Friday, November 11, 2005
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We study history to learn from it. As junkies of medievalism and massacrism, the only thing our historians have taught us is to brag or lament.
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According to a well-know maxim, “No one wins a war,” and since all war-makers operate on the assumption that they will be the victors (because no one in his right mind goes to war to lose it), it follows, all war-makers are wrong.
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Armenians make great emperors (Basil I), politicians (Deukmejian), and diplomats (Mikoyan), but only outside Armenia. In Armenia and Armenian environments in Diaspora they produce nothing but second-rate bunglers who either brag or lament with the full support of our academics, brown-nosers, and dime-a-dozen know-it-all pundits. We have been and continue to be at the mercy of mediocrities whose number one enemy is excellence and whose number one concern is number one.
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A headline in our local paper today reads: “Canadians increasingly cynical about government.” The article goes on to explain that only one in four Canadians trust their politicians. My guess is, only one in 400 or perhaps even 4000 Armenians trust theirs.
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Saturday, November 12, 2005
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What’s the use of writing if nothing changes?
But if perceptions change, reality may follow.
One can always hope, of course.
Yes, provided one does not confuse hope with wishful thinking.
But what if hope is another word for wishful thinking?
One must go on if only because the alternative is silence and despair.
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In today’s editorial cartoon a war veteran is reading his daily paper with headlines on the front page about political scandals, indictments, and wheeling-and-dealing, as he muses: “My comrades and I fought for this?” And as I scan the headlines about Turks and Turkey (19 of them) in the latest issue of an Armenian weekly (16 pages) I cannot help wondering: “Did our writers work and die for this?”
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Strange country, stranger people! They utter a cliché or a platitude and call it a philosophy. In a land devoid of philosophers, everyone is a philosopher.
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