Keeping Secrets

January 26th, 2005 at 22:16 Björn Hallberg

If there is one thing that really bothers me, it is those that lurk in shadows and go about their business surreptitiously. All cloak-and-dagger and no chance for public oversight. This brings me first of all to the issue of the much touted Iraqi election. Secrecy is not good for any state. It just isn’t. One can repeat the words ‘national security’ over and over again till one actually believes in them but it still wont make a bit of difference. Things that can exist in secret can also exist in broad daylight. I have heard the same rule of thumb being used by linguists regarding the use of parenthesis so lets use that as a metaphor.

Metaphor #1 Essentially there are those that use parenthesis and those who hate the very things they stand for. The latter will tell you that if you are uncertain about the use of a sentence, then you can drop it altogether. A parenthesis is a limbo state between existence and non-existence.
I would go so far as to say that open deliberations and an open bureaucracy, in terms of a transparent state machinery is the cornerstone of any society. The more information becomes restricted and choked, the more likely clandestine gilds are to arise and the more inhumane a society becomes, the farther it drifts from the beliefs that we after all share of a fair and open.

Metaphor #2 One could also say it is not so unlike the battle between open and closed software source. Again, the common good and utilitarian principles dictate that any source must be open in order to benefit the largest amount of people. The opposite, as is the case today, is when patents and intellectual property laws keep the source closed but for a select few. The rest can not modify it, improve it or even speculate about what the software is really designed to do and how. Apart from being a capitalistic dictatorship, we have in the last few years been briefed of spyware, malware and such that is masked inside a seemingly benign software solution. That also concludes the second metaphor.

But back to the Iraqi election. The point is obviously that this cushioned, misconstrued and secret election that is taking place for no other sake but to be able to say that there was in fact an election, is unhealthy. And nothing can come out of the election that will solve the conflicts that we’ve been seeing. If anything things are bound to get worse. Secret ballot boxes, not discussing who you’re voting for and being afraid of reprisals are not good prerequisites for so called ‘democracy’ in any sense of the word. The situation here is far more sensitive than just bringing enlightenment to the heathens as it were. It cannot be compared to when old second world communist nations embraced democratic elections. It’s not a happy ending of some children’s novel. It is in fact nickelodeon nation building, diplomacy and limited understanding at its worst. Not that I think for a minute that American leaders nor Iraqi hopefuls are overlooking this. They aren’t stupid, they just don’t care. Their grand ideals and power are far more important than the well being of their people. What else is new. No society is without its problems though. I have long observed how reserved people are about their political ideas even in Sweden, which remains my frame of reference. Even if there is no ethnic violence, people still prefer not to discuss voting. They shy away from the subject and the election in any country is as we know shielded so that others cannot see for whom you are placing your vote. Democracy depends upon the open and free debate. When people become polarized of their own ‘free will’ the elite has won twice over and can rest assured that no one has the geist left to oppose them or interrupt government in any constructive way.

Even though the issue here goes far beyond Iraq, recent events there got me thinking. What we are witnessing here is rare. It’s nation building on a large scale. People who never in their lives have known the form of government that is about to be created for them. The equivalent for an astronomer would be to witness the birth of a black hole first-hand. We see imperialism, pretenders, proxy officials, forced legislation and an overwhelming need for secrecy. No amount of secrecy is enough however in this fast and furious media fixated world that we live in. Facts and fiction are mixed into one unpalatable media stream. I’m not saying it’s easy to translate and make sense of it all but with the proper theoretical background it can be done. We start to see the strings from the puppeteer in the dim light between truths and lies.

In the case of Iraq we are seeing the first trenches being dug by the by the Powers to be. The old and the likely new elite, belonging to the same strata of course, and doing their very best to entrench themselves deep into the Iraqi sand. Americans dug in the minute they pacified the last regular fighting unit of course. They brought with them strange and glimmering trinkets in shape of for example copyright laws to make sure that their real power of influence could not be escaped anywhere. They brought in their own contractors, their own oil companies and their own ideals.
This is one area where people are not so different. The elites of the US and Iraq have very much in common in fact. A lot more than I have in common with the average American or Iraqi. They belong to the same class and the only way either of them can stay in power, in the long run, is if they rub each other’s backs.
It’s not surprising then that Iraqi officials have too dug in. It started long before the war with the little talked about Iraqi List of wealthy and powerful people who opposed Saddam from their comfortable little world, far from the real life of the average Iraqi. Long before the US ever set foot in Iraq they knew and they plotted. A bunch of fat elite cats that are now here to stay. There is no practical way of removing them. They have ‘legitimate’ power and connections that go deep into the halls of Washington. Any attempt on them will be seen by a dull world and the cronies in America as terrorism or war and touted as an attempts to bring down freedom and democracy. I hope that people are starting to see the real world as it really is so that they in time can overthrow the real usurpers. And after this election they will have proven beyond any doubt that they have the legitimacy that they need to stay in power. No matter how it turns out and who ‘wins’. Without the election they could be outed with no effort and the Americans would have no reason to back them specifically. Indeed, the entire scam would run a high risk of being exposed or at least the movement would lose momentum. When the situation has cleared and a new power structure has emerged, you can be sure that the respective elites will embrace each other like brothers. No matter who dies and even if the country is plunged into a real civil war situation. All that is irrelevant really to the elite.

Another bothersome fact is that America still hasn’t grasped the concept of multi-ethnicity and the problems it can bring to a country that is at the same time divided by resources and wealth.
It’s odd in a way that one of the most multi-ethnic countries on earth, the US, has got such a hard time with this concept. Somehow the idea that free markets and democracy can solve anything and bring a safer world is a persistent and disturbing national naïveté. At least if you blatantly disregard ethnicity as a divider. In fact, bringing these cherished ideals can effectively further conflicts and violence.

On a more general concept of secrecy, to leave Iraq behind and to wrap up this rant I’d like to get back to the subject of national security. I can’t help but to recall Mordechai Vanunu at a time like this. He personifies the kind of society I wish I lived in, but in reality never existed and never will exist as long as the Powers to be have their way. Telling the truth and playing an open hand can be a suprisingly simple way of  saving mankind. National security is nothing but an invention from the elite to remain in power, and the ‘nation’ in this context is ‘the elite’ since they do not discriminate between state and private property and interests.

Entry 23 filed under: Middle East. This entry was posted 3 years, 10 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.