Transparency: The New Source of Power

[bemildred]

Government should be transparent by default, secret by necessity. Of course, it is not. Too much of government is secret. Why? Because those who hold secrets hold power.

Now WikiLeaks has punctured that power. Whether or not it ever reveals another document -- and we can be certain that it will -- Wikileaks has made us all aware that no secret is safe. If something is known by one person, it can be known by the world.

But that has always been the case. The internet did not kill secrecy. It only makes copying and spreading information easier and faster. It weakens secrecy. Or as a friend of mine says, the internet democratizes leaking. It used to be, only the powerful could hold and uncover knowledge. Now many can.

Of course, we need secrets in society. In issues of security and criminal investigation as well as the privacy of citizens and some matters of operating the state -- such as diplomacy -- sunlight can damage. If government limited secrecy to that standard -- necessity -- there would be nothing for WikiLeaks to leak.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-jarvis/transparency-the-new-sour_b_792213.html

[jody]

1. Knowledge is power and leaders keep secrets to enhance power. That simple rule is followed by

officers in many military positions in particular other nation where subordinates are ignorant of the most fundamental pieces of intelligence and thereby rendered incapable of assuming command or issuing independent orders.

A dangerous adversary is one where each individual troop is able, ne encouraged to act independently, e.g. Taliban.

[bemildred]

2. Not just in the military.

The Internet has played hell with middlemen, salespersons, and brokers, laywers, accountants, anybody that relies on special knowledge and access to get paid well. The Health Care system seems to be immune for the moment, but do-it-yourself healthcare can have its drawbacks.

Owning and defending special knowledge is common in the business, academic, and technical worlds too. I saw a lot of it working with computers. Sometimes bad programming is a way to hang onto your job, because nobody else can fix your code. If you wrote bad critical code you become golden.

I agree with your point about ability to act autonomously. We used to brag on that as being one of the qualities of our military. Some of our current enemies are giving us fits precisely because they are loose knit and act locally and independently. You cannot decapitate an enemy that has no head.