Arabic-L:GEN:Another 'west' Response

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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1) Subject: Another 'west' Response

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1)
Date: 01 Dec 2000
From: "T.A. MCALLISTER" <ecl6tam at lucs-01.novell.leeds.ac.uk>
Subject: Another 'west' Response

Dear Mr Al-Amri,

I accidentally deleted your original email, so please accept my
apologies for any inaccuracies in what follows.

Your biggest problem is likely to be that there is no single definition of
the phrase "The West": it means many different things to different
people, at different times and in different contexts, and can even be
used with many different meanings by the same person. In practice,
it means whatever chaotic mishmash of (largely unexamined and
often unconscious) assumptions the writer or speaker assumes that it
includes in the context of whatever he or she happens to be talking
about at the time. It is one of those phrases which are often used as
a convenient shorthand for much more complicated ideas ... and such
shorthand phrases are very likely to be misunderstood.

This is especially true in newspapers. There are many honourable
exceptions, but not all journalists are highly educated or experts on
the subject-matter that they write about. Their prose is then
sometimes altered by editors who are more interested in making it
easily readable than in preserving fine distinctions of meaning, and
then articles are sometimes given misleading headlines which clearly
show that the headline-writer has not read the article carefully. "The
West" is a wonderful phrase for headlines: short, easy to read, and
clear enough for most readers to get the general idea, even if it is
somewhat imprecise.

You referred to "English papers" without defining whether you meant
papers published in England, papers published in Great Britain, papers
published in countries where English is the official or main language,
papers published in countries where English is a minority language or
all of the above. I can only speak with experience of those in Great
Britain, but there is no doubt that these vary from the (moderately)
literate to those whose incompetent use of the journalists' own
mother-tongue is the subject of frequent jokes. A comedian who
wants a cheap laugh need only claim to have found a long word in
one of our tabloid newspapers, pause, then say " ... it had five
letters". Attempts to analyse the usage of such writers are unlikely to
discover much beyond the obvious fact that much of the writing is
unsophisticated to the point of downright thoughtlessness.

Even in careful writing, much depends on context. Most political
writers would unhesitatingly include Australia in "The West",
regardless of whether it lies east or west of their own country.
Economists frequently refer to Japan as part of "the West". That
doesn't mean that they are ignorant of its geographical location; it is
simply easier to use that phrase than to explain at length that "Japan's
economic/political/legal system bears more resemblances to those
commonest in Western Europe and countries which have developed
similar systems derived from or modelled upon theirs, at least in part,
than it bears to the systems more common in some of its closer
geographical neighbours ..."  A journalist who wrote that sort of
clumsy prose would soon be looking for a new job.

The (implied) definition also changes over time: another member of
the list made a good point about Thomas Mann's novel "Der
Zauberberg". It is worth remembering that that that was written in
1924 (since when attitudes have changed greatly, including formality
in modes of address and, if we're lucky, noisy sex  :-), in German
(and therefore there are the usual problems of translating the
connotations of phrases) and also that Mann was very skilled at using
ironic language and frequently made his characters say outrageous
things, which did not represent his own views, in order to illustrate
their character-flaws. It is a good example, but must not be taken too
literally.

The same individual can use "the West" to mean different things in
different contexts, without meaning to be inconsistent. For example,
in a discussion of Western classical music, "the West" might include
Russia but not China, which has its own distinct classical traditions.
However, the same musican who used that phrase as shorthand in
his own subject would unhesitatingly agree that politically, until the
fall of the Wall, "The West" ended at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin,
but now it includes Poland, which is further east.

It would be wise to remember that many phrases which might be
used to define "the West" also vary in meaning across the English-
speaking world. To me, as a Brit, the word "Asia" suggests
somewhere east of an undefined point somewhere on the Indian
subcontinent, but Americans (and, I must admit, geographers) often
use it to mean anywhere east of Istanbul. My usage of the term in
that context is probably not even plausible, let alone correct. It is,
however, convenient and traditional amongst the people to whom I
speak most often, and like many people, I am prey to the sin of
laziness, and use imprecise language if there is a reasonable
likelihood that the people I am talking to will understand it in the
sense that I mean it.

That laziness is natural, and can often be mistaken for prejudice. (I
am not denying that prejudice exists, merely pointing out that it is not
the only explanation for certain phenomena.) Almost all peoples tend
naturally to consider the world from their own location in it, and
always have done. For millenia, China referred to itself as "The
Middle Kingdom", which was perfectly natural. In medieval times,
maps drawn in Europe tended to put Heaven and/or Jerusalem at the
top, and the rest of the known world (i.e. Europe and a thin sliver of
North Africa) below that, thus placing East at the top, which is the
origin of the phrase "orientation". The change to putting the North at
the top came about during the times of the great explorers, and, since
they tended to go in all directions from Europe, Europe tended to be
placed in the centre, in order to show the extent of the known world
to either side.

I live in Britain, which was firmly right at the bottom of the older
maps. It certainly *feels* very, er ... Western: to my east there are
lots of countries in a huge landmass, but to my west there is only one
small landmass, Ireland, between me and three thousand miles of
empty Atlantic Ocean. In that context, "the West" is a very useful
and natural term to use, and is readily understood by my neighbours,
because its somewhat blurred borders are so far away that in most
contexts their exact definition is not necessary.

I don't want to imply that your project is impossible or not worth
attempting, but it would probably be wise to define very carefully its
scope, the sources, the contexts and the subjects to be examined, as
well as the target-audience for each use of the phrase. You are
taking on a huge and difficult task; good luck ... you'll need it!

Best wishes.

Alec.

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End of Arabic-L: 01 Dec 2000