Sunday, December 24, 2006
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PERSPECTIVES
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If you think the destiny of the planet is dependent on people like Alexander the Great, Napoleon, or even the outline of Cleopatra’s nose, Mark Kurlansky’s COD: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE FISH THAT CHANGED THE WORLD is bound to change your perspective. And now, imagine if you can, a book about men written by a cod.
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The best things in life are not always free. Understanding comes at a price. If you see yourself as your enemy sees you, you may not like what you see but you may enhance your understanding not only of yourself and your enemy, but also – which is more important – of the world.
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When we say, “I am sure,” are we really sure or just trying to suppress doubts?
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When both sides are guilty, they will exaggerate the guilt of the opposition and cover up their own. I don’t have any specific groups in mind, only human nature.
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Only the very insecure make periodic lists of their positives and cover up their negatives, and in fooling themselves they hope to fool others, and they resent it when others refuse to be fooled, and they refuse to be fooled not because they are smarter but because they prefer to be fooled by a propaganda line that emphasizes their positives and covers up their negatives. Present company suspected.
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Think of Internet discussion forums as therapy groups in which participants unburden themselves of complexes that masquerade as certainties, slogans, and clichés.
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Monday, December 25, 2006
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FOUR FILMS
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Four of my favorite films of all time are included in the lavishly illustrated 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE, edited by Steven Jay Schneider (New York, 2003, 960 pages): George Stevens’s SHANE (1953) with Alan Ladd, Fred Zinemann’s FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) with Montgomery Clift, John Sturges’s BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955) with Spencer Tracy, and John Boorman’s POINT BLANK (1967) with Lee Marvin. I note that all four central characters of these films are solitary survivors who against their will and inclination are thrust into a conflict with a formidable set of well-organized adversaries bent on their destruction. I have not seen these films recently and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are dated.
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About FEOM HERE TO ETERNITY: one reason I enjoyed the book by James Jones more than the film is that it was there that I first “met” Mahatma Gandhi, another solitary being who confronted an empire bent on his dehumanization and death.
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I remember to have read somewhere that Gandhi refused to visit America because he didn’t think he would be understood there. He saw America as a distant and alien continent that cared much more about material possessions than spiritual attainments. Gandhi was a shrewd judge of character but as a profoundly human being he could also be hugely wrong, as when he failed to foresee the genocidal slaughter of Hindus and Muslims immediately following the partition of India during which millions perished. Had he suspected the possibility of such a tragedy, I suspect he would have retired from politics permanently or committed suicide by starvation.
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As for Richard Attenborough’s GANDHI (1982), I have only one word for it: disappointing.
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Tuesday, December 26, 2006
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“PIGS NEVER SEE THE STARS”
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My first book about Armenians came out in 1975, which means I have been writing steadily about them for over thirty years. So I am not surprised when some of my gentle and not so gentle readers inform me that I have become predictable, boring, and repetitive. They demand variety, as if I were running an ice cream parlor or pizzeria. To them I suggest they visit the nearest public library. And to the hoodlums who tell me it is now time that I give up writing “all that crap,” I say, “Be careful, my friend, because you may tempt me to agree with you that, if writing about Armenians like you is crap, it may be because I for one refuse to speak of crap as if it were rose jam.”
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To write about Armenians also means to write about human nature, and more precisely, what happens to it after long centuries of brutal oppression. For, to be oppressed means to be offended, insulted, and dehumanized; hence, the need to retaliate. There is an Armenian proverb that says, “A coward takes revenge by slicing up a watermelon.” Insulting someone anonymously and from a safe distance is, I suppose, another way of getting even. There are two other Armenian proverbs that are worth quoting at this point: “The toothless dog barks from a distance,” and “A bald man has no use for a gold comb,” – or an imbecile for understanding.
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Wednesday, December 27, 2006
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PRESENT COMPANY SUSPECTED
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Human affairs have so many contexts, implications, consequences, layers of meaning, and interpretations that for every great thinker who says one thing there will be another who says the exact opposite. Is lying moral? As always, there are two schools of thought.
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There is no belief system that at one time or another I have not swallowed hook, line, and sinker, except perhaps astrology. When I speak of dupes, I speak of myself. Madame Bovary c’est moi. So is Monsieur Bovary.
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Trust someone who paints a flattering self-portrait, as you would trust the honesty of a compulsive liar or the wisdom of an ignoramus.
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As a child I identified myself with our leaders because I was told to do so. But the moment I started thinking for myself I saw them as megalomaniacal mediocrities and enemies of freedom, common sense and decency.
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Am I wrong? Probably. Unlike those who brainwashed me I have at no time asserted infallibility.
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When they cannot convince, they brainwash, and they brainwash because they need unthinking fanatics willing to die for the “Cause” – that is to say, their power and prestige.
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All children are brainwashed for their own good. And what’s even worse, they are brainwashed by individuals who were themselves brainwashed. This may explain why the world is in such a mess today.
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