Tomorrow, Columbia will hold an all-day celebration of Edward Said’s influential book, “Orientalism”.
“Orientalism” was a politically correct attack on the Orientalist Departments of the 1960’s, which held up North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia to western standards of objective inquiry. The most noteworthy member of this school of thought today is Bernard Lewis. Unfortunately, the Emeritus Professor at Priceton is virtually alone in a field dominated by Third-Worldists, Arabists, Islamists, and terrorist supporting followers of Michelle Focault.
“Orientalism” was not an attempt to find truth: “I have no interest in, much less capacity for, showing what the true Orient and Islam really are.” Afterword to 1994 edition, Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1994), p. 331. Rather, Orientalism amounts to the ideological basis for calling all non-apologists for Orient racists.
It is the post-colonialist McCarthyism of the Academic left. To see an inkling “Orientalism” has wrought, please see MESA Culpa (http://www.meforum.org/article/500 ) or go to www.campus-watch.com If you are interested in the subject please read " Ivory Towers on Sand” by Martin Kramer or go to the accompanying website, http://www.ivorytowers.org/pages/832319/
As if to prove the complete control the anti-Orientalists have on academia, especially at Columbia, take a look at the line up of speakers tomorrow. Provost Jonathan Cole, a man responsible for all hiring decisions, will be praising “Orientalism.”
Ron Lewenberg
Founding President President
Columbia College Conservative Club
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/conservative
