Thursday, December 14, 2006
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ON A POPULAR DELUSION
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When it comes to god, there are three schools of thought: (one) god created man in his own image; (two) man created god in his own image; and (three) there is no god. In THE GOD DELUSION (New York, 2006), the American biologist Richard Dawkins seems to support the second and third schools. Here is how he describes the god of the Old Testament: “a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochistic, capriciously malevolent bully” — which could also be a fairly accurate description of an average Yankee redneck or a fundamentalist Muslim jihadist.
In her book, THE FORCE OF REASON, the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, who like Tolstoy, described herself as “a Christian atheist,” asserts that there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. Dawkins goes further and says fundamentalists of all faith exist because moderates legitimize and promote faith as a good thing. Which means, moderates create fanatics as surely as man creates god.
He explains the popularity of religions by saying children are “programmed” to believe anything their parents and elders tell them, which happens to be an undeniable biological fact observable not only in man but also in many other forms of animal life. According to Dawkins, a religious education is a form of brainwashing and as such should be equated with child abuse. This may explain why other forms of child abuse come naturally to those directly involved in organized religions.
It is to be noted that the above-mentioned Oriana Fallaci died recently (September 15, 2006) of cancer, aged 77. Her close friendship with Pope Benedict XVI, echoes that of Gandhi’s, a devout Hindu, with Tolstoy.
For more on the god of the Old Testament and Christianity, see also Bertrand Russell’s WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN.
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Friday, December 15, 2006
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THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS
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Readers – they are my only secret:
gentle readers, avid readers, concerned readers
willing to correct me
whenever I stray from the straight and narrow,
eager to remind me that
honey catches more flies than vinegar
(so does manure, but never mind about that now).
Writers of the past were not as lucky as I am.
During the Soviet era, for instance,
the only advice our commissars had for our writers
was a bullet in the neck.
Under Talaat in Istanbul
at the turn of the last century
things were no better.
But what’s done is done.
Let bygones be bygones,
and as my readers keep reminding me,
it doesn’t pay to dwell too much
on negative things;
and as the Good Book says,
“Let the dead bury their dead.”
After centuries of brutal oppression
we have finally emerged
from the darkness of the past.
We have seen the light
and no power one earth
can thrust us back into darkness.
My success is not mine alone
but that of Armenian literature as a whole,
and by extension, that of the nation.
For readers create great writers
as surely as great writers create masterpieces.
I have no doubt whatever in my mind
that we now stand on the verge of a Second Golden Age
beside which the First is as nothing.
A new generation of great writers is about to rise
from the ashes and soar
like a phoenix into the stratosphere
where masterpieces are born
and Nobel Prizes awarded.
All because of gentle readers
who are committed body and soul
to the welfare of our literature and culture.
When during a visit to an Armenian community center
I was asked why so far I had shown
no interest in encouraging a new generation of writers
but preferred to live in solitude in the middle of nowhere,
I had been dead wrong to reply:
“What the nation needs more today
is not writers but readers.”
The truth of the matter is
I have many more good readers than I deserve,
avid reader, concerned readers,
able literary critics all,
whose sole aim in life
is to raise our esthetic and moral standards.
My gratitude to them knows no bounds.
I am what I am because of them.
My success is not mine but theirs.
I say to them what Samuel said to God:
“Speak, Lord, for Thy servant is listening.”
God bless you.
God bless Armenian literature.
God bless Armenia.
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Saturday, December 16, 2006
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TOYNBEE, DESCARTES, ZARIAN, AND OTHERS
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If you say you disagree with Toynbee, you disagree with Descartes, and you disagree with Zarian, don’t be surprised if those who agree with Toynbee, Descartes, and Zarian disagree with you, and they disagree with you not because they are prejudiced against you or remotely interested in questioning your intelligence or honesty but because they respect more Toynbee’s understanding of history, Descartes’ philosophical judgment, and Zarian’s familiarity with recent developments in Armenian affairs, in most of which he was himself a participant in addition to being personally acquainted with the main players.
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Zarian: “Our political parties have been of no political use to us. Their greatest enemy is free speech.” Why free speech? Because it may expose their blunders and lies, which may spell their political and moral bankruptcy.
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Tell me what you are afraid of and I will tell you who you are.
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If you say your version of the past is the only true one, you do nothing but repeat the words of those who say exactly the same thing about their own version of the past, which may contradict yours.
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The problem with partisan versions of the past is that there will be other partisan versions.
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The statement “My party is infallible or morally superior,” will convince only fellow partisans and no one else. If I say I am a great writer, I may succeed in convincing only my mama at the cost of making myself ridiculous in the eyes of the world.
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If you write history with an ideological, religious, or nationalist bias, you can be sure that it will not be as objective, accurate and credible as that written by someone without an ax to grind.
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The trouble with people with an ax to grind is that even when they bury their ax, they remember where they buried it.
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Last night I heard an interview with a Catholic theologian who said, among other things, “All present wars are fought in the name of religion. Our only chance of preventing this from happening again is to alter our view of religion.” And I thought religions have had that chance for much more than a thousand years. Is there a single religion today willing to consider its history as one of failure?
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