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Our Democracy Depends on Secrecy
What would happen if all governmental and economic secrets were laid bare?
George H.W. Bush once said if the people knew the kinds of things rich people get away with, there would be a revolution tomorrow. The system on which we depend has a dirty little secret. It depends on the ability of those in power to keep secrets from the rest of the population to survive. If you aren’t sure who “the rest of the population” is, it’s us. It’s not so much that the government lies to us, though it does, it’s what they don’t tell us. It’s the stuff they don’t want us to know, the stuff they classify, and the stuff that slips through unnoticed by the general population.
It’s the glue that holds this house of cards together.
Imagine for a moment how things might change if every secret held by those in power, both politically and economically, was made public, that there was no such thing as a “classified document.” What if a transcript from every meeting from both public and private entities were in the public domain? What if the political donations made by PACs were public information?
Let’s take a look at what might be different.
