Occidentalism

"The Harem Pool." French, 19th century.

Columbia’s Edward Said became famous with his book and thesis “Orientalism,” which held that Western views of the Orient were historically false. “The ‘Orient,’” he argued, “was constructed as a negative inversion of Western culture.” (Wikipedia). Which I think is only partly true—the Orient has been perceived not as a negative shadow of the West, but as the land of dreams. Some dreams are nightmares; but there are also dreams of Shangri-La, Xanadu, the New Jerusalem, Prester John, and King Solomon’s mines.

When I was in Barcelona recently, I noted a section of their art museum was dedicated to 19th century Orientalism. The paintings generally featured a beautiful woman lounging with a remarkably lack of clothing, while an Arab man looked on. Rather unlike daily life in Saudi Arabia, I find. An establishment of dubious morality in the old town, featuring what are often called “exotic dancers,” was named “Baghdad.” Nor is this a purely Spanish notion. A famous strip tease joint somewhere in Canada was called “Little Egypt,” and “Fawzia Amir” was a noted stripper during my Montreal youth.

Such are our dreams. 

"Bedouin Girls." French postcard, 19th century.

But a friend of mine, who has lived for long in the Middle East—sic—argues as well that the thesis is disturbingly un-self-conscious of Edward Said. He wants to write a book called “Occidentalism.” For as surely as the Orient has been traditionally conceived by the Occident as exotic and lacking a moral code, so the Occident has been traditionally conceived by the Orient as exotic and lacking a moral code. And people like the 9/11 bombers are acting on this delusion.

He cites, as an example, the strange absence of street protests against the current genocide in Syria; yet at the very same time, there have been big protests against some obscure film trailer from the US. Doesn’t this suggest that events in East and West are judged by a double standard in the Arab world?

My first wife was born and raised in Pakistan, and was nominally Muslim, although certainly not practicing. She would commonly refer to the “Wicked West,” as if this were a known, established truth.

Sadly, this conception of the exotic or the “other” is universal. Edward Said’s notion that it is a Western thing is therefore profoundly racist. Every culture thinks the folks over the next hill are strange and lack a moral code. This is what culture shock is about. 

Exotic dancer, "Little Egypt."

But in world terms, the West is actually less guilty of this than most. The proof is the very term “the West.” Only “the West” does NOT think itself the centre of the universe, but “the West.” In Beijing, they show you the centre of the universe, in the middle of the capital of the “Middle Kingdom.” Yet Koreans show you the same thing in the middle of Seoul. For Arabs and Muslims, of course, the centre of the universe is the Ka’aba in downtown Mecca. For India, it is Mount Meru, in the Himalayas.

Only the West conceives of the centre of the universe being somewhere outside its own borders. (In Jerusalem, actually.) Nor was mankind held to be born in the West; this too is unique among world cultures. That is a remarkable, historic act of cultural humility. In exact opposition to Said’s theory, it seems most likely that it is this relative openness to other cultures, rather than their misrepresentation, that gave Europe empire. It made Westerners far more likely to venture outside their own borders, and far more inclined to deal with foreigners on their own terms.