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.
Interpretation
The quote discusses how the concepts of 'East' and 'West' are not fixed identities, but rather constructs shaped by human perception and social dynamics.
Edward Said's quote highlights the fluidity and constructed nature of cultural identities, arguing that the terms 'Orient' and 'West' lack inherent meaning and are instead formed through a complex interplay of human interpretations. This perspective challenges the traditional dichotomy between the two regions, emphasizing that they are defined by our perceptions, affirmations, and the act of recognizing the 'Other'.
In practice
In a discussion about cultural studies, one might use this quote to illustrate the idea that cultural identities are subjective.
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.
Uninformed and yet open to appeals for justice as they are, Americans are capable of reacting as they did to the ANC campaign against apartheid, which finally changed the balance of forces inside South Africa.
Refuse to allow yourself to become a vegetable that simply absorbs information, pre-packaged, pre-ideologized , because no message.. is anything but an ideological package that has gone through a kind of processing.
Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric.
Much as I have no wish to hurt anyone's feelings, my first obligation has not been to be nice but to be true to my perhaps peculiar memories, experiences and feelings.
It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.
What is common to many is least taken care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than what they possess in common with others.
All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.
One must choose between making a man or a citizen, for one cannot make both at the same time.
No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation , an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as " the right to enslave .
We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up and register, through the stimuli of our daily environment.
Attentiveness is the natural prayer of the Soul.
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