I can use Twitter however I want so let's try riffing on a theme from Clandestine Motives and see what comes up
it's been on my mind that privacy advocates steer away from the concept and term of SECRETS, whereas in practice secrecy is the kind of privacy people care about
Conversation
secrets are deviant, illicit; maintaining a secret privileges the individual or conspiracy over the community or culture
it makes me a lil itchy that comparatively anodyne "privacy" always gets top billing when "secrecy" captures the tradeoffs better
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"two can keep a secret if one of them is dead" is a useful risk modeling assumption / heuristic
it's not actually true. I have secrets that I'm currently keeping β both my own and others'. both affection and honor safeguard my confidences to others, however imperfectly
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I think keeping secrets is usually about: 1) fear and shame, and/or 2) a delight all your own, not meant to be shared, and/or 3) partitioning power twitter.com/donmexlar/stat
This Tweet is unavailable.
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another thing I like about "secrets" versus "privacy" is that the joy of a delicious secret β its liberating potential! β is universally understood...
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secrets hurt people all the time, but I want to express my conviction that secrets integral to the human soul
(where the soul comes from / what it is materially / whether it's a material thing is immaterial and yes pun intended)
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the title Clandestine Motives gets to what I fundamentally find fascinating and maddening about the world: wtf do y'all think you're doing? and how can I know?
I can't, in part because humans are secretive creatures (and fractally so β the mind hides plenty within itself)
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knowledge is power, right? we conceal our maps from each other when there seems to be an advantage in it, or when trust hasn't been established
communication is both cooperative *and* adversarial by default. IMO
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well, I don't feel any better about writing but I'll try again later. nothing to do but keep on keepin' on
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This thread itself is 90% of a very good article. Merely the shift from privacy to secrets is a very good and useful insight

