State texts mask the vested interests of their authors
Evidence
In short, the point to be made is that no matter how impressive certain texts appear to be, they still do not write themselves: they are a reflection of the vested interests of a certain group of people who are trying to hide these interests behind some idea of universal truth or abstract writ and couch it in some consistent, impressive language. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 963
Categorization
Category: Craft and Method
- XREF: The reader’s own interest in how Ottoman and British officials represented Egyptian military expansion — this passage warns that official documents from any party must be read as interested speech, not neutral record.
Related
- Official state texts are contaminated by the reality they claim to regulate (similarity 0.82)
- Official texts reveal intentions but not whether reality matched them. (similarity 0.78)