Secrecy is a crime against self rule
by Matt Giwer, © 2005 [March]

The Cold War is over. Why is there still secrecy? We are all open democracies are we not? So why would governments negotiate in secret if the people are supposed to support the results of the negotiations? What is there to hide but the way sausages are made? But we are all adults and we are able to look at making sausages.

So what is the point of secret negotiations? Secret agreements? Should we not go back to the pre-Cold War premise that all government secrets are anathema to a free society?

When the Cold War ended all excuses for secrecy evaporated. They no longer exist. This world is now free and without threats to that freedom. If you mean a few crackpots hiding in caves are a serious threat you are not very bright. Bring down every skyscraper in the world and our freedom not harmed in the least.

There is no longer a reason for secrecy. To impose secrecy without cause is to prohibit democracy. If the voters cannot know what is going on they cannot decide. There is no longer any excuse of a Cold War to justify secrecy. Of course we have enemies but we have no enemies that could credibly bother us no matter what they know.

Secrecy makes rational democracy impossible. If there is secrecy it is impossible to vote intelligently and therefore the exercise of the vote is meaningless.

And as we are the people and we are the government we have every right to know everything that is happening. As we are the government we have every right at all times to make public what we know. Laws cannot inhibit us as we are the government and can decide for ourselves. As secrecy is a subversion of ourselves by an elected few we have every right to act in our own behalf as government officials. We have every right to subvert the secrecy imposed without just cause.

We have the right to choose between a democracy made worthless by secrecy and democracy. We have the right to demand the end to government secrecy and subvert secrecy, violate secrecy, make information public at every opportunity.

The idea of government secrecy is contrary to the people governing themselves. Any fact which could influence an election that is held secret is a subversion of democracy. Every political secret is a subversion of democracy.

And as America is now democratizing the world Americans certainly have an absolute right to democratize themselves by revealing every political secret which could in any way influence an election. That is the duty of every citizen of a democracy.

Government secrecy in political matters makes democracy impossible. It subverts democracy.

In 1776 we showed the world people could govern themselves without a separate government. In 2005 it is time to show the world again that we can have a real government by the people by revealing every political secret of the government so that democracy is possible.

Decide for yourself. It is the only freedom you truly have.


There is no longer a Cold War. The issue was never America v. Russia. It was nuclear America v. nuclear Russia and the end of human life in a nuclear exchange. Those were the stakes and they justified just about anything. That no longer exists so nothing is justified based upon the Cold War. Period. Nothing is justified based upon the Cold War.

Without a credible threat anyone who declares anything to be secret is an enemy of all mankind. If your government declares a right to political secrecy then it is a cause for the Jeffersonian right to replace that government at the earliest opportunity with any means available. The ballot box is preferable.

As if it needed to be said lying is also a crime against democracy.

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