Very, very interesting article in the Chronicle Review called the Origins of Occidentalism that helps a bit to understand the World versus America point of view that unfortunately, is one that many Americans share as well. While there is some base for justification behind these beliefs as all knowledge contains some truth, it’s always open to misinterpretation, biased by religious and political view and extremist selective opinion. It’s also obvious to me that those who scream the loudest are the least tolerant of another’s way of thinking, and oftentimes refuse to see the good beyond the bad that inevitably is a part of any society. It works both ways.
As a reminder to myself: Ian Buruma is a professor of human rights, democracy, and new-media studies at Bard College and a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. He and Avishai Margalit, a professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University, in Jerusalem, are the authors of Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies, which will be published by the Penguin Press next month.
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