Occidentalism the Title of Ian Essay

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These conservatives are, in the authors' estimation, anti-Western, even though they perceive themselves to be upholding Western values.

But is this really a useful or complete understanding of the complexities of the religious and cultural debates that exist within the Middle East, America, or the larger world? Although the use of the term Occidentalism helpful to some extent in examining why 'they' hate 'us' in the Islamic vs. Western world's culture wars, ultimately the term is so broad its value is somewhat limited, especially if their construct is applied to Nazi Germany vs. The West. Further confusing the issue is that the authors note that many Western critics come from within the system itself, from the ultimate critic of Western bourgeois values Karl Marx to Western-educated fundamentalist terrorists. This makes the definition of 'the Occident' even slipperier, especially as Marx was pro-urban, pro-science, in contrast to religious fundamentalists.

This blurry line between West and East in the ideological discussions of "Occidentalism" does not fully take into consideration the material effects of power outlined in Guns, Germs, and Steel. The tools of military colonization used by the West against the East had a much more definite dividing line, as in the case of the Spanish triumph over the Incas.

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True, some of the echoes of the themes of the essay on "Occidentalism" can be seen in Guns, Germs, and Steel, in the ways that the Spanish not only strove to capture the Incan leader Atahualpa, but also wanted to vanquish the Incan's concept of God. The Spanish viewed their victory as a cultural triumph, not merely a triumph of superior military techniques and were determined to make their conquest a permanent one. Both "Occidentalism" and Guns, Germs, and Steel show that warfare is seldom viewed in the practical terms of a power struggle when 'the West' pits itself against 'the East.' Victory or defeat is interpreted as giving a mandate or judgment from heaven. Even if a reader occasionally disagrees with Buruma and Margalit's definition of the West, the fact that the notion of a 'culture war' is an old one is an important point to remember......

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