self.jpg
seeing how others see themselves
My own struggle
We need to understand the self-perception of Iran, Professor Rahimieh says. The country has such a rich history, and all this time it has flown over my head. To be frank, it’s probably flown over a lot of American’s heads. Specifically learning about countries such as Iran are simply not engrained to the education system of the U.S. If you asked me a year ago if the history of Iran was relevant to the U.S., I wouldn’t know what to tell you. With the current state of international affairs, I believe that it is incredibly important for citizens of all nations to exercise empathy across borders.
Before this quarter my understanding of Iran was the country that was not Iraq. I often got the two confused. Images of barren deserts crossed my mind, with the occasional terrorist. That was it. Obviously none of this is true; Iran has an incredibly rich history dating back thousands of years. It finds its roots in Persia, which was at one point the most powerful empire on the Earth. In regards to relevance to the United States, Iran faced many changes and influences that were incurred by the U.S. There is so much to learn about Iran and other countries that are often overlooked in the U.S. education system – this quarter has shown me that.
Of course, it’s worth having a global awareness when it comes to history. To be able to draw from events from different counties in different time periods is an incredibly useful skill when studying history, or even the present. But further than that, this intimate understanding of a nation’s path offers a more clear view of that country, preventing the stereotypes and confusion that riddle the international political arena. Perhaps if people weren’t content with their perceptions of the Orient and pursued them with innocent curiosity, things would be better.
Discrimination has been a major motif in this final quarter, from the Japanese internment camps to the labelling of Vietnamese refugees, a history of oppression of outsiders has been established. These actions continue to be based on a perception built upon a shallow foundation of understanding. Would Americans have been as complacent as they were with the internment camps if they had known the history of the Japanese who immigrated to the U.S.? There is a certain ‘magic’ that happens when understanding another country’s history. All of a sudden, I’m filled with respect and an urge to celebrate another country’s culture when I obtain a deeper hold of their history. Maybe it’s just for me, but I certainly hope others feel the same. To be able to be familiar with something that was foreign is a mind-opening experience that offers more understanding and joy when interacting with that foreign entity.
Now this leads to today. Leading U.S. politicians and many citizens have a particular stigma against Iran.
A political cartoon by Jerry Holbert, critiquing the Iran deal
And I could turn this post into a long discourse of the politics of this, but that’s not why I’m writing this.
Building new perceptions
To go back to Professor Rahimieh’s statement, we need to understand the self-perception of others. Exercising that kind of empathy is critical when it comes to interacting with each other, because it shows us things we didn’t know about each other. Communication becomes so much more effective if each party knows how the other sees themself. If more Americans were aware with how Iranians perceive themselves, with their ancient history as an empire and the U.S.’s past transgressions against Iran, maybe Americans would see Iran as a country trying to preserve their sovereignty rather than having an agenda to eliminate another country.
This stems to all things. One of the main things I want this blog to convey is that so much of what we see is of some sort of empire. There are countless brands, songs, images, and more mediums that exist to further the influence of an organisation, person, or idea. When we analyze a song, so much more meaning is conveyed when we understand what the creator felt while writing it. Companies pay advertisers millions to convey their self-perception to the masses, which of course, means that we can’t rely solely on one’s self-perception in our own perceptions. Other perspectives must be considered, a balance must be struck.
I hope this blog reflects what human core has taught me – the diverse perspectives we can have on empire, empire’s various effects on people, and how people can resist empire’s oppression. Whenever we go out and interpret our surroundings, we are interpreting empire in its various forms, some obvious and some more abstract. We should see these things and ponder on the perspectives we can take on it; looking at it’s own self perception and comparing it to our own or others’ perceptions. From there, we can see its effects on us, each other, and even those who we may not have thought of considering. Perhaps one day we will need not worry of resisting empire; we can study the oppression of empires as solely a part of history and not of the present.
But for now, empire.jpg is an image we cannot take lightly.