Scholars overvalue state secrets as accurate measures of intent.
Evidence
State secrets excite expectations, not least among students of empire. For we often covet that which the state conceals, regarding its secrets as accurate measures of its most nefarious intents: unmasking its magic and deceptive opacities is our calling. But we also know that codes of conceal- ment are the fetishes of the state itself. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 158
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- XREF: Reverses the reader’s possible assumption that declassified colonial secrets reveal truth about state intent—echoes the book’s overall project.