The Curse of Knowing Too Much

[dragoness_e]

This is about Secrets. Not just private matters that we'd rather not talk about, but things we cannot tell, for one reason or another. Perhaps it's a promise or a vow that keeps us silent; perhaps it's an ethical obligation, like the secrets of the Confessional or attorney-client privilege; perhaps it's a contractual requirement, like a Non-Disclosure Agreement; or perhaps it's a legally-imposed requirement, like government Classified Information.

There are often good reasons for Secrets to remain secret, but they carry a price. The price is silence when others need you to speak.

There are things I can't talk about, because I know too much. I've seen and heard things that I am bound to keep silent about, and thus, I can't even touch on discussing them. I can see people debating an interesting topic that I have inside information about, and I just want to scream at them for being idiots because they don't have a clue. But, I can't--because even telling them they don't have a clue would be telling too much.

They aren't really idiots, they are just uninformed. It's not their fault they are uninformed; everyone who could tell them the truth of the matter is forbidden to do so. They debate, and form opinions based on incomplete, faulty information, get incensed about it, fulminate on the Internet, write their representatives, and hate people based on information that is just plain wrong. I'm not allowed to tell them that they are wrong, because it would reveal too much. I can't even join in the debate, because I might let something slip.

Your representatives in the relevant field get briefings, and they, too, Know Too Much. They vote on laws and make policies that seem perverse based on what the public knows, so the public assumes corruption and folly; what other reason could they make such decisions? Perhaps they have some extra facts they can't even hint at knowing. Perhaps they are afraid.

At the personal level, we make judgments based on what we hear about other people--and sometimes those who really know what's going on, who could set you straight, can't talk about it. Those who know the most can speak the least.

There's a danger in that, too: if I know something you don't know, I start thinking I know what's best for you, and that you really shouldn't have a say in things because you don't know what's going on and will only make foolish decisions in your ignorance.

But how can you possibly make rational decisions without all the facts? How can you learn the facts if the people who know them can't tell you about them? How can a society that depends on rational choices by its citizens function if most of the citizens can't know the facts about the choices they are supposed to make?

That is the curse of Knowing Too Much.

Comments

[lunatron.livejournal.com]

Good points.

[gasphemer.livejournal.com]

Hello, it appears you are on the godawful_fanfic livejournal account, listed as a member.
Would you be interested in joining the new forum? Here is the url -> http://whygodwhy.org

Completely off-topic

[foxli.livejournal.com]

I recently got a Crack-*imean*-Blackberry, and I thought one of the best ways to use my new toy (aside from getting some really annoying ringtones, including "HEY, LISTEN!" by a certain infamous fairy who will not be named) was to download all the zip files on your site and re-read your Raditz stories. Alas, all of the zip files labeled as Docs decompress as pdbs. =( I know you don't have a lot of spare time, but please help. I am away from my computer a lot, and I'd love to re-read your work (especially since it seems some of the pages on republicofnewhome.org are down). Do you have an alternative archive? I remember long ago I successfully downloaded your zips to a now long-lost hard drive.

With love from a longtime fangirl/stalker,
FoxLi.

Re: Completely off-topic

[dragoness-e.livejournal.com]

Well, you can download zip archives of the HTML versions down at the bottom of http://www.republicofnewhome.org/lair/writing/dbzfanfics.php.
EDIT: never mind, those links iz broke! Must fix site.
EDIT2: Until I get the links fixed, you can find those zipped HTML files at http://www.republicofnewhome.org/lair/download/edoc/. They're the ones ending in *_pak.zip. The rest of those zip files are Palm doc and iSilo formats, so careful what you download.

I see the Palm docs link is still broken; I thought I had fixed that when I overhauled the site.
EDIT3: The Palm docs link on the sidebar is correct: http://www.republicofnewhome.org/lair/writing/palm_docs.php. It's the one buried in the middle of the page that is broken.

What formats other than HTML work for you? ePub, Mobi, what? (*has Calibre around somewhere*)

Re: Completely off-topic

[foxli.livejournal.com]

:< I can only read .docs on the Blackberry at this point. Despite my pretty toys, I'm afraid I'm not very tech-advanced. It's probably enough to get the HTML versions, but I'll have to play some computer tennis to get it on the Bb. It only supports .docs created on Windows Word 97-2007, so changing the file extension doesn't work, and the computer that has Word on it doesn't have our present internet modem enabled on it. @_@ And now I can't find the modem install disk. Thanks, anyhoo. It should be enough to get those HTML zips.