I know the world is full of deep, dark secrets. I became aware of this when I first became able to read all of the words in the Boy's Own Papers and Chums. These publications were primers in British imperialism. The heroes were always handsome and intelligent young male Britons who washed behind their ears and changed their underwear every day whether they needed to or not. They always encountered villains with secrets. With true Sherlockian skill, they always penetrated to the evil core of every secret. In so doing, they were able to save the citizens of the Empire, wherever they might be, from every intended form of destruction and degradation. I was proud of them.
Decades later, I understand that real secrets are everywhere. Some of them are horrific. Many are in the sealed records of government, hidden from public view to prevent them from altering the accepted accounts of history and the true measure of the noble titans who were involved in them. Lies devised and published to protect public figures from careful scrutiny can endure for a very long time. I know of some which have been a part of a false record for almost a century. We would be wiser and better able to cope with the problems of the present if we knew what really happened in the past.
Not only does secrecy cloak the activities of international espionage, it hides the dangerous disease of corporate immorality. The fears generated by international terrorism have intensified the growth of the secret world.
Part of the strange scenario we see is the passage of privacy laws designed to protect individuals and the growth on the Internet of social networks that construct what I call "group minds" and encourage individuals to surrender their privacy to the group. Piracy has always been an Internet malady. It is growing worse now.
Some of the concerns for privacy go far beyond the ridiculous. This week I had occasion to send original documents to an insurance company with which I have done business for many years. Their claim form had a number of email addresses, but I could find no post office address. I sent a request for it by email. I also telephoned an 800 number, where, after a thorough grilling, I was given the address I needed. The next day, I received a reply by email. My request for a post office address was refused because I had not given my birth date and other details of my contract. This is nonsense in exponential quantities. The company has my contract on record. It is idiotic for a financial institution which does business with the public to keep its public address secret.
As a researcher in Saskatchewan, I have sometimes had reason to curse privacy legislation. Why should it be possible to access homestead records, but not the vital statistics records of the homesteaders? Why should school records be secret, when newspapers account of school activities are not? Thus far, obituaries and tombstones are public records. I wonder if a time will come when there is a legal requirement to chisel off the dates on all tombstones.
The people who make and enforce privacy laws should disown the harmful lies of the past. They should also stop hiding harmless truths.
