The Foundations of Orientalism

Said offers an interesting perspective on the topic of Orientalism. He argues that the concept of Orientalism itself was constructed by Western culture about the East. This idea was so engrained into the minds of both the colonizers and the natives that it became a social norm. Orientalism functioned as a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which the people of the East would accept the roles delegated to them by their controllers. An interesting point brought up was the sheer arrogance of colonizing a land of millions of people with a relatively small amount of leaders and rulers. Even more amazing was the fact that it worked. Orientalism was no longer simply an idea, rather it was a discourse in European Civilization.

I think one of the most interesting parts of Said's theory was the parallells drawn to American culture and colonization. At first, I thought that the concept of Orientalism was strictly a Britain v. India kind of battle. However, I realized that it embodied the fundamental Us vs. Them. With pride vested in one's country it is easy to get caught up in that dangerous Us vs. Them mindset and support some imprudent foreign policy decisions. We have this mindset currently in the Middle East, we tend to create a concept for the entirety of the Middle East, and then construct our belief system off of that. Much like Orientalism, we decide on a notion based on little empirical evidence, and then that idea becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as two cultures struggle for the dominance of their values. It can be difficult at times to remove yourself from the Us vs. Them mentality and see and respect the values of each culture, but I think that there is something to said in support of cultral relativism. People have different belief systems, and most of our problems in history with colonialism have been, as Said pointed out, trying to convert others and make them conform to the our beliefs. At a point we must recognize and respect the differences in cultures, because while colonialism may be a thing of the past, as Said has pointed out, its legacies live on in the concept of Orientalism.