Occidentalism: The
West in the Eyes of Its Enemies, by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit, is an
exploration of the “dehumanizing picture of the West painted by its enemies” (Occidentalism 2004: 5) Occidentalism is not about hatred towards the
policies of the West, but about hatred toward the idea of the West itself. The negative feelings associated with
colonialism, capitalism, globalization, and my personal favorite
“westoxification” are explored through many classical figures and basically
four concepts: the city, trade, technology, and religion. The book claims that “Occidentalism, like
capitalism, Marxism, and many other modern isms, was born in Europe” but its
“offshoots” in Asia and the Middle East are
explored as well. From Germany, to Russia,
to Japan, to China, to Iran, this book promises to make
the reader think outside of certain ethnocentric tendencies. The four concepts of Occidentalism are right
on, but one can’t help but feel that 149 pages is much to short to summarize
hatred of the west.
The most obvious problem with the book has already been
partly addressed above—broad swaths of humanity have been entirely left out of
their analysis. I know a lot of people
that would have problems with the claim that Occidentalism was born in Europe. Even if by
some chance the first literary evidence of the authors’ particular strain of
Occidentalism is found first in Europe, I
don’t see that source being exported to the many cultures of the globe where
strains of Occidentalism exist. The
second limit, and this perhaps comes from a more personal bias, is that the
authors analyze Occidentalism from a top-down perspective, without fully
addressing its bottom-up resonance. The
literati, the bourgeoisie, the leaders of anti-western nations, all having something
to add to conceptions of Occidentalism, no doubt, but it is the intense
anti-western feelings of the masses that is the most important I feel.
The chapter, Occidental
City, begins with the
September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center of New York
City. It speaks of “the image of a
metropolis as a whore” where “everything and everyone is for sale”
(Occidentalism 2004: 18). It also speaks
of the soullessness, and the disconnection, that negative images of the city
are often portrayed with. The chapter
then goes on trace the idea of the city as a “wicked symbol of greed,
godlessness, and rootless cosmopolitanism”.
The chapter, Heroes and Merchants, goes on to map out the
negative portrayal of mercantilist principles in the West. It describes not only the free-market
principles of the west, but the idea of democracy itself as a free-market of
ideas.
This chapter is also interesting
in that it briefly toys with the idea how cultures adopt and reject certain
Western principles, and the many growing pains associated with the
process. It ends describing the
anti-western principles of Nazi Germany and with a passage that seems to be a
major principle the authors are trying to get across: “The Weimar republic did
not fall only because of Nazi brutality reactionary stupidity, military
ambition, or the arguments formulated by the likes of Moeller can den
Bruck. It also fell because too few
people were prepared to defend it.” (Occidentalism
2004: 73).
The Mind of the West is a chapter that explores the idea of
how the West’s is capable of “economic success…and of developing and promoting
advanced technology, but cannot grasp the higher things in life” (Occidentalism 2004: 75). The last chapter, The Wrath of God, delves
more into the religious extremism, the most popular of today’s Occidentalisms,
and the holy war against the west as an absolute evil. It discusses the concept of Manichaeism,
basically the idea of good and evil, and delves a great deal into a variety of
Middle Eastern thinkers. The book ends
like this…
“Where political, religious, and intellectual freedom has
already been established, it must be defended with force, if need be, but also
with conviction. The story we have told
in this book is not a Manichaeistic one of a civilization at war with
another. On the contrary, it is a tale
of cross-contamination, the spread of bad ideas. This could happen to us now, if we fall for
the temptation to fight fire with fire, Islamism with our own forms of
intolerance. Religious authority, especially
in the United States,
is already having a dangerous influence on political governance. We annot afford to closer our soieties as a
defense against those who have closed theirs.
For then we would all become Occidentalists, and there would be nothing
left to defend” (Occidentalism 2004;
149)
Take it as you will.
I will say one thing though—I certainly know a lot of Occidentalists.