Edward Said would listen carefully to Sam Huntington’s newfound pride and
joy, "Clash of Civilizations" and then sigh like a knowing parent, hoping
his child’s’ tastes will mature beyond the traditional backyard games. As
Said is well aware, western leaders have been promoting divisiveness among
societies as long as boys have made games of capturing frogs in rivers—but
this fact does not make the concept any less revolting. Huntington’s view of
our future global society may be well respected in the schoolyard at Harvard
and in the neighborhood of American senators, but Edward Said is not
mystified by western academia grandeur. He is a critic of American foreign
policy and promotes the very opposite view of a world paradigm that
Huntington presents.
Huntington’s view of the global paradigm is an outline of distinct
civilizations. These "civilizations" are composed of persons of a similar
history, language, culture, tradition, and/or religion that he predicts will
join together in political unity, replacing national and ideological
political forces. These unique civilizations, in contrast to Said’s version
of the world, are "whole and intact, watertight under an eternal sky."
(Ajami, Fouad) Huntington believes that future "principal conflicts of
global politics will occur between (these) groups of different
civilizations."(Clash of Civ) Aditionally, in order for the western world to
protect and defend its interests as the dominant world civilization, it must
adopt a foreign policy along a "West" versus "The Rest" framework. This
view, of course, would be strongly renounced by Said who more optimistically
defines civilizations as essentially hybrid in nature. Said acknowledges
that cultures tend to seem distinctive but places more importance on the
underlying connections between them. He believes that global conflict is
more likely to spur from the policies of imperialistic westerners who mettle
too far into foreign governments that they simply do not (or have not
attempted to) fully understand. In his literary career Said speaks to
westerners’ ignorance by analyzing the very fabrics of western
education—novels—to reveal the gross follies of Western society and its
meddlesome adventures. Said concludes that the United States should end the
individualistic methods exemplified by Hamilton and "have a particular
responsibility"(Overlapping Territories, 54) to neighboring countries. He
feels this responsibility is of particular pertinence due to America’s role
as the country with the greatest potential for influence.
In fact, this idea of America as the world's last super-power seems to be
the only common factor the two writers share. Said agrees with Huntington
that the "West is in now at an extraordinary peak of power in relation to
other civilizations currently the world dominating power."(Clash of Civ)
Furthermore, they both agree that "the West in effect is using international
institutions, military power and economic resources to run the world in ways
that will maintain Western predominance, protect Western interests and
promote Western political and economic values." (Clash of Civ) As Said
writes--we are "the dominant outside force." (Culture and Imperialism, xx)
Although Said generally concurs with Huntington as to the West’s status in
global affairs, his tone, however, is much more skeptical. Said would argue
that with such a wide influence, the inescapable nature of Western society
makes it impossible for Huntington’s self-contained civilizations to exist.
Said believes the West has an imperialist history of financially,
militarily, and socially suppressing "the rest" of the world’s societies—a
pattern that has not ended with the world’s "last superpower," the United
States. (Overlapping Territories, 53) He is critical of the United States
stating, "Honestly, (America’s) record is not a good one. United States
military interventions since World War II have occurred (and still are
occurring) on nearly every continent, with tremendous national investment,
as we are now only beginning to understand." (Overlapping territories, 55)
This is quite a contrast to Huntington’s attitude, who
seems to "believe that the Anglo-Saxon world—Britain and the United States,
with perhaps a few continental countries along for the ride—should form an
imperium against the Asian, Islamic, and African hordes."
Not only does Huntington describe a global paradigm that is the complete
antithesis of Said’s social theory, he lays out his model of civilizations
in a tone typical of the "imperialistic westerner." Since criticism of
"imperialistic" western society is Said’s primary literary endeavor, (as far
as I have read of him) it is natural that he would respond to Huntington’s
global paradigm with a knowing sigh—and then proceed to explain why the
Harvard professor lacks vision beyond his own self-contained playing field
within western society.
Ajami, Fouad. "The Summoning; But they said, We Will Not Hearken," The Clash
of Civilizations. Foreign Affairs. Summer 1993, v72, n3 Academic Index
(database on UTCAT system)
COPYRIGHT Council on Foreign Relations Inc. 1993