Knowledge of the Orient justifies and perpetuates colonial occupation in a closed loop.

Evidence

Balfour’s logic here is interesting, not least for being completely consistent with the premises of his entire speech. England knows Egypt; Egypt is what England knows; England knows that Egypt cannot have self-government; England confirms that by occupying Egypt; for the Egyptians, Egypt is what England has occupied and now governs; foreign occupation therefore becomes “the very basis” of contemporary Egyptian civilization; Egypt requires, indeed insists upon, British occupation. But if the special intimacy between governor and governed in Egypt is disturbed by Parliament’s doubts at home, then “the authority of what … is the dominant race—and as I think ought to remain the dominant race—has been undermined.” Not only does English prestige suffer; “it is vain for a handful of British officials—endow them how you like, give them all the qualities of character and genius you can imagine—it is impossible for them to carry out the great task which in Egypt, not we only, but the civilised world have imposed upon them.” — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 113

Categorization

• XREF: This is the self-confirming circularity of Orientalist knowledge that Said later shows reverberates through modern policy toward the Muslim world.
• DEEPTHINKING: The closed epistemic loop — knowing justifies governing, governing confirms knowing — is arguably the load-bearing mechanism of the entire Orientalism thesis and worth sitting with.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 113