In another Seminar post, the role of the intellectual came up. Throughout the thread folks touched on a variety of issues revolving around how an individual intellectual lives in, reacts to, participates in, is informed by the group in which they are commenting.
There were some great questions that came up. “How does the intellectual stand both outside society and inside society? How does the intellectual find common ground between what is of deeply personal and private interest? What is of public interest? and how does the intellectual take on him or her self with the changing issues of society, and at the same time remain true to certain unchanging principles?
My comments, while brief, tried to emphasize the metaphysical (ideas, perception, adoption, agreement, etc.) rather than the physical (location, membership, etc.), “If one is not in a society (group) they could not comment about it? I believe Said is describing the consequences of speaking “truth to power.” That is, once the insider within society learns of an issue and raises it to the authorities, they become an outsider in exile.
Opening My Masters 