Thursday, July 06, 2006
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Behind every story there is another story, and inside every person there is a labyrinth of conflicting reasons and unconscious drives most of which are destined to remain beyond his awareness even after decades of psychoanalysis. Never say therefore “I know and understand everything I need to know and understand,” because to say so is to admit you have reached a dead end and you might as well be more dead than alive.
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Understanding and self-interest move in two different dimensions and whenever self-interest contaminates understanding both are bound to suffer.
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If you ever find yourself questioning the importance of objectivity in human affairs, consider that women are better judges of women than men because they can afford being more objective on the subject.
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Most Armenians, except perhaps Armenian-Americans, have lived and worked in more than two countries and speak more than two languages. This allows them to assume to be better informed. I will never forget the Armenian who fully qualified as an inbred moron with a negative IQ and fluent in seven languages (or so he claimed) who once bragged being more “erudite” than everyone around. If I have mentioned this Armenian before it may be because I see myself in him – myself as a young whippersnapping windbag all sound, fury, and unmitigated b.s. signifying nothing, very much like our sermonizers, speechifiers, and pundits.
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Friday, July 07, 2006
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If national consciousness or solidarity is what makes a nation, all so-called ideological divisions serve only to legitimize tribalism and to implement the divide-and-rule tactics of the enemy. It follows, the ultimate aim of all our tribal leaders and enemies is one and the same: the destruction of the nation, or genocide by other means.
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Our partisan pundits have spent nearly a century trying to convince the Turks to plead guilty, all the while pretending their own conduct has been beyond criticism, which is as big a lie as Turkish denial.
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The life of a murderer as that of a liar is dominated by fear of exposure.
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You cannot correct an error whose existence you refuse to acknowledge.
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The wrong path may lead to the mirage of an oasis but not to the Promised Land.
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What Oscar Wilde said of fox hunting, one could say of our ideologues and pundits: “The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable.”
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When you undertake the task of exposing liars, it is always advisable to begin with your own lies.
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The more you rely on luck the sooner you will run out of it.
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Saturday, July 08, 2006
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INTERVIEW
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QUESTION: IN YOUR NOTES AND COMMENTS OF YESTERDAY YOU SAID SOMETHING TO THE EFFECT THAT OUR LEADERS ARE GUILTY OF GENOCIDE BY OTHER MEANS. WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY THAT?
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ANSWER: There is genocide by massacre, and there is genocide by means of actions and policies that contribute to the destruction of the nation.
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Q: SUCH AS?
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A: Introducing divisions on ideological or religious grounds, for instance.
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Q: BUT SUCH DIVISIONS EXIST EVERYWHERE, DO THEY NOT?
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A: They do, yes, but with one important difference. In a democratic environment there are mechanisms designed to reconcile opposing views by means of dialogue and compromise. The majority has its way, provided of course it operates within the law. Throughout our millennial history we have at no time experienced democratic rule.
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Q: IS NOT OUR HOMELAND A DEMOCRACY TODAY?
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A: In theory, maybe. But in practice it’s part oligarchy and part kleptocracy whose aim is not to serve the interests of the people but to perpetuate the prosperity and survival of the priviligentsia.
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Q: AND IN THE DIASPORA?
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A: Our political parties and their bosses in the Diaspora operate like authoritarian rulers intolerant of dissent, which means no dialogue, no compromise, and no consensus. Result: perpetual tribalism, unending conflicts and divisions, and monologues that never cross.
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Q: BUT DON’T THESE POLITICAL PARTIES REALIZE THAT BY CONTRIBUTING TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE NATION THEY ARE COMMITTING SUICIDE?
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A: That’s a question that should be addressed to our bosses.
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Q: DO YOU HAVE AN EXPLANATION?
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A: Where there are no democratic checks and balances, leaders invariably end up digging their own graves. Empires, nations, and tribes that die by suicide are routine occurrences in world history. The only way to explain that is to say that unlike ideas and by extension ideologies that may evolve and adapt in an infinite number of directions, provided they move in an abstract dimension, the option of power, or men of power, are limited to only two: to increase their power, and if they can’t do that, to cling to it for as long as they can even if it means acting in direct contradiction of the very same ideology that allowed them to assume power by popular support.
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