Edward Said, "The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations" 3

[bobbygnosis]

"Clash of definitions."

Those words ring in me.

[OneCarefulListener]

Part 3: Professor Said shows that civilizations are not really clashing; they/we are in a "clash of definitions." People are fighting over us vs. them, "ideas of good and evil, belonging or not belonging." "Islam" like "the West" is not a single or uniform thing. Even with a nation, individual people, "the poor, immigrants, artistic Bohemians, workers... artists" cannot be reduced to a simple definition of nation or civilization. Even within "Islam" there are debates, questioning.

[1chichimec1]

Este Vato no qiuere ver la verdad! Cree que todos la lleban bien. Pero la verdad es que mientras ellos entran a robar todo lo que le pertenece a vosotros, va a seguir aviendo un,"Clash of Civilization".....

[manuel4140]

que ignorante eres!

[pigment777]

I know you can convert in some places, but not all jews accept this. God choose his people and he love them most. He even told them NOT to mix with other etnic groups.

You are right. Mohammed was progressive in his time. But his words are NOT eternal. If muslims really think they were you would all choop hands. So just face it. All this all old religion is so sick that we skip a lot of them today. In other words we use our logic. I don´t call my self christian because of this fact.

Peace.

[pigment777]

@lchamney My friend... Jews are an etnic group based on blod-line. You are born a jew. Islam is a belief system and everyone who call them self musilms belivie in this belief system. And when you check out what the Quran and the Hadeeth tells you IT IS NOT they way I like to live.

I agrre with you on the Tora. It¨s pure evil and the only good thing about the jews is that they don´t want me to become one.

[mjerryson]

: No, Jews are not an ethnic group. There is no DNA that is "kosher," and there is no illustrious past in which there were pure-blooded Hebrews. What you are proclaiming is a very modern religious ideology, that tries to create a sense of community at the expense of others. People converted to Judaism, people have been converting, and they will. When you compare, try and compare critically. Muhammad brought incredibly important social changes at his time (divorce, women's rights, etc.).

[skaley01]

@pigment777 Jews are no ethnic group...the modern concept of who is a Jew is an utter lie. Even in the Bible, they were not Jews but Israelites/Hebrew DARK-skinned-haired people, not caucasion. Judaism is a religion. But Islam was originally only associated with Arab people, only today is it an inclusive/universal religion.

[kephas10yf]

He pronounces words in other languages as if he had knowledge of phonetics.

[losanarchos]

The urge to dominate, to control, to overpower, wouldn't look so bad if the matter was the conquering of death. If human beings are driven to dominate for that reason, then why would we call it good or evil? Everyone states that hunger for power is a bad thing, but they only see these caricatures people have made of the trait. Of course, it is a powerful caricature.

[pigment777]

At 9.00 he tells a BIG lie.

Muslims rule with the Sharia law wich Mohammed himself gave them for 1.400 years ago. THAT is why they cut the hands och thiefs and stone people to detah... because IT IS IN THE SHARIA !! Mohammed married Aisha when she was six years old ... that´s why they still marrie young girls. IT IS IN THE SHARIA and mohammed gave them the law.

They have rules for everything... Sorry :(

[losanarchos]

@pigment777

For someone watching Edward Said, your cultural understanding is as flat as Tetris. So under your understanding a large religion with a religious text, no member of the religion will live differently from the text. In parts of the torah it states that it is wrong for a man to shave his beard, would you say all Jews have beards, or that non-bearded Jews don't think they're Jews? Seriously, Seinfeld, Jeff Goldblum, and Billy Crystal need to know.

[pigment777]

@ losanarchos

First - to be a Jew is related to ethnic. Buddism, Islam, Christianity, Comunism, capitalism and liberalism is NOT. They all are ideologies. The Tora is also ideologi - to be a jew is not.

And second... at 6.00. It is NOT a widespread multitude within Islam. That is a BIG lie. They are not having these kind of debate. They are becoming MORE and MORE islamic.... I know Islam is what Muslims do - but what on earth are they doing?

[losanarchos]

@pigment777

Really? You don't think regular muslims around the world aren't thinking about the group of arseholes making life hard for all worshipers of their faith? You don't think there are just regular muslims working dishpits in restaurants, trying to manage retail stores, working at banks, hospitals...living regular 9-5 lives, you don't think they ever argue about what happens when a few arses running amok make a mess of their lives and incites backlashes against them? They just do islam?

[pigment777]

@losanarchos

I would say that the only good thing about the jews and their Tora is that they don´t want me to become one.

Are you joking... ?

When I look to Mulsim nations I can´t find anythin like it. It is sick, carzy and pure evil. And all has it roots in the example of Mohammed. You know it and I know it. Aisha was SIX years and THAT is why Arabs still marry young girls.

Mohammed is no role-model. Accept it....

[lchamney]

@pigment777 Which Muslims are you talking about?  The overwhelming majority do not live in countries under sharia. The vast majority also have ages of consent, with the largest Arab country, Egypt, setting it at 16. The largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, has strong separation between church and state.

This is what Said was talking about. The worst Muslims are taken as representative of Islam, while the best Westerners are representative of us.

[antonKASA2007]

war people who are north europeans and middle easterns which come from the same ancenstry are the problem, than come some asians,but africans and the natives of americas and oceania are less problem to the world destroyed by the warlike people in the last 5000 years

[spacecricket]

so is he a cultural relativist?

[losanarchos]

@spacecricket

No, he's more of a cultural skeptic. His works index the origins of every culture's perceptions of the other which that culture would refer to as "known", or in general knowledge, truths. You'll notice in his activism for palestinian rights among other's, his cultural (aka...moral) relativism does not exist because he knows that regardless of particular beliefs, common facts are that each person is a human being with inalienable rights.

[zeusaphrodite]

you got right

[njanjej]

listen to what he say, and read it: Hobsbawm!

[richmyjz]

lawl

Said ftw.

[leJeune88]

Goodbye Professor Said. Another rational and clear thinking voice gone in these crazy times.

[yahoovisitor]

The urge to dominate is the worst property of a human being. This property has mostly made a man wild than human. The globe now called the global village has always suffered destruction by this process. Whether you call it a clash of civilizations or religions or dividing mankind into various groups. Whichever group of human beings thinks he has gained power starts dominating the others and this is the worst terrorism on the globe, the most hateful action of man & must be stopped at all cost.

[originaltime1214]

this is reasonable observation.