Secrets and Secrecy

Socio-cultural

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02 Feb 2009

Our present planet seems currently and historically plagued with secrecy and the constant attempts to keep secrets.

At the moment the British House of Lords is engrossed in coming to grips with the revelation that some Lords may be secretly accepting payments to alter laws of the land. Also the Labour Party’s reasons for secretly deciding to invade Iraq is very challenged by the demand that minutes of meetings when war decisions were made be revealed to the world, along with Lord Goldsmith’s (secret) letter endorsing its supposed legality.

Secrets in the banking and investment world are also appearing to have had effects on people’s jobs and their savings and pensions. Hedge fund operators are said to have been more harmful, in part, by virtue of their secrecy. So-called offshore funds are generally assumed to be secret investments to avoid paying taxes. And now we hear the chief executive of Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, secretly ‘sold’ his $14m house in Florida to his wife for $100 in an attempt to make sure that he won’t lose its use as part of investors’ attempt to recover a bit of Lehman Brothers’ losses following its bankruptcy.

Since Our Future Planet starts without secrets or secrecy, surely some special attention should be paid to the threat that secrets and secrecy may cause to our planet’s future.

Probably the first questions to ask are:

1) Should Our Future Planet accept secrecy?
2) What possible benefits or justifications, if any, may accompany possible secrets.
3) If any secrets are suspected of intruding on to Our Future Planet, how shall Our Future Planet avoid them and defend itself against secrecy?