“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.”
The text details the manner in which the western societies practiced imperialism by secluding themselves as devising noble quests and not domination. British colonizers spread their ideologies throughout the world with the tagline that they are spreading knowledge or democracy. This notion fostered the need for them to impose their cultures and interpretations of foreign culture to the rest of the world. To the colonized civilization, however, this is was not to their advantage as they viewed it as an invasion and misrepresentation of who they are. Said critiques the manner in which forceful expansionism took place with pacific ideologies as the cover of the operation.
“The more one is able to leave one’s cultural home, the more easily is one able to judge it, and the whole world as well, with the spiritual detachment and generosity necessary for true vision.”
Said’s work is essentially the dismantling of the western perception of the East that was molded by the Western civilizations. Akin to assertion the author takes a step back and looks at the West and East from an objective perspective in order to create a true vision of both cultures. He recognizes how the subjective notions of the Western societies in regards to the Orient have impacted both social and political dealings with Asian nations to modern times. The caricatured interpretations of the cultures in the Eastern hemisphere have created an ingrained view of the Asian countries that is counterproductive. Thus, the statement is the mode in which an individual can deduce the true vision of their culture and others too.
“From the beginning of Western speculation about the Orient, the one thing the 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.”
Said criticizes the Orientalist works that were used to create the cultural image of the Eastern hemisphere by Western scholars. In order for the colonizers to pursue their agendas in the East, a particular image was created to service their intentions. While the local inhabitants could offer a truthful interpretation of their cultures, their works could not be regarded as reliable unless they get the western ‘touch’. Henceforth this manner of conveying the Orient created a fabricated notion of the different nations, recognizing them as a single culture rather than distinct cultures.
