HOME Thematic Index jeanne. Click on any of the answer options for jeanne's lecture notes on that option. This is the position T nnesson attributes to Occidentalism. The man behind the concept is professor Hassan Hanafi, leader of the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Cairo and a former researcher at the United Nations University in Tokyo. . . . The idea of a universal culture is a myth destined to fool the dominated. . .
Occidentalism represents adversarial compulsion from the East.
Orientalism represents adversarial compulsion from the West. By defining the Other as Oriental if I am Occidental, or by defining the Other as Occidental if I am Oriental, I manage to take for my own identity those characteristics we admire, and to allot to the Other none of those admired characteristics. The first option is for those of us who already are Westerners to define ourselves more consciously as such, promote or defend Western values and enlist Eastern converts or clients in the endeavour. Differences between these civilizations are in Huntington's view more fundamental than differences among ideologies and political regimes. Communists can become democrats, and rich can become poor, but Russians cannot become Estonians or Azeris become Armenians.