An Appreciation of Edward Said

[Michael Eisenstadt]

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Interesting that you actually met Wolfowitz.

As fur Said, his views are a strange mixture of 
fact and fiction. He is certainly right on the 
money in condemning the hubris (=insanity) of the 
Bushies in invading Iraq and their repressive 
tendencies in passing and enforcing the Patriot 
Act and their favoring of sleasy corporations 
in all regards to the detriment of the rest of 
us.

Fur the rest Said is, as usual, peddling his false
doctrine of cultural relativism. As fur the Arab
language (which to my ears is very beautiful and
expressive, especially when sung), Said himself 
is an Arab, not a Moslem but a Christian. His 
doctrine of evil Orientalism (=the study of
non-Western cultures by Western scholars) is 
hogwash, his point being that only an Arab can 
understand Arabs and that Western scholars of
the East are dishonest actors in the service of 
imperialists.

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Byron Black wrote:
> 
> Hey thanks for forwarding this. I will definitely share it with intelligent
> Muslim friends here in Jakarta. Folks in Indonesia are not unnaturally quite
> worried about the Xtian Taliban in power in Washington. Also puzzled that
> Wolfowitz, who was an outstanding ambassador here, could have turned into
> such a Frankenstein's monster in his new job. My diagnosis: too much
> intelligence, too much ambition.
> 
> The one time I spoke to the guy (after he had completed his term in Jakarta)
> I asked him what it was like for a to have served as a Jew in a
> predominantly Islamic country. He said that the only time the issue came up
> was during a magazine interview, where a reference to the fact was edited
> out of the final copy.
> 
> I found him frank, personable and not at all arrogant. But that current
> crowd can probably make your head swim.
> 
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