Vials of Wrath — The Armenite

“Every man should be gentle, but also passionate; for he must have the spirit to fight against incurable and malignant evil. But the evil which is remediable should be dealt with more in sorrow than anger. He who is unjust is to be pitied in any case; for no man voluntarily does evil or allows evil to exist in his soul. And therefore he who deals with the curable sort must be long-suffering and forbearing; but the incurable shall have the vials of our wrath poured out upon him. “

(Plato, Laws, Book V)

My writings of the past weeks have elicited bountiful commentary on the harshness of my tone and language. The reproaches — and not all remarks about my acerbity have been reproaches, to be sure — have centered on the principle that I can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Flies, sure, but what about locusts?

Armenians have an obsession with two derivative ideas, peace and unity. These ideas in their raw forms are poison pills for a nation but the superficial understanding of both cause leaders and laymen in our society to develop unhealthy fetishes with them.

First, we think of peace in the way our stateless merchant forefathers thought of them: at any cost, so long as our bellies are full. It is further an indication of our weakness as a people, our unwillingness to confront the…