Thursday, September 27, 2007
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EXPLAINING THE INEXPLICABLE
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For a long time I thought being Armenian allowed me to know all there is to know about Armenians, Turks, and the Genocide. I even wrote several books and reviewed hundreds more based on that false assumption. I know now that it is almost impossible for a victim to be objective about his victimizer. It is true, Turks behaved like racists when they punished the many for the crimes of a few. No doubt about that. But then, at the turn of the last century and even during World War II, which nation was not racist? Or which civilized and progressive nation today does not have racists among its people who in time of war may assume leadership positions and implement racist policies towards its minorities? I am not justifying, only explaining.
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Friday, September 28, 2007
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COMING TO TERMS WITH REALITY
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Did Khorenatsi and Naregatsi have their critics? If they had readers, they had critics, and their critics had their critics who had their own critics… In our reality it’s critics all the way down. Nothing and no one stands on terra firma. Only the blind and the mute have no critics.
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When propaganda meets truth, truth is bound to lose. Propaganda has one advantage over truth: it flatters the ego. It tells Pepe le Pew, “You smell like roses,” and there is an el Pepe in all of us.
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I can save nothing and no one. Those who are on my side were already there long before they read a single line by me. Those who are against me will be against me even after they begin to agree with me. That’s because their pea-sized brain is no match for their inflated Goodyear-blimp sized ego.
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“Nutritious ain’t delicious.” I speak of carrots and broccoli, propaganda of Big Macs with fries.
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Somewhere C.G. Jung explains that our subconscious is more visible to others than to ourselves. Propaganda speaks to the ego and its assets; criticism focuses on the subconscious and its liabilities. Not exactly a formula that may lead to popularity and success.
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GOTT MIT UNS
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Propaganda may also be defined as whatever you were told as a child or at any other stage in your life when you were not yet capable to think for yourself. I am not suggesting everything you were told as a child is a lie, unless of course you define a lie as a fraction of the truth or a carefully edited version of the facts.
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The aim of propaganda is to create dupes.
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Anyone who thinks propaganda is positive and anything that contradicts it is negative lives in a parallel universe in the company of invisible creatures who are on his side. Remember the Nazi slogan GOTT MIT UNS (God with us).
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Propaganda cannot be contradicted because it is an extension of a closed system of thought. It can only be defeated by another closed system, but sometimes not even then. Communism was defeated by capitalism, and fascism by democracy but both communists and fascists continue to have their share of dupes today who are convinced their defeat is only a temporary setback.
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I’d rather be wrong than recycle propaganda. If I am wrong I can be contradicted, corrected, and exposed. But a fascist cannot be corrected in a fascist environment, or a communist in a communist environment, or a denialist in a denialist environment, and in the eyes of some we are all denialists, subversives, and infidels.
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