Rather than the remote “other” being perceived as problematic and/or dangerous, it is the proximate “other,” the near neighbor, who is most troublesome. That is to say, while difference or “otherness” may be perceived as being either LIKE-US or NOT-LIKE-US, it becomes most problematic when it is TOO-MUCH-LIKE-US or when it claims to BE-US.Jonathan Z. Smith, “Differential Equations: On Constructing the ‘Other,’” 1992 Arizona State University Annual Lecture in Religion (Arizona State Dept. of Religious Studies, 1992), p. 13.
