Tradition of Orientalism Essay (Critical Writing)

Orientalism is one of the major influencing factors of distorting and misrepresenting the image of other cultures. The theoretical tradition of orientalism that has developed in civilizational studies often deforms and distorts real civilizational phenomena, processes, as well as ideas about civilizational differences and the civilizational specificity of a particular nation, society, and state, since orientalism-style research is a type of side view of a scientist, not belonging to the civilization he studies.

The predominantly civilizational studies carried out in the context of Orientalism are connected with the study of the East, usually opposed to the West, as a result of which the Western concepts of the East appear, according to which, in general, the western public, including the scientific, acquaints themselves with eastern civilizations. It seems that this is where the main source of problems in the field of inter-civilization cooperation and dialogue is located.

To build it in the absence of real knowledge about the essence of non-Western civilizations, which by and large are not characterized by civilizational introspection on the verge of comparative civilizational research, is quite difficult. E. Said notes that Orientalism is a style of thinking based on the ontological and epistemological distinction of East and West (Palestine Diary, 2012). As part of the analysis of the civilizational paradigm in political science and the available approaches to the study of civilizations, he focuses on the example of Islamic civilization that it is one of the largest discussed and debated in modern science.

However, the growth of interest in it since the last decade was accompanied by widespread distortion, and sometimes by defaming its essence, history, and modern state, both out of ignorance and intent, which is associated with the total politicization of civil discourse.

Manipulative tactics in mass media also play a major role in the facilitation of the concept of orientalism. Manipulative technologies are called a consistent set of methods, techniques, and methods of psychosomatic effects, the purpose of which is to induce the subject to solve any problem. A competent selection of psychology-influencing technology allows the manipulator to achieve the planned results by forming in the mass consciousness the most acceptable social algorithms for itself. For instance, Kurds, who are allies of the US, are also the victims of orientalism (Karimi, Mohammadpur, & Mahmoodi, 2015).

With the development of mass media technology, persuasive communication based on facts and arguments began to transform more and more into inspiring communication. The main attention was shifted to the development of means and methods of external subthreshold effects on the sphere of the unconscious with the aim of purposefully modifying mental processes, conditions and human behavior, that is, bypassing the control of consciousness over external stimulation.

The impact of the media on untrained readers, listeners, and viewers is as invisible as radiation. The techniques and methods for manipulating public consciousness through the media are numerous and often camouflaged so that journalists can easily circumvent the press law. Silence about any important events, focusing on secondary details, turning to negative levels of consciousness, primitivizing of opponents by journalists leads to incitement of intergroup, interethnic, ethnic conflicts, to the appearance of a sense of deception, humiliation, defenselessness, uncertainty, fatigue and apathy among readers, listeners, viewers.

In addition, the US possesses a strong Protestant ethic, which makes it difficult to properly integrate the correct idea of Islamic cultures (Dabashi, 2017). Mass media have gained distribution in order to influence the mass consciousness of development from the sphere of psycholinguistics, neuro-linguistic programming, and psychology of perception. All of them are highly effective and are designed mainly for subconscious perception.

References

Dabashi, H. (2017). Post-orientalism knowledge & power in time of terror. London, England: Routledge.

Karimi, J., Mohammadpur, A., & Mahmoodi, K. (2015). Dismantling Kurdish texts: An orientalist approach. Contemporary Review of the Middle East, 2(3), 220-237.

Palestine Diary. (2012). Edward Said on orientalism [Video file]. Web.