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The Civilization of Clash - A Critique


Samuel Huntington, the writer of ‘The Clash of Civilizations’ article, imagines a disagreement between major cultures of the world. He suggests, for the future, a certain separation between civilizations that cannot be avoided. Through the centuries, a fault line between civilizations was created by the different views of God and man, the individual and the group, and so on. This line is also gradually growing because of the unbearable Western military, economic and cultural superiority to others. The line will not soon disappear because it is more fundamental than the separation created by political approaches.

According to Huntington, civilizations differ from each other by history, language, culture, tradition and religion. Along with growing interactions between civilizations, peoples separate from each other in order to intensify their cultural identity and civilization-consciousness. This intensity also creates different ‘civilization identities’ for people who carry them. After this, people will define themselves according to their civilizations instead of according to their ethnicity or ideology.
Edward Said strongly objects to the definition of ‘civilization identity’ in the article. He ignores the accuracy of this term. According to him, it is dynamic and turbulent rather than stable and completed. It can be observed, for instance, in the German case after World War II as metamorphosis of Germany’s identity. If Civilization can change, develop and disappear, as Huntington defines it, the definition of civilization identity should have also been a living and changing fact. Otherwise, we can find ourselves in a frozen world of definition that could not be in a harmony with the real world. Said says if civilizations are vigorous, then civilization identity should also be so.
Said also asserts that the fault line which is mentioned in the article does not match with real world which is full of mixtures of cultures, migrations and crossings over. The clash of civilizations does not match with the reality because there are no longer protected/isolated cultures and civilizations in the world and every civilization is aware of the diversity of cultures. If we look at the world, we can see no country as well as civilizations free from cultural variety.
It is noticeable that Huntington is not clear about his definitions of terms that do not represent the real situation. I think the most striking point in Said’s criticism of Huntington’s article is the one about defining civilization identities as stable and frozen rather than dynamic. On the other hand, Said emphasizes the difference between Huntington’s perspective and the facts of reality. This is the weakest point of Huntington’s thesis, according to him.  However, the influence of globalization should be noticed. It assimilates every cultural identity and indigenous value that causes people to differ from each other. Therefore, cultures and civilizations are rightfully denying the alien values in order to survive themselves.
 Said should have realized the reaction of ‘the Rest’. Because of Western military, economic and institutional predominance, as if it is only one destiny for the World in the future, Huntington’s theory could come to fruition in the other civilizations by increasing violence or intolerance.  Said makes good points; however his argument is not accurate particularly in his criticism on ‘the growing fault line’. Respect for cultural and emotional boundaries between civilizations can provide a broader land for tolerance and can be a guarantee of the variety.  Otherwise, if we are not aware of the reasons for ‘the Clash of Civilizations’, there will be only a united civilization over the World based on clash called ‘the Civilization of Clash’ even if we don’t want that to happen.

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