A Letter to My Armenian Brothers and Sisters

My Armenian brothers and sisters:

I write to you in this dark hour of grave peril that you are enduring, enthralled by your resilience and inspiring courage, with brotherly love and unity of spirit. 

I may be of young age and of no fame; but I pray you hearken to me, for “my words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly,” (Job 33:3 KJV). 

Truly, the very Soul of the World mourns your suffering, laments the youth of your martyrs throughout eternity, and celebrates your heroism and perseverance. 

Nevertheless, I beg you remain vigilant and commit your hearts and minds in all matters to the authority of reason and good judgment. Tolerate one another and safeguard your unity of heart and spirit. For in this existential tribulation, you are but one. 

I understand your zeal as well as your fears. Much is at stake here—too much indeed for the conscious mind to withstand, without succumbing to overpowering sentiments. In this regard, I would like to share with you the words of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, from his “Oration on the Dignity of Man,”

“On man when he came into life the Father conferred the seeds of all kinds and the germs of every way of life. Whatever seeds each man cultivates will grow to maturity and bear in him their own fruit. If they be vegetative, he will be like a plant. If sensitive, he will become brutish. If rational, he will grow into a heavenly being. If intellectual he will be an angel and the son of God.” (Cassirer et al, 225)

 

As it is explicitly stated above, beloved brethren, in yielding to our sensitivities we become brutish. It is only in abiding by reason and intellect that we remain conscious of ourselves as God’s children. 

For be under no illusion! This battle is to be fought and won, first and foremost, in the realm of ideas. Not just on social media—far more importantly, in international intellectual circles, forums, and congresses. It is not your bodies that they seek to mutilate and destroy. Rather, it is the expression of your spirit on human civilization, history, and consciousness. 

 

Beware your minds get so fixated—especially in an emotional manner—on your enemy’s savagery; which, the latter is so keen on inculcating unto your subconsciousness; by means of intensifying your impulses to a crescendo; so that this heedless impulsiveness may reign over your conscious mind; and, in you surrendering to such impulses, he hopes, you begin to mirror that diabolical image of his. 

 

Whereas his triumph depends entirely on his success in infusing the shadow into your spirit, goading you to unleash the full force of your wrath in a moment of angst and grief; to emulate his cruelties and become his agents by extension; so that he may exculpate himself before the public opinion, internationally, devising pseudo-logic to justify his heinous crimes on grounds of banality and mutuality. 

Conversely, your victory will manifest in you steering clear of this perversion of heart and spirit; for, should you hanker after reciprocating his brutality, you would only honor—nay, even glorify—him. As the saying goes, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

 

In that, I don’t mean that you should go out to meet your persecutor with bare chests. My intent is to keep you on guard, in the midst of all the commotion and noise, that you may be warriors girded with wisdom. 

The warrior, who is truly wise, conserves his energy, and exerts it strategically. Accordingly, I implore you not to squander your intellectual prowess on discrediting one another—as that would incite further divisions in your ranks. 

 

Instead, call upon your intelligentsia (in Armenia and in diaspora) to form a united intellectual task-force to take the battle to the realm wherein your enemy is weakest: the realm of truth and reason. 

Remember the words of Hugo Münsterberg (“Psychology and Social Sanity”), “The harmony and soundness of society depend upon its inner unity of mind. Social organization does not mean only an external fitting together, but an internal equality of mind.”

 

Therefore, make sure you awake this inner unity of Armenian mind in the most organized manner. Work hand in hand to formulate a unified response, an Armenian response [emphasis added]. Coordinate yourselves so that a single voice of Armenia thunders across multiple domains around the globe at once—rather than in fragments and succession, lest it loses its vehemence. 

 

Let the Armenian truth spring forth from the mind of your most formidable historian unto the world through the voice of your most eloquent and well-versed orator; whilst the rest of you transform into living echoes thereof.

Make your finest writer retire to his/her desk, and write down that same message in verbatim. 

 

Different messages to different parties would amount to nothing. 

As the celebrated Kant reasoned in, “The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics,” 

“Now, if, in giving a variety of proof for one and the same theorem, we flatter ourselves that the multitude of reasons will compensate the lack of weight in each taken separately [my formatting: bold & italic fonts applied to add emphasis], this is a very unphilosophical resource, since it betrays trickery and dishonesty; for several insufficient proofs placed beside one another do not produce certainty [CERTAINTY!!], nor even probability. They should advance as reason and consequence in a series, up to the sufficient reason, and it is only in this way that they can have the force of proof. Yet the former is the usual device of the rhetorician.”

 

Do you begin to see now the underlying motive for my calling upon your formation of a united intellectual task-force? Given the fierce disinformation campaign that your enemy has launched to distort historical facts, it is paramount that you exhibit an apodeictic certainty in your imminent victory to the world. For, unless you demonstrate unwavering faith in the firmness of your hearts towards the truth of your cause and the inevitability of your triumph, the rest of the world—preoccupied with their own serenity of mind—will urge the enemy to exterminate you “discreetly”.

 

Realize that the TRUTH is your Excalibur. As such, make good use of its universality and versatility!

And recite that hymn in one breath: “Armenia!” 

 

 I’m inclined to borrow Winston Churchill’s words of encouragement to Monty to be my final ones to you in this letter, as I deem them most fitting given the occasion, 

“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense [my formatting]. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

 

Finally, I would like to beseech the Lord God today on your behalf, as your humble brother, and say, 

“Lord, give us weak eyes for things of little worth, and eyes clear-sighted in all of your truth.”—Søren Kierkegaard

 

 

May the Grace and Peace of the Lord reign over your days! 

 

 

Yours sincerely.

 

 

Recommended reading: “An Exposition for Answering the Question: Why Must the ‘Righteous’ Suffer?”

 

Reference

Cassirer, Ernst, et al. The Renaissance Philosophy of Man: Petrarca, Valla, Ficino, Pico, Pomponazzi, Vives. U of Chicago P, 2011.