Thursday, August 31, 2006
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As a child I don’t remember to have ever tried to reconcile the mantra of my elders “mart bidi ch’ellank,” (freely translated, “we shall never acquire the status of human beings”) with the propaganda line that said we are just about the smartest and most civilized people on earth. As an adult I know that our defects and deficiencies, our intolerance, tribalism and incompetence are like a city set of a hill – they cannot be hidden. The world knows us better than we know ourselves – that’s another thing we share in common with Turks, who like to project the image of a civilized nation that has victimized no one, let alone defenseless women, children, and old men.
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In his travel impressions of Turkey, Lord Kinross, a notorious Turcophile and biographer of Ataturk, tells us he met old Turks who not only knew all about the Genocide but also bragged about it to him. He quotes them as saying, “We taught Armenians a lesson they’ll never forget,” or words to that effect.
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We flatter ourselves when we think people can’t see through us. We are not enigmas but walking clichés. Our rhetoric and propaganda may convince the dupes among us but no one else. We like to believe ours is a success story because we survived where many others did not. It is equally valid to say that we are a failure because with solidarity and statesmen as leaders (as opposed to petty tribal wheeler-dealers) we could have been a mighty empire.
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Political correctness deals only with appearances. A man can be politically correct and harbor racist sentiments. An Armenian can say, “I don’t hate Turks,” but given an opportunity he would gladly exterminate not only them but also anyone who disagrees with him.
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Speaking of solidarity: In an article about the recently arrested polygamist “prophet” Warren Jeff and his community of fundamentalist Mormons, I come across the following sentence: “The situation is so toxic that brothers don’t speak to brothers, depending on which leader they follow.” Does that ring a bell?
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And speaking of intolerance: In the obituary of Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arab writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize, I read: Because he was “a strong voice for moderation and religious tolerance… he was accused of blasphemy and survived a stabbing attack twelve years ago.”
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Friday, September 01, 2006
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We make better servants than masters. As masters we can be merciless, especially if our servants are Armenian.
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We have made many more significant contributions to foreign empires (Byzantine, Ottoman, Soviet, American) than to our own nation. I call that our “Gulbenkian complex” – give only 7% to your own people and 93% to odars.
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When a friend of mine asked the late and lamented Sylva Kaputikian (may the blessings of Karl Marx be upon her) about the chances of having his translation of Nikos Kazantzakis published in Armenia, she replied: “We don’t publish books written in West Armenian.” A big lie that! I have seen many books in West-Armenian (by Zohrab, Baronian, and Odian, among others) published in Yerevan. Why lie? Is it because we can’t handle the truth? We are not worthy of it? Is it more convenient to lie than to speak the truth? Masters are under no obligation to level with servants?
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Pablo Casals to one of his students on how to play Bach: “Put some gypsy in him.” I like that. He didn’t say, “Make it more Germanic!”
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Speaking of Bach: How to explain the fact that the greatest Bach interpreters were not German but Landowska (Jew), Glenn Gould (Canadian), Casals (Spaniard), and Schweitzer (French) — also the author of the most insightful and readable book on Bach.
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Voltaire on democracy: “Le gouvernement de la canaille [riff-raff].” And yet, it was intellectuals like him who inspired and provided the impetus for the French Revolution.
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Stendhal: “We commit the greatest cruelties but without cruelty.” Perhaps because that which comes naturally to us we don’t consider cruel or criminal or even abnormal. (A possible explanation of Turkish attitude towards the Genocide?)
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There are three ways to wisdom: by way of books, by word of mouth, by one’s own mistakes. The most painful of these is the third way, but also the surest – provided of course one survives.
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God is on the side of bigger battalions and better lawyers.
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Saturday, September 02, 2006
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Whenever a Christian dares to criticize Muslim fundamentalism, a so-called moderate Muslim is bound to raise his voice against the infidel dog. Oriana Fallaci may be right: a moderate Muslim is only a fundamentalist with a mask.
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When wise men disagree, they may settle their differences without bloodshed. But when fools disagree, the chances of developing a consensus range from slim to nil.
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It is not the truly wise who assume to know better because they know wisdom to be a search without end; it is rather the arrogant ignoramus.
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And speaking of their imams and our commissars (and all their neo- and crypto- variants, of which we Armenians have more than our share) what they have in common is an inability to learn from history or their version of it, which, if it is not the propaganda of the victor, it is the consolation of the loser.
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