In this important lecture delivered at the University of Massachusetts, Said takes aim at one of the central tenets of recent foreign policy thinking-- that conflicts between different and "clashing civilizations" (Western, Islamic, Confucian) characterize the contemporary world. "The real question is whether in the end we want to work for civilizations that are separate, or whether we should be taking the more integrative, but perhaps more difficult path, which is to see them as making one vast whole, whose exact contours are impossible for any person to grasp, but whose certain existence we can intuit and feel and study." -Edward Said Sections: Intro - What are the Commonalities That Can Unite Us? - Is "Difference" something We Should Try and Avoid? - How Do We Combat Ideas Such as the "Clash of Civilizations?" - How do These Ideals of Coexistence Relate to the Question of Palestine? Edward Said Edward Wadie Said was a well-known Palestinian American literary theorist, critic, and outspoken pro-Palestinian activist. According to Columbia News (Columbia University, where Said spent most of his career), the author of Orientalism was "one of the most influential scholars in the world." Source : http://www.mediaed.org.