Colonial action is entangled in self-concealing contradictory motives

Evidence

There seemed no straight walking for us leaders in this crooked lane of conduct, ring within ring of unknown, shamefaced motives cancelling or double-charging their precedents. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 616

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘ring within ring of shamefaced motives’ echoes the layered bad faith that postcolonial and psychoanalytic critique locate in colonial selfhood. — connects to: Colonial rescue logic persists as ‘half victim, half terrorist’ duality — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 289; Challenging empire is possible because it contains internal contradictions.; Colonial spatial control derives its strength from flexibility, not rigidity (+7 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 616
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Colonial rescue logic persists as ‘half victim, half terrorist’ duality — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 289; Challenging empire is possible because it contains internal contradictions.; Colonial spatial control derives its strength from flexibility, not rigidity (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Colonial states engineered morality by harnessing affect in their agents. #complicates (0.72) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 426