Hey Everybody. :)
I want to start out by saying that I found the format of the book very refreshing. In a traditional textbook or non-fiction book, I often feel as though I'm being lectured to. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course, but I think I may have actually gotten more out of the interview/conversation between Barenboim and Said. I felt as though, I was the fly on the wall, listening to two brilliant, knowledgeable men speak their opinions, react and respond to each other.
I found their discussion of the effects of and reactions against globalization very interesting . Said stated that one of the impacts was the "reaction against global homogenization" was hanging on to traditional symbols as a way to stand against the wave of globalization. This rings very true to me. In class discussion several weeks ago, the issue of clinging to identity to set you apart was brought up, and after quite a bit of thinking about it I realized how obvious this was. Back home, where pretty much everyone's is Catholic and of northern European origin, people try to find ways to differentiate themselves. But once I left for more diverse pastures, I found myself claiming and clinging to that identity more than ever. I know that many of my friends have had similar experiences and it goes a long way in explaining the backlash against globalization and the 'American culture.' He also spoke of partition being the go-to method of dealing with post-colonialism and of forcing people into boxes and how this creates paranoia and distortion. This is the source of a lot of modern conflicts in the world, Israel-Palestine being the most visible.
Said and Barenboim also discussed ignorance of other people's opinions being the root of suffering. They don't think that everyone should agree, indeed different ideas make the world a better place, but understanding that the opposing side has a genuine sensible argument, is the first step to tolerance.
See you guys tomorrow!
Hey Bri. So this is going to a long comment cause I feel the need to comment on this post and your one from last week. First off, I had a very similar experience of starting to cling to my roots more once I left home. Before going to college I didn't pay much attention to family traditions and I was convinced I needed to get out of woodsy PA and live in a city. Three years later and I'm always dying to go home to rural PA and I might now be the most die hard traditionalist of the family, funny how things can change. This is getting long so I'll try to keep this part short but I noticed from your pictures that we also have similar heritage. My family is ukrainian and I remember my grandmother making borscht and we make kolatch every Christmas. Good old eastern European meals.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, you eat Kolace? That's awesome! My mum makes them at least one a month and it's one of my favorite things. I'm always begging her to send me some in a care package (next time my mum sends me some, I'll bring you one :) ). I didn't know we had such similar food to the Ukraine. My Grandma's from Western Czechoslovakia so I guess they're not very far apart.
DeleteWe talked about the effect of partitioning in one of my courses last semester by examining the Pakistan-India conflict. I'm curious to see if the partitioning of Israel-Palestine will follow a similar course as Pakistan-India, or if the conflict is rooted in different enough issues that will cause it to work out differently.
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