Known and forgotten

We quickly forget information we are not  reminded of, or do not have a reason to recall.  That information either departs from our brain for good, or is shunted into the corner, to be remembered at odd moments of the future.  You may have already forgotten – why would you want to remember, when more pressing personal issues such as holidays with the family concern you? – that the newly notorious WikiLeaks is reminding us of already known information, and creating quite a scandal.

That which is democratic is inherently anti-democratic; or to put it another way, that which follows the ideals that democracy espouses (liberty of the press, free speech, personal rights, a governmental system that represents everyone), goes against the grain or flow of democratic (much less non-democratic) governments, and against the nature and interest of authority.  Therefore, even those societies and states that claim to have a democratic ideal act to suppress, or utilize to the advantage of the already empowered, both its citizenry and any power that can be wielded beyond its own borders.  This means that governments – even those shining, democratic governments – routinely attempt to keep information secret.  This is neither shocking nor new.  However, it is not always necessary, nor is it damaging to the government to have ‘secrets’ (in this case, and many others, secrets are facts which are already known and reported, but not talked about) revealed.

No one outside of the Washington establishment and the myriad foreign leaders shamed by revelations of their penchant for hatred, hubris and pedestrian peccadillos can seriously argue that the release of these classified documents has done anything but good for the cause of peace and political transparency.