captaincranky
Posts: 19,682 +8,815
Suffice it to say, that all of man's problems start right here in Genesis I, vs 26:
Wow, how's that for hubris....?
This is where man disavows that he is actually just another animal, and consequently becomes unable to attach his territorialism, greed, violence, and will to dominate everything around him, as the very simplistic, "survival of the fittest" behaviours that they actually are. He becomes a "philosopher".
I told a girl in a bar once that I was indeed, "a philosopher". She replied, "oh you're out of work, huh"?
In any event, idealism is wonderful, it's a pity it's wasted on the young". (I think I'm paraphrasing Mark Twain there).
There is a theory that man is better at transmitting scientific knowledge across generations, than moral knowledge. This is evidenced by the fact we don't reinvent the wheel every 20 years or so, but it has to hammered into every teenage girl's head at puberty, that getting pregnant in the freshman year of high school in a really bad idea.
After many generations of the successful transmission of technical knowledge, and the imperfect transmission of moral knowledge, what you wind up with is basically, a chimpanzee armed with nuclear weapons.
So as far as spouting all this crap about how "governments shouldn't keep secrets", and drivel about how the French ambassador smells bad or whatever Wikileaks released to puff itself up, I'm glad my government keeps secrets, period.
If full disclosure is what you seek, then the US, or any other nuclear enabled government, should publish an in depth white paper on the web, about how to build an atomic bomb.
So now you'll say, "oh, we should keep that a secret". And then, the discussion morphs back into what it already is, "what should be secret, and what should be public".
Speaking for myself, I sleep better at night, knowing there's so much I don't know.
The relationships between governments are as either as complex or as simple as those between individuals. We tolerate what isn't a direct threat, to permit peaceful coexistence, and mutual advantage. And sometimes, those are ugly, ugly compromises. And sometimes,(speaking in today's terms), national BFFs become "frenemies", or outright combatants.
