Orientalists

Orientalists, like many other 19th century thinkers, conceive of humanity either in large collective terms or in abstract generalities. Orientalists are neither interested in nor capable of discussing individuals; instead, artificial entities predominate. Similarly, the age old distinction between "Europe" and "Asia" or "Occident" and "Orient" herds beneath very wide labels of every possible variety of human plurality, reducing it in the process to one or two terminal collective realities.