People in power have to enjoy the privilege of secrecy in order to exercise that power. Why? What is it that that we the public cannot handle?
Is it, as Jack Nicholson famously said, “you can’t handle the truth?”. What would life be like if all decisions were made in the public arena? What would it be like if all our politicians spoke freely and honestly during debates? What would life be like if all cabinet discussions were printed as they happened, if we the public could read or listen to all their utterances real time? If the truth was reported raw?

How and where would that process have to begin in order to be sustained? In childhood, I believe, we could not have a comprehension of ugliness if we did not train our children to lie politely. As parents, we all do it. We tell our children they cannot speak the truth. The truth could not be ugly if we were not trained to disguise reality with perception. How we perceive reality is a concept that is drummed into to all human beings, in order to allow them peace and a place in the herd. So, your truth, my truth, are formulated into opinion and power corrupts that opinion like nothing else. Add fear into that as a component and fear of the truth can so easily be lost in the perception of “best interest”.

Some politicians in 1971 led by Gerry Collins of Fianna Fáil (the Republican party) decided during the troubles that we as a society were incapable of listening to Sinn Féin without being corrupted and over influenced. So Sinn Féin was banned from the airwaves in Ireland’s ‘best interest’! Of course if you lived on the East coast you could watch them on BBC.
Interesting that Garrett Fitzgerald, seen by many as Anglo Irish, wanted to reverse that rule and failed. That was a major decision that we know was wrong with hindsight. But how many major decisions regarding the individual are being made behind closed doors in small meetings with ‘best interest’ at the heart of them, are being made as you read this, and how many will be wrong?

In camera laws, mental health tribunals, directors meetings to decide policy, all of these with ‘best interest’ at the heart. Charter House rules, keep your powder dry. I have sat on boards, chaired a few, it was always deemed necessary to hold the line; that confidentiality was paramount.
Consensus is so often decided by the few before the board sits. I have done that very thing; a few phone calls at night to those who support and the meeting is a done job. In hindsight it is all so stupid and petty.

But how we are trained to lie in our youth is an ongoing process that teaches us to form opinion and decide our truth. Too few leaders have the courage to share the detail of the information they receive to form opinion. Hence we have abuse based on ‘best interest’. Privacy is a delicate balance between help and abuse, it takes the judgment of Solomon, and few have that. The problem is too many who lack judgment are given the power of Solomon and hence they wreak havoc, so often unchecked with the words ‘protection’ ‘best interest’ ‘in my opinion’ which disguises the ‘ugliness’ of the polite training we continue to impose on each other to prevent the raw truth being the norm.

How many decisions made in secret disguised as privacy in ‘best interest’ are really made as a consequence of belief and not truth? How many lives have been irreparably damaged by that belief of ‘my truth’ Goodwill has been the death of so many. Every year we learn of stupid decisions our leaders made 30 years ago and this year they will make the same mistakes again, in camera, behind closed doors. So begin this year knowing that your ignorance is their defence for lying politely to your face!

Decisions that affect society as a whole are obvious, decisions that affect the minority too often slip under the radar. When they are collected they form a whole which shocks. But if truth was a gift we encouraged, could abuse exist? I have no idea but it is interesting to speculate.
Oh, and welcome to 2012.