Marco, Diana, all MF
On European Order.
One term that hasn't popped up in any of the discussion dealing with the nature of European order
during the period of the colonial expansion is the "Orient." I'm about halfway through a dense book
"Orientalism" by Edward W. Said, a Palestinian Arab, who holds a chair of English and Comparative
Literature at Columbia. He proposes that starting as early as the Greeks a theme or pattern of
values emerged which essentially draws a line down the middle of the Mediterranean and defines all
peoples East of that line as distinctly different than those West of that line, characterizing them
as mysterious, unchanging, and ultimately inferior. He traces this intellectual tradition as it was
created and transmitted throughtout Europe and the World and illustrates how it was and is a major
factor in the events that transpired from Columbus to the ongoing Christian/Jew/Islam conflict in
the MidEast.
If European order is viewed through the pervasive and intertwining filters of Christianity,
Enlightenment, and Orientalism it easy to see how Kipling's "East is East, and West is West" became
the rule of the day, why the Indians are called Indians, and how they were treated was based on a
prevailing pattern of social and intellectual values which were more or less consistantly applied
worldwide. Now the difference is that America, for a bunch of very complex reasons probably
including luck, slipped out of that colonial yoke very early on, this may well account for it's
relatively unique development. Now the sad part is that the tradition of "Orientalism" is alive and
well in American social, political, and intellectural values today.
Empty Space
Marco when you said, "When you create order using a good method, and use the new space you created
,
that's freedom..... Order is a necessary condition for empty space. Order is a necessary condition
for freedom." it reminded me of Martin Heidegger's discussion of "space" in his essay " Building,
Dwelling and Thinking"
He says; " What the word for space, Raum, Rum, designates is said by its ancient meaning. Raum mean
s
a place cleared or freed for settlement and lodging. A space is something that that has been made
room for, something that is cleared and free, namely within a boundary, Greek peras. .... Space is
in essense that for which room has been made,.."
What strikes me is the ancient mean embodies all the qualities of what you call "empty space" to th
e
point of "empty space" being an oxymoron. Is it not odd that as language evolves we have to add
modifiers to words that originally covered the topic quite succinctly. As we clear that space for D
Q
(freedom) it is with in the boundary (order) of our static patterns. Unless of course we prefer ins
anity.
3WD
PS: For a novel and fictional narrative on the conflict of European and American values "PastWatch,
the Redemption of Christopher Columbus" by Orson Scott Card is a good read with a decent source lis
t
for the factually inclined.
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