Orientalism Revisited (was RE: G. Bush: US in Holy War Against Iraq?)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Justin:
>You also impute to me a Bellowian-Bloomian admiration for the British East
>India Company and the American Slaveocracy. Now there is an official of the
>BEI Co whem I admire, Mill, but not because of his work for that firm. As for
>the Slaveocracy, Yoshie, you have to learn to read: as I said in my post, my
>list of cultural heros includes Uncle Remus and Frederick Douglass (after
>whom, in typical white racist fashion, I named my son), who are also part of
>Western culture.

Well, you are missing the point.  My contention is that the notion of "the
Western Civilization" would not have emerged (nor would it remain now) but
for the East India Company, plantations, etc. -- in short, colonialism &
imperialism.  You are making the same mistake of anachronism as Edward Said
who attributes the "European imagination" to Aeschylus.


>I don't even know Greek or Latin. (Wish I did, though.)

I don't either, but many great works of ancient Greek and Roman origins are
readily available in multiple translations.  I recommend that everyone
consult them often -- that's one of the best antidotes for the notion of
"the Western Civilization" --a modern concept -- retroactively extending
itself throughout history.  (Herodotus, anyone?)


>or maybe, in a classical Stalinist move

In fact, the expansion of the canons of "American culture" and the "Western
Civilization" owes itself to the efforts of the CPers (or "Stalinists") and
our contemporary multiculturalists.  It is you, not I, who are making a
"classical Stalinist move."

With the end of capitalism and imperialism (should we ever succeed in
bringing it about, that is), the notion of the "Western Civilization"
(going back to ancient Greece) will disappear, along with racism.

Yoshie