Orientalism by Edward Said - Movie Review Example

Edward Said - On Orientalism (Video Review) Introduction: The Main themes The Repertory of Orientalism. Said discusses that in a great deal of literature, paintings and arts or even music, there was a scarcity of “realistic representations” of the Orient. There was a repertory of images that even experts have extended by their narrow depiction of the Arabs theorizing that the Orientals are all the same wherever they may be found—either in India, Egypt or Syria (Said). Orientalism and Empire. Orientalism theory is regarded as an old phenomenon dating back to the conquests of Europe. As far back as there has been historical contact, Europeans have already used abstract categories to know the people of different skin color and appearance. Napoleon’s conquest was not merely military but ideological since the empires needed to discover how to understand these Orientals in order to conquer them. For the Europeans, producing knowledge means having the power to be there, and “see in expert ways things that the natives themselves cannot see” (Said). American Orientalism. Said argued that there are two distinct characteristics of American Orientalism which differs from that of French and British: the American experience is “much less direct” owing to its lack of occupation in the Near East, and American Orientalism is very politicized. This politicized nature is a result of its alliance with Israel. This connection has led America to acquire a greater interest in the Middle East and the ideology of Israel regarding the entire Arab world as its enemy has, in the words of Said, been “imported into American Orientalism.” Orientalism Today. While Said concedes that terrorists do exist, he made it clear that this does not mean all Arabs are into it. There is a lot more humanity in the Middle East, which is simply misunderstood because of the narrow and irresponsible depiction of the media on the negative aspects of the Arab culture. The world fails to see the diversity and humanity of the much more numerous Arabs who lives a decent and ordinary life. Orientalism in Action. The bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 is a foremost example of Orientalist attitude taking its rise. The media echoed all through out that the bombing was a middle eastern related incident—an Islamic style bombing; knowing later on that it was carried out by a Christian local boy who has his problems with the world. Orientalism and the Palestinian Question. Said analyzed the Israel-Palestine conflict in the context of Orientalism. He advanced the idea that abandoning the racist Orientalism will be the key to finding a just, humane, and peaceful solution: an answer to the Palestinian question. Uncovering this solution will decide our destiny of peaceful coexistence or our fate of war and destruction. Thus for him, an inventory of our history and viewing oneself in relation to others would be the primary step to take (Said). Critical Analysis: American Orientalism and Orientalism Today The most disturbing images of Muslim radicals in the news and in the movies have created paranoia in the American subconscious. That is why Said endeavored to explain how wrong it is to just focus on the fanaticism and violence of some groups that does not represent the whole Middle East. The diverse culture of the Arab region cannot be encapsulated in just a single and generalized characterization since that would mean not taking into account millions of ordinary Arabs living in harmony with the world. It is indeed quite shocking to see media’s exaggeration of some events. Jihad was thought to have come to America and there were those scenes of reckless journalism. Said stressed that there was no investigative journalism anymore but a mere repetition of what the government is saying—showing how politically inclined the representations made. The news shows a “huge arsenal of images employed by the media” with the portrayals of “large masses of people waving their fists, black banners, the stern-faced Khomeini, all of them giving the impression of the utmost negative, sort of an evil emanation” (Said). Said believes there is quite an impossibility seeing in television or in books or films about Arabs not playing the role of a violent and irrational terrorist. Thus, the public gets a large dose of negative picture of Islam as a frightening and threatening religion: aiming to exterminate all Americans. Delving deeper into this biased interpretation of the Middle East will show how a single-sided examination of a civilization brings about an ignorant reproduction of clichés originally created by the government and endorsed by the media. The Muslim world as terrorist is a very convenient answer to every unexplainable violence that happens in the world. But as Said emphasized, this automatic images fail into consideration the “human side” of Muslims, believing that their inferior breed and culture make them who they are: uneducated, violent, and anti-American. So this demonization in fact hampers an independent examination of the whole picture. The public tends to believe everything what the media says making it hard for cultural harmony to take place. Said correctly noticed how even Hollywood films took advantage of this Orientalist mind-set by promoting the idea that Islam is “something to be stamped out.” Thus, if the popular culture continues to display an atmosphere of Western superiority over what they consider inferior Middle East, the inaccurate representation of the reality might become the only representation not only of America but of the World. There will be a total demonization might be impossible to cure in the future. However, the only problem with Said’s theory about American Orientalism is its limited study on its contemporary causes. For him, American Orientalism is so politicized because of its alliance with Israel—a Jewish state which regards Arabs as its enemy and is in turn regarded as the arch enemy of Islamic countries. The interest of America in Middle East has surfaced from the time it recognized Israel as a state, thus the strong feelings of hostility by Israel against Arab states was “imported into American Orientalism” (Said). But though it is correct to say that the Israel factor is an imported cause of American prejudicial attitude towards Islam, it is safer to conclude that this is more of a product of an ancient belief of Western superiority compared to ‘other’ civilizations. And this old-aged stereotyping has been cultivated by the misleading and racist portrayals of some irresponsible media. Orientalism versus Clash of Civilizations Huntington has theorized that “the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural…The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” One of his theses is that Islamic and Western culture will clash since Islam is “the only civilization aspiring Universalist values and poses a significant challenge to the West” (Huntington). This is in contrast to Said’s idea which focuses more on the Western prejudices because of the inferiority and weakness of Islamic countries. But the most significant difference between Said and Huntington’s themes is how the West should deal with the conflict. Huntington’s thesis on the clash of America and Islam centers on what is the policies that must be done in times of this crisis. While Said envisions co-existence with people of different religion and culture by finding ways to accept differences without violence and hostility, Huntington advocates that these differences can only be dealt with by accepting that there will eventually be a future clash. He believes that Islam is a threat to the Western civilization thus failing to understand the possibility of coexistence. For Said, the solution comes from the process of “understanding oneself in relation to others and to understand others as if you would understand yourself.” On the other hand, Huntington argues that civilizations are basically poles apart and this difference will be the primary reason of the conflict because it has generated the most unimaginable wars and conflicts. He did not think about the possibility of cultural understanding and acceptance because he sees a multicultural world as a threat to America and the West. Conclusion: Video Evaluation The video “On Orientalism” has profoundly shed light on the concept of Orientalism as written by Edward Said. It provides a very comprehensive analysis of the subject coming from the mouth of the author himself. While it gives the viewers a version explaining the far more complicated issue of West-Islam conflict, it had focused the attention on understanding the practical aspect of the cultural discord as a product of racism, exaggeration and paranoia. The film’s only weakness is that the video failed to show critiques of Said’s thesis perhaps from other scholars which should have been addressed in the interview. It should have been anticipatory of some voices against the notion of Orientalism. But it is still a very good source of knowledge and is highly recommended to those who want to study the divisive and sometimes violent Western-Islamic relations. This will aid those who seek to know the contemporary applications of Orientalism in understanding the Middle East crisis. Works Cited Huntington, Samuel. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72.3 (1993): n. pag. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. Said, Edward, perf. On Orientalism. Media Education Foundation, 1998. Film. Read More