SOCI370/Said

Paragraph 1 - 4 Luky Portillo

To be in exile is to be evicted from his or her place of origin. And in pre modern times, exile is considered a serious punishment. In “Intellectual Exile: Expatriates and Marginals”, Edward Said did not only talk about exile in a physical state of uprooting a person from his/her home but also in a “metaphysical” state — not being fully adjusted or accustomed to the society he/she is living in. An immigrant is an example of an exile who moves and needs to assimilate to his/her new environment. On the other hand, Said referenced “Intellectual exile” as a source of “volatility and instability” and not “acculturation and adjustment ” in a homogenous society (pg 493). In a contemporary setting, we can say that these are the activists or advocates who feel excluded in the society and refuse to join the majority.

Comment from Rita(Qiao) Li: As an immigrant to Canada myself, I used to have the same feelings as being a stranger. I moved to somewhere new, where I had to uproot from my original home. After that, I still could not get accustomed to this new place. At that time, I had a feeling of belonging nowhere. Someone would say, in order to get used to the new better life, you have to join the majority to some extent. However, other people would insist their original ideas and "refuse to join the majority", as mentioned above. In my opinion, most of the strangers need proper "adjustment" in order to gain a normal feeling, instead of being isolated.

Comment from Velvet: I agree with what Rita said, and this also make me thinking about the process of getting involved into society as immigrant should like a mosaic that different culture fits together, not like a melting pot so we are assimilated.

Paragraph 5 - 9 Velvet Peng

Said stated that there is a metaphorical form of exile. There are two kinds of intellectuals in the society: insider and outsider. Insiders fit into the society; they should feel belong to the society, Said called them “yea-sayers.” Outsiders are the odds in the society, and they do not have power or honors, but being proud of their dissatisfaction with the society, he called them “nay-sayers.” Intellectuals exile can be explained by defining them as outsiders. They can not adapt the society. Also, they can not go back to a stable status. Jonathan Swift is an example of the outsider. He insisted on defending Britain tranny after the Tories failed. Adorno is another example of intellectual exile; he spent his life on fighting with the danger of fascism, communism, and consumerism.

Social phenomenon related: Media control in North Korea and China The banning of Facebook cut a way people in North Korea and China get related to each other, so they cannot get much information. There is also a form of media control is that government can erase what people said in social media, so his/her thinking is not spread. This elimination of message is a way to “exile” people, if you do not say things that are “legal,” then you are banned from speaking.

COMMENT: Stifling critical discourse is not unique to North Korea and China. Limits to free speech threaten the democratic ideal in Western societies as well. The existence of "whistle-blowers" who are essentially exiled from their home country speaks volumes about the level of freedom we afford to citizens who wish to hold their government accountable to their subjects. In the case of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, both considered heroes of vigilantism across the world, have been exiled and vilified by the U.S. The narrative that frames whistle-blowers as a 'threat to national security' ends at the border. Living in exile, Snowden and Assange have accused a cult-like following for their efforts to bring forth transparency in the American regime. On another note, In China, every citizen is being assigned a credit score that drops if a person buys and plays video games, or posts political comments online "without prior permission," or even if social media "friends" do so. The protection of free speech and freedom of expression is critical, and while the effects of true free speech may be chaotic and put governments at risk of being expose, it is a human right and worth defending. (Alexis)

Paragraph 10 - 12 Aram Kim

Said takes Adorno as an example of intellectuals who have lived in exile. As Said claims in the previous paragraphs that the intellectuals who were exiled from his own nation (of body and mind) eventually become being left out without having new home, because they are aware of their own identity, roots and soul, “dwelling, in the condition that a person could live with own identity, happiness and autonomy, is not possible.” (494) Not only recognizing themselves as a expatriate, but also being recognized as a expatriate by other intellectuals mark them as certain individuals who cannot be completely absorbed in new places/society they happen to live in. Adorno is one of them. He was exiled to America and began his life there again, however, was still aware that “the house is past and over”(495) as soon as he got exiled, which means he could never feel anywhere “home”, moreover, he understood as an intellectual that “it is not moral to feel at home in someone else’s home.” (495) The situations many refugees face in current society can be the example of what Said explains. People were either expelled or escaped from where they called their own countries and are still struggling to find somewhere they can belong to. On the other hand, many people perceive refugee people as threatening, different and uncomfortable to join into their lands. Both the self-identification of refugees as being in expel from where themselves are rooted, and the interpretation of others that marks those people as a certain group that is dangerous, leave the refugees being outsiders, hence, not able to belong anywhere.