[Austin-ghetto-list] Edward Said

[Michael Eisenstadt]

Wayne Johnson wrote:
> 
> Mike.  Something is amiss here.  I have been reading Said for a long time
> and I don't find his views that alarming.  He is in the Deconstructionist
> camp for sure.

The gist of his position is that there is a bad thing called
Orientalism. Orientalism is Western scholarship about the Orient.
It is a bad thing because a Western cannot know or tell the
truth about the Orient. Only an Orient can. This relativism is 
of course nonsense. You and others may find such a view very 
gratifying and consonant with your other beliefs. That's up 
to you. The recent photo of him throwing stones alongside his 
son and other children on a visit back to the West Bank caused 
quite a stir.

His profoundly thought out position is that as an Ayrab and 
a victim, he is a truth teller just as you and your capitalist 
cousin are not. Did you not read my remarks which your email 
utility quoted below?
 
Mike

-----------------------------------------------------------

> Wayne,
 
> I am amazed that you would praise Edward Said's
> books. His view that Western scholarship on the
> subject of non-Western cultures is 100%
> distortion and lies (he calls said scholarship
> Orientalism) and that said scholarship is and
> has always been a handmaiden of capitalist
> exploitation through the centuries is total
> nonsense.
> 
> Yes, I have read his books. His position is that
> what he says about the Near East is true because
> he is an Ayrab and that your view is necessarily
> false because you are NOT an Ayrab and that you
> or your cousin is or was a capitalist. Yes, that
> is in fact his actual position. If you are in
> favor of Western civilisation, you are ipso facto
> guilty of bad faith and a dishonest scholar. He
> on the otherhand being a Palestinian and a victim
> (despite being a tenured professor at Columbia U)
> is pure in heart as YOU can never be.