Current Western troubles stem from failing to see cultural differences

Evidence

In the modern world, we may find ourselves obliged to deal with societies professing different religions, nurtured on different scriptures and classics, formed by different experiences, and cherishing different aspirations. Not a few of our troubles at the present time spring from a failure to recognize or even see these differences, an inability to achieve some understanding of the ways of what were once remote and alien societies. They are now no longer remote, and they should not be alien. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1867

Categorization

• XREF: Identifies ignorance-of-civilizations as a causal driver of conflict — directly relevant to how the region became legible to Western audiences, and a counterpoint to Said’s power-analysis of that legibility.