Tag: Op-ed

  • The One Sided Mirror: How Occidentalism Missed The Boat

    The One Sided Mirror: How Occidentalism Missed The Boat

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    To provide insight on why the West has enemies, Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit’s “Occidentalism” portrays an enemy full of jealousy and envy who hates capitalism and imperialism. Unfortunately, “Occidentalism” was written from the Western perspective and fails to reflect on the roots of this resentment.

    Buruma and Margalit mention that contemporary Occidentalism is often focused on America and that “anti-Americanism is sometimes the result of specific American policies…which is normally used as shorthand for U.S. imperialism. [But] Whatever the U.S. government does or does not do is often beside the point.” Ironically, what the author ignores is the collateral damage of U.S. policies that have created emotional victims whose semi-distorted image of the West cuts their wounds deeper.

    “Occidentalism” feeds into the West’s perception of the “other” as Russell Jacoby explains in “The Terror from Within.” “We prefer to imagine threats as emanating from aliens and foreigners” due to “small variations” that “elicit more rage because they imperil identity.” “Occidentalism” hovers above this reality and does not portray the whole picture.

    They consider the “intellectual trap to avoid” as the “colonial guilt,” with the fact that “European and American histories are stained with blood, and Western imperialism did much damage.” The West is not required to apologize for the gallons of blood on their hands or to turn a blind eye when tragedies occur around the world. However, it is naïve to presume the only basis for this Occidentalist hatred is differences in values.

    Some Occidentalists are not ranting about the evils of capitalism or the perceived lack of heroism in the West. Instead, they want to know why a drone dropped a bomb in their backyard or why their village was wiped out with a weapon that was “made in U.S.A.” It is this emotional toll that is the basis of hatred that can lead to violence if their image of the West follows what “Occidentalism” defines. However, the notion that Occidentalists solely contemplate how to rid the world of barbarians is misleading. Most are reacting from the viewpoint of a victim from a recent incident or, unfortunately for the West, from a long list of tragedies and historical biases.

  • Pancake Sponge Brain: The Internet and Digital Media Stretches Us Thin and Feeds Wisdom Depending on Who Is Using It

    Source: johnpiippo.com
    Source: johnpiippo.com

    The Internet and digital media have revolutionized the way we access the news. Ironically, it has hindered full exposure of the truth and has assisted in building the most comprehensive source of knowledge. To what extent this medium is a curse or a blessing primarily depends on those who utilize it.

    The most obvious protagonist in this dynamic play is Google. In “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr speaks to the fact that the brain can reprogram itself and adapt to every technologically development. Gradually, we have evolved from reading in-depth to only skimming. However, Google believes the human brain is an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and bigger hard drive. Carr introduces the pancake-people as we are spread wide and thin as we connect and skim through a vast network of information.

    The skimming trend leads to the concern of maintaining context and diversity as a priority. According to Michiko Kakutani in “Texts Without Context,” one of the main issues the Internet causes is cyberbalkanization. Since people can filter everything they view, they tend to not encounter other people or ideas that are different from their own, which reduces a sense of consensus and common ground.

    Switching our focus to those who produce the material we skim and filter, J. Hebert Altschull in “From Milton to McLuhan: The Ideas Behind American Journalism” points out that journalists are confined by the time and space of the news production system and tend to avoid reflecting on the fundamental ideas of their work. Thus, a lack of context is tolerated to meet a deadline and serve readers with no time to fully view their work.

    In The Guardian article “We Need a New Era of Digital Journalism,” Frederic Filloux explains that journalism is in need of an evolution to cater to today’s readers who “want to be taken from A to B, with the best possible arguments, and no distraction or wasted time.” A possible solution to this is to create a new journalistic genre for digital media.

    Thus, a form of digital media etiquette should be required for both producers and consumers of news to insure that the truth behind issues and events are clear and comprehensive. For example, the Guardian posted an article about Ghana’s first farmer’s market, implying that organic and local produce are becoming a trend due to Ghana’s growing middle class and are being hosted in markets for the first time. The article failed to mention the long history of food markets in Africa or how African farmers are undercut in the global economy or the recent health issues Ghana has faced due to its desire to compete and keep up with globalization. All of this information the article lacked are easily accessible via the Internet and digital media, but could possibly get lost beneath our skimming and filtering habits.