Thursday, February 23, 2006
**************************************
Gide: “Faith moves mountains; yes, mountains of
absurdities.”
*
Misunderstanding is a constant theme in Gide’s
final diary entries.
“When an intelligent man makes an effort not to
understand, he naturally succeeds much more
cleverly than a fool.”
But I have also discovered that, when it comes to
misunderstanding, fools can be surprisingly
creative.
*
After seeing Olivier’s production of KING LEAR
Gide goes at some length to explain why he thinks
this to be Shakespeare’s worst play. Odd that he
does not mention Tolstoy, whom he admired, and
who also hated this play about which he wrote a
long essay as if he were trying to settle an old
score with a rival.
*
Communism has been defined as state capitalism,
and capitalism as socialism for the rich. Private
enterprise promotes greed, and government
programs legitimize waste. All systems are
designed by elites to favor elites.
As for revolutions: they only replace one set of
rascals with another. Which is why, during the
final years of his life,
Arthur Koestler (one of the most politically
astute writers of the 20th century) refused to
discuss politics.
*
Zarian observes somewhere that we are on the
verge of extinction not because we have been
victimized by ruthless tyrants, but because we
have lost our bearings, we have assimilated the
values of our oppressors, and we have betrayed
all those among us who have attempted to define
what is and is not Armenian.
#

Friday, February 24, 2006
***********************************
David Irving is now willing to concede that
millions of Jews died during World War II, but he
refuses to use the word Holocaust describing it
as a concept that “became cleverly marketed, like
Tylenol.” In view of his past blunders and
dishonesty, I find his semantic sensitivity
fraudulent.
*
Indifference is sometimes confused with strength.
It seems to me it is more akin to moral
feebleness.
*
The very same extremists who mounted violent
demonstrations against cartoons of the Prophet
are now demolishing holy shrines and beheading
teachers in front of the class for refusing to
teach only religion and riot.
*
Whenever I mention the many crimes committed by
organized religions I am reminded that atheism
too has produced its share of criminals, such as
Stalin. But I maintain that, unlike Marxism,
which is an ideology, Stalinism became a religion
and a highly organized one at that. Let me quote
Nikita Khruschev on Stalin: “It is impermissible
and foreign to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism to
elevate one person, to transform him into a
superman possessing supernatural characteristics
akin to those of a god.”
*
Mohammed is only a prophet and a messenger; and
yet, he is treated as a god in whose name all
kinds of unspeakable crimes are committed every
day. This is clearly seen by the overwhelming
majority of mankind except the criminals.
*
Because I have consistently refused to confuse
ideology with theology some of my partisan
friends think of me as a heretic and an enemy of
the people.
#

Saturday, February 25, 2006
************************************
In some people the instinct to assert
intellectual superiority is stronger than the
need to learn and understand.
*
Gide quotes Leon Bloy as saying: “One must puke
on others!” How about that for French refinement,
etiquette, and elegance?
*
At the turn of the last century Baronian made
savage fun of our leadership but history advanced
as if he had not written a single line.
*
Before I blame anyone, I blame myself – a
quintessentially unArmenian trait that. Before we
blame ourselves, we prefer to blame the rest of
the world, not just Turks and Kurds but also
Bolsheviks, the West, and the Good Lord Himself.
We never bother to ask what have we done to
deserve so many enemies?
*
A contemporary Baronian is unthinkable perhaps
because after the Genocide, and unlike the Jews
(who have produced some brilliant satirists and
comedians) we prefer to lament crocodile tears
rather than have a good laugh at ourselves – at
our vanity, at our illusions, at our propaganda,
and ultimately at our lies.