world.
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It has been suggested that the U.S. would be better off if Swiss hotel managers ran it.
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It is worth remembering that once upon a time barbers were also surgeons, and to whisper or suggest that kings and queens were not need was a capital offense punishable by decapitation.
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