I Am For Peace. And I Am

Just As None Of Us Is Outside Or Beyond Geography, None Of Us Is Completely Free From The Struggle Over Geography. That Struggle Is Complex And Interesting Because It Is Not Only About Soldiers And Cannons But Also About Ideas, About Forms, About Images And Imaginings.

I Emphasize In It [my Orientalism] Accortdingly That Neither The Term Orient Nor The Concept Of The West Has Any Ontological Stability; Each Is Made Up Of Human Effort, Partly Affirmation, Partly Identification Of The Other.

Theory Is Taught So As To Make The Student Believe That He Or She Can Become A Marxist, A Feminist, An Afrocentrist, Or A Deconstructionist With About The Same Effort And Commitment Required In Choosing Items From A Menu.

The Orient That Appears In Orientalism, Then, Is A System Of Representations Framed By A Whole Set Of Forces That Brought The Orient Into Western Learning, Western Consciousness, And Later, Western Empire.... The Orient Is The Stage On Which The Whole East Is Confined. On This Stage Will Appear The Figures Whose Role It Is To Represent The Larger Whole From Which They Emenate. The Orient Then Seems To Be, Not An Unlimited Extension Beyond The Familiar European World, But Rather A Closed Field, A Theatrical Stage Affixed To Europe.

The Other View Is Of The Official United States, The United States Of Armies And Interventions. The United States That In 1953 Overthrew The Nationalist Government Of Mossadegh In Iran And Brought Back The Shah.