I recall once hearing a story about Edward Said, which, whether true or not, I return to time and again when thinking about the ideal of objectivity in Western culture. In a press conference delivered by Said, so the story goes, an Israeli journalist asked him why it is that he never attempts to present the Palestinian-Israeli conflict objectively. Why, in other words, does he only stress the violence inflicted by Israelis upon Palestinians and not vice versa? For surely, anyone can see that Palestinians have committed a host of atrocities that Said never seems to invoke in his analysis Read more