Privacy, Secrecy and Freedom

Who should get to keep the secrets?

1. The entity with the most relevant secrets holds the most power in a relationship. (that's a premise open to argument - share your arguments in the comments)
2. If the government has secrets relevant to me and I can have no (or fewer) secrets relevant to it, then the government holds power over me. That restricts my freedom.
3. I value freedom - particularly mine.
4. Therefore, I need to have the ability to keep more secrets from the government than the government keeps from me to experience freedom.
5. Thus, I believe the government needs to maximize disclosure to the public while minimizing information gathering, especially forced, from the populace.

I could insert an alternative at number 3. "I value equality." Then 4 and 5 would change slightly to conclude a balance of disclosure would optimally serve that value.

I expect at least one person to argue one needs to keep secrets from the citizenry in order to preserve the safety of the populace (from terrorists, for example). Secrets about defense installations, information sources, preventative measures in place and other similar details hold little relevance to me so they don't create a power imbalance affecting me. Those secrets might affect me if they hid violations of processes and rights that exist in the contract between the citizens and the government, i.e., the constitution, civil laws, and so on.

How can we prevent cover-ups of violations of those processes and rights? One solution would institute some form of investigative and watch dog body similar to the Internal Affairs department within police forces.

What other solutions would you add?

Grab a Brain!

Canadians have complained in droves on talk radio this past week (December 2008). Why? Two of the nationally-elected political parties have discussed a coalition. Oooooh.

The main complaint from the citizenry boils down to: "We didn't elect this government so the parties could make deals with each other and overthrow the leading party."

What? What have my fellow Canadians done with their brains? They make me embarrassed to share citizenship with them.

Think. Canadians as a whole elected this particular balance of parties. Canadians as a whole did not elect a Conservative government; they elected a Conservative minority. This means Canadians did not want to give the Conservatives unobstructed power. A wise choice.

This minority government means Canadians want the parties to have to negotiate and make deals with each other. It increases the probability the government will actually take the people's well-being into account instead of driving through as many ideologically-motivated policies as possible.

So, to my fellow Canadians who cry out for changes to electoral policy so their Conservative party can ram through its agenda unimpeded, grab a brain. If Canadians as a whole wanted that, we would have voted accordingly.

Quit your whining and get on with your life.