Some oddities from the Arab-American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. They had a case of relics from the life of Edward Said, the famous scholar whose fame has perhaps not done much good (for my essay on Orientalism see here).
Why in the world we should be interested in his last tin of tobacco I don’t know, but saints have the power to sanctify all things, I suppose. There is something macabre about it as well: “This is the last tin of potentially lethal chemicals he put into his body right before he died.” It’s always said that academia is merely the Catholic Church without God, and here you have a good example of the results of a canonization process.
Below is the kind of victimology that seems to be his legacy. We’ll see what happens, but I’m not certain this victim-mindset leads to anything good – even for people who have really been victimized.
The above placard is a good example of the whole problem of combating negativity with negativity. I can’t claim to know how it will all work, but I have a guess that if we find a solution to human problems, it will not involve thinking a la Mr. Said.
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