So who is supposed to be "transparent", if not governments?

[bemildred]

And about what if not the things they would prefer to keep secret?

I see this constant babble about "transparency", is it just bullhsit, another name to call people you disagree with? Is the idea that the public is supposed to be "transparent" to the government, or vice-versa?

I think the PUBLIC has a right to privacy, to a private life that is not anyone else's business, and the GOVERNMENT does not.

[xchrom]

1. informed consent is the #1 building block in an open democracy.

it is incumbent there be transparency in government and the responsibility for the media to disseminate information.

it is a responsibility of the citizen to be informed or voting is an exercise in ignorance.

[Angry Dragon]

They think of themselves as gods

the only ones that can handle the hard issues and
they would rather not bother you with the facts
they treat us like babies to protect us from the world
You just have have "faith" in them much like religion

[pscot]

3. Maybe they are.

All that stuff at Walmart has to come from somewhere.

[malaise]

2. But but but

we're living a complete inversion of reality

Great post

[Arctic Dave]

4. Only the peons must have transparent lives.

That is why we have the Partiot Act and other garbage

[stray cat]

5. How about emplyees -employers should know everything about employees

Consistent with the government being transparent to tax payers

[bemildred]

6. Well on the one hand, the public are the employers of the government, they work for us.

Or that's the way it is supposed to be. So we would have the rights that any employer has WRT any employee, that is what they do in performance of their jobs.

However, the private sector employer/employee relation is different. Theoretically, the relation between employer and employee is between equals, so they would have the same rights to know what each other is up to, or not. Whereas the relation between public and government is not between equals, the government is a creature of the public and it does not have the same rights as we do, all of it's operations ought to be subject to our inspection in the same way any owner has the right to know everything about his or her property.

Edit: this argument, BTW, has interesting consequences when applied to other artificial entities like corporations too.