Vaheed K. Ramazani - September 11: Masculinity, Justice, and the Politics of Empathy - Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 21:1-2. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 21.1-2 (2001) 118-124 America's immediate response to the shocking events of September 11 has been a near caricature, on a national scale, of the Freudian account of traumatic neurosis. In reaction to the breach of the mental apparatus' "protective shield" by an unexpected and overwhelmingly intense stimulation, the collective psyche has rushed to bind and deflect the influx of dangerous energies—"endeavouring," in Freud's words, "to master the stimulus retrospectively, by developing the anxiety whose omission was the cause of the traumatic neurosis. " Like the child who repeats his unpleasurable experience in play, we, as a people, cling to the instinct for mastery, to a compensatory fantasy of control and revenge.
I shall not, therefore, suggest that the discourse of machismo blocks automatically our capacity for empathy; indeed, its considerable power to inflame collective passions springs from its cloying sentimentality. FFP | The Fund for Peace. Middle East / North Africa. Country, industry and risk analysis from Economist Intelligence Unit. 2012 Symposium-Economics, Youth and Technology in the “Arab Spring” | Jewbonics. Hamid Dabashi, The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism. Hamid Dabashi, The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism. London and New York: Zed Books, 2012. Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book? Hamid Dabashi (HD): As you well know, a massive set of revolutionary uprisings are sweeping across North Africa and Western Asia, from Morocco to Syria and from Bahrain to Yemen. This is all happening in the aftermath of an equally important uprising code-named the Green Movement in Iran.
While the Arab uprisings were under way, the Eurozone crisis and civil unrest swept across Europe from Greece to Spain, and before that was completely registered the Occupy Wall Street movement started in the US. J: What particular topics, issues, and literatures does it address? HD: At least since the Iranian revolution of 1977-1979, I have been thinking and writing about revolutions.
How does this work connect to and/or depart from your previous research and writing? J: Who do you hope will read this book, and what sort of impact would you like it to have?