Theory, pols, and the Arab World 1990

Theory, pols, and the Arab World 1990

“Studies of Anglo- American Poll Ecoy: Democracy, Orientalism and the Left” by Peter Gran 228-254

228-Most English and amern (and stuff translated to English) academic research on ME “Often does not differ appreciably from Orientalism”
-even Marxist wrk has ortlsm
-says ortsm is “a logical and natural aspect of the dominant culture of democracy”

229-he follow’s gramsci’s “enlgish road” to say “democracy is a structure of ruler and ruled, not simply a mode of production w/ autonomous ecoc behavior”
-Gramsci says “bourgeois democracy [is] a structure in which the ruling class grants citizenship to the wrking class as a strategy to blunt radical culture and render it more dpndnt on the hegemonic culture than it is in poll systems in which the peasantry is a major element. Peasants r far more distant fromt eh dominant culture than r citizens. Democracies depend on racism to maintain the loyalty of the worker of the dominant race to the state; racism spawns guilt feelings and rtnlztn s of its persistence. One common rtlztn is the ‘chosen ppl’ ideology, which is central to ortlsm. A ‘chosen ppl’ ideology separates the dominant race from the ordinary moral crutiny of behavior imposed on the rest of humanity”
-Ortlsm is so deep rooted that it has persisted after critiques
-when Marxism dvlpd it was supportive of ortlsm (cf said and turner)
-but since capitalism has been shown to b viable w/out ortlsm, ortlsm shoud b seen as an element of “hegemonic cultures”
230-“no Marxist sociolinguistics or class analysis of lang exist in ME studies”—everyone assumes there’s just formal and colloquial Arabic, not power play

231-engl and us poll ecomists have had very little opinion on “ortlsm formulation of the islmc past”
-they simply accept capitalism entered ME b/c of cheap goods—while studies of other W. countries r more complex
-they treat ME’s long history of slavery as simply pre-capitalism instittn
232-says they fail to show class conflict has had a major affect

-says why Marxist critique (poll ecoy) is so similar to positivist is cuz of 2 areas of reasons: 1)its “sacred geo graphy” 2) the def of a democracy’s poll ecoy
1)—democracies emerged out of jew/xn trad, and since democracies entail an oppressed underclass worker, and jews and xns r the “chosen ppl”, then others will b subsumed
238-exemplified in Peace Corps and Wrld Bank
-says Israel gets support b/c it’s the only democracy in ME, and so. Af. Gets support b/c its white
-amer/xn/jew emphasis on heritage over history ensures that not many ppl look at the various factors for social change in ME
235-and have neglected to look @ peasant struggles against pre mod arab feudalism
-and islam is seen as a “fixed orthodox creed”

2)-diff phases of democracy in w. create diff poll ecoy scholarship: the last 2—early 20th ce collectivism (welfare, new deal ear, labour party) and 80s liberalism (Reagan and thatcher)
-collectivism “emphasized dvlpmnt thru govtl initiative”—new deal—1970 (date of beginning of new intl ecoc order (236))
236-emphasized agriculture production and end of malnutrition and poverty, championed industrialization as the sol, brit labour party critique colonization
-poll ecoy failed in us b/c of left not controlling a major poll party and mccarthyism purghed leftists, in brt, there was still a “genuine” racial caste system
237-in liberal phase, dependency theory is dominant thot in poll ecoy which emphasizes that states r trapped in world market
-left intellectuals now, unlike collectivist era, do not hold govt jobs and write as journalists (Chomsky, said, merip group)
238-says geertz’s symbolic anthogy became the norm and its emphasis on symbols downplays historical events (pejoratively calls him, gellner and others neo-durkheimians), Geertz
became a reluctant participant in neo lib discourse (criticizing state power) b/c of lack of power
-says now neo-anarchists (derrida and de man eg) opposed the left
239-b/c they oppose totalizing theory, supposedly this rejects poll ecoy and the arabs own paradigms
-says they “produce hegemonic culture for the w…on the grounds that n. afn culture is not ‘scripturalist’”

“The scholarly POV: Pols, Perspective, Paradigm” by Hisham Sharabi 1-51

27-Jabiri (a Moroccan), in his Arabic lang book the contemp arab discourse 82 says u can use w. writers concepts w/out having to “subordinate his analysis tot eh external perspective of the w. scholarship”, and w/out using their biases—“for what is the value of any concept if it is used only as an ornament?”—critiquer of ortslm, tho used ideas from kant, freud and marx