In Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", the place that was described as primitive and savage by the western world was Africa. Today, this idea of the Other being primitive and savage still permeates society. One heart of darkness that many of us are partially aware of is the Middle East. In the post 9/11 world, the new Other has become the Middle East. In order to differentiate ourselves from them, we have subconsciously categorized them as primitive and/or different, to contrast with our "modern" society. This separation is very harmful to the construction of mutual recognition between people in the two societies. People in both societies are human beings, with desires, emotions, friends, family, and a host of other things that make everybody human. But when we categorize them as different from us, it draws a divide within the global community that is detrimental to the lives of all humans. One thing that we should all strive for is to try and break this divide down and mutually recognize who we consider the "other" whether as a society or as an individual in our daily lives.
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