Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the entire reason for “national security,” driving the secrecy of the modern state… is to keep the citizenry ignorant of the abuses of power that the elite are engaged in. Lets face it, there is not a single thing the US government does on a Chinese made computer, that the Communist Party of China doesn’t know about. I bet China has the latest copies of US fighter jet plans before Lockheed Martin. Does anyone really believe Russia doesn’t have satellites capable of submeter resolution? If Area 51 is really protected for “national security,” so citizens are not allowed to come within miles, yet the Russians routinely fly planes over it as well as satellites, it becomes clear that the secrecy is aimed at the citizens of the United States, not some foreign power.
We keep secrets when we have something to lose if they become common knowledge. A wife cheating on her husband doesn’t want him to find out, so she keeps it a secret… a snake oil salesman doesn’t want his “customers” to discover there are no active ingredients in his “medicine,” nor does a sneak thief want his past jobs known by the police. More benevolently, secrets are held to protect innovations in products, methods of manufacture and other business matters, information that could damage a firm’s profitability if their competitors discovered them. Secrets are held by everyone for every purpose. For good and bad, secrets are an expedient, constructed to make our lives better, but more often than not, they lead to heartache, pain and suffering.
If we feel the need to keep a secret, there is always a target, the person or entity that we don’t want to have that knowledge. To that end, we might keep others in the dark, if they have a real likelihood of divulging that secret to the targeted party. The cheating husband targets his wife. He might even brag of his conquests to his golf buddies, but never to his wife’s sister, because he seeks to keep his wife in the dark. A secret only has utility when there is a target and that target is kept ignorant. Once the target learns the secret, the secret no longer has any utility, and indeed becomes a liability. This is why people so often go to great lengths to hide a secret from the whole world. Some live in utter terror their secret might get out, and then back to the target, existing in suffering.
To keep a secret, it is most efficient to misdirect the target into thinking the secret is being kept from another and so, since they could unintentionally divulge it, they too must be kept ignorant. Obviously, it is best if the target doesn’t even know there is a secret, but if he, she or they cannot be kept ignorant of the secret itself, they can at least be misdirected as to their being the target of that secret. Anyone who knows a secret is being held from them, as the target, has an overwhelming desire to find out that secret. It is in our nature and in our genes. If, on the other hand, we are told we cannot know a secret, because if we were to divulge it, and it would be impossible for us not to, our own interests would be harmed… we are far less likely to pry.
China and Russia have exponentially more detailed knowledge of every facet of US and European security assets than the citizens as well as secure facilities. Which means those things are patently NOT SECRET to them. Yet that knowledge is very much off limits to you and I. China knows about the NSA monitoring our every conversation, extra constitutionally, as was revealed by Manning and Assange, Heck, China almost certainly built the equipment for the NSA! So it follows that the secret was not being kept from China, Russia, Al Qeada or Kaos, but from you and I. WE are the target of “National Security” and it is proved by the arrest of Assange on nakedly political charges. This is why I wrote The Fourth Branch… to stymie the ability of government to abuse power, and hide that abuse.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
