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Edward Said

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Famous Edward Said Quotes

“In the Islamic world, the U.S. is seen in two quite different ways. One view recognizes what an extraordinary country the U.S. is.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. The United States that has been involved first in the Gulf War and then in the tremendously damaging sanctions against Iraqi civilians. The United States that is the supporter of Israel against the Palestinians.”

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Author:Edward Said
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“All knowledge that is about human society, and not about the natural world, is historical knowledge, and therefore rests upon judgment and interpretation. This is not to say that facts or data are nonexistent, but that facts get their importance from what is made of them in interpretation… for interpretations depend very much on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment the interpretation takes place.”

WorldHumansMadeMomentsFactsPurposeNaturalDependsJudgmentImportanceHistoricalDataInterpretationNatural WorldHuman SocietyInterpreterHistorical Knowledge
Book:Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World
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“... the connection between imperial politics and culture is astonishingly direct. American attitudes to American "greatness", to hierarchies of race, to the perils of "other" revolutions (the American revolution being considered unique and somehow unrepeatable anywhere else in the world) have remained constant, have dictated, have obscured, the realities of empire, while apologists for overseas American interests have insisted on American innocence, doing good, fighting for freedom.”

WorldRealityCultureFightingInterestRaceAttitudeGreatnessRevolutionUniqueDirectConnectionsConstantInnocenceEmpiresHierarchyPerilDoing GoodAmerican RevolutionFighting For FreedomAmerican GreatnessGood Fighting
Author:Edward Said
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“The Orient and Islam have a kind of extrareal, phenomenologically reduced status that puts them out of reach of everyone except the Western expert. From the beginning of Western speculation about the Orient, the one thing th orient could not do was to represent itself. Evidence of the Orient was credible only after it had passed through and been made firm by the refining fire of the Orientalist’s work.”

KindMadeFireOne ThingEvidenceIslamWesternFirmExpertsSpeculationCredibleRefining
Book:Orientalism
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“I take criticism so seriously as to believe that, even in the midst of a battle in which one is unmistakably on one side against another, there should be criticism, because there must be critical consciousness if there are to be issues, problems, values, even lives to be fought for... Criticism must think of itself as life-enhancing and constitutively opposed to every form of tyranny, domination, and abuse; its social goals are noncoercive knowledge produced in the interests of human freedom.”

IfsThinkingShouldBelieveHumansProblemFormValuesSocialSidesGoalInterestConsciousnessIssuesBattleCriticismAbuseCriticalTyrannyMidstDominationHuman Freedom
Author:Edward Said
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“exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted. And while it is true that literature and history contain heroic, romantic, glorious, even triumphant episodes in an exile’s life, these are no more than efforts meant to overcome the crippling sorrow of estrangement.”

ThinkingHumansSelfHomeLiteratureHuman BeingsEffortSadnessTerribleSorrowEssentialsOvercomingGloriousNativeHeroicEpisodesCompellingExileTriumphantEstrangementRiftTrue HomeNative Place
Book:Reflections On Exile: And Other Literary And Cultural Essays
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“In short, Israel is the measure of our failings and our incompetence. We have waited for a great leader for years, but none came; we have waited for a mighty military victory, but we were defeated roundly; we have waited for outside powers (the United States or, in its time, the Soviet Union), but none came to our aid. The one thing we have not tried in all seriousness has been to rely on OURSELVES: until we do that with a full commitment to success there is no chance that we can advance towards self-determination and freedom from aggression.”

YearsSelfChanceLeaderFailingOne ThingMilitaryVictoryCommitmentDeterminationUnionsIsraelAidsRelySovietSelf DeterminationAggressionDefeatedSoviet UnionSeriousnessGreat LeaderIncompetence
Author:Edward Said
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“Look at situations as contingent, not as inevitable, look at them as the result of a series of historical choices made by men and women, as facts of society made by human beings, and not as natural or god-given, therefore unchangeable, permanent, irreversible.”

MenHumansLooksMadeFactsChoicesGivenNaturalHuman BeingsResultsSituationSocietyMen And WomenHistoricalSeriesInevitablePermanentRefugeeUnchangeableIrreversibleChoices Made
Book:The Edward Said Reader
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“Since the 1960s, we have seen the failure of the melting pot ideology. This ideology suggested that different historical, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds could be subordinated to a larger ideology or social amalgam which is "America." This concept obviously did not work, because paradoxically America encourages a politics of contestation.”

DifferentAmericaSocialJusticeDiversityConceptsSocial JusticeHistoricalBackgroundsIdeologyPot1960sMeltingMelting Pot
Author:Edward Said
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“Power, after all, is not just military strength. It is the social power that comes from democracy, the cultural power that comes from freedom of expression and research, the personal power that entitles every Arab citizen to feel that he or she is in fact a citizen, and not just a sheep in some great shepherd's flock.”

FeelsFactsSocialFreedomLibertyDemocracyMilitaryExpressionCitizensResearchSheepFlocksShepherdsFreedom Of ExpressionPersonal PowerSocial Power
Author:Edward Said
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“I have never known what is Arabic or English, or which one was really mine beyond any doubt. What I do know, however, is that the two have always been together in my life, one resonating in the other, sometimes ironically, sometimes nostalgically, most often each correcting, and commenting on, the other. Each can seem like my absolutely first language, but neither is.”

KnowsFirstsTwoSometimesSeemsTogetherLanguageKnownDoubtMinesCorrectingResonating
Book:Out Of Place: A Memoir
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“Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient—dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.”

ViewsTeachingStyleAuthorityInstitutionsWesternStatementsCorporateSettlingOver ItRulingDescribingDominatingDealing With ItRestructuringOrientalism
Author:Edward Said
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“Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires.”

SaidStillsUseLastsOrderForceDemocracySpecialWillingCircumstancesMissionsTyrannyOfficialsEmpiresTyrantsDiscourseResortsEnlighteningChorusBenignCalmingOrientalism
Book:Orientalism
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