Should government not hide informations from us?

[SandsOfTime404]

I don't think we need to know everything. There are some things that shouldn't be kept from the public. However, there's plenty more that should be. Government should do what's good for the governed, and sometimes what's best for the governed isn't always what they want.

[Trandoshan]

Depends on the information. IF they actually found an alien at Roswell and have it currently hidden at Area 51, I'd like to know. Does it really matter if I know? No, not really. If they intend to pass a new law without me knowing what's in it? I've got a problem with that. I'd like to have at least a general idea of most things that go through Congress. In those cases, I think transparency should be priority.

 

Regarding military: there's a reason they don't tell us. If the US was involved in capturing, torturing and killing a South American drug lord, I don't want to hear about it. They're doing what they feel is necessary to keep me safe. If we sent an elite squad of super l33t ninjas or whatever to kill some Communist revolutionary, I don't want to hear about it. I don't need to hear about it, and I really don't care. Sometimes it's better not to tell us. Everything we're told is probably somewhere on the internet, and if it's on the internet, that means it can be found by pretty much anyone. And I'm not particularly fond of the idea of Ahmadinejad being able to Google US troop movements because the US military is now disclosing it's every action to the citizens of the US. Or Al-Qaeda being able to Google the location of the Army Rangers hunting for them and find them on Google Maps by their homing beacon.

 

Basically: government shouldn't hide anything. Military can, and sometimes should.

 

Note: I include budgets of every sort in the government department. I'm not abject to having a 'black ops budget'. They want to do something shady and probably illegal? That's cool, just let me know each year how much of my taxes go to that quasi-legal stuff.

 

EDIT: I voted 2.

 

Never interested in that SA Drug Lord Might be innoncent, and got killed to cover up vital information about a US weapon deal. Remeber Iran.contra, Watergate, etc? Me living in Europe could be classified as "Revolutionary Commi" when I protest in front of my parliment.

Many cases never see the light of the day, if we don´t care.

 

I voted 3, I know a large amount of information about the workings of my government and the government of others. When I hear another bill restricting my right or giving the elite more rights on the T.V. or internet, I tend to mull about it for weeks. Information stresses me so much, especially information acquired about what happens behind the scenes. I really just want to forget about it all. It really is the feeling of being unable to enact vengeance on the wrongs brought upon people, because if you do you're a communist... If you protest you are unheard, or are heard and are put on a watch list. I'm sure I'm on a watchlist somewhere, and I do find it unnerving.

 

Ignorance is my bliss, despite my lack of it.

Edited December 30, 2010 by Trandoshan

[marharth]

Ignorance is bliss until the people your listening to f*** you over.

 

You can't release everything or you are giving enemies information. Its that simple.

 

I support releasing everything that doesn't have to do with weapons, but that's still option 2...

[Nadimos]

Should gov not hide information from us?

 

Like banking bailouts?

 

You tell me. :D

Edited January 2, 2011 by Nadimos

[Trandoshan]

Ignorance is bliss until the people your listening to f*** you over.

 

In what position are we to change anything about any of the current administration. The most recent example of the gov't f****** us over just caused the gov't to centralize even more. The financial crisis allowed the government to direct the course of the manufacturers that were assisted by the bailout. I'd say for someone who supports lasseiz faire economics (GOP), it was a double f***.

 

It's much more relaxing to fall down a deep pit blindfolded and upright, than directly facing the bottom head-first. Also less painful, although both are going to kill you. :(

 

Source:

 

Article on federal takeover of a company: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122156561931242905.html

[HellsMaster]

I think they should let people know what is really going on... just like 911, one of the most hideous crime committed by a government.

[marharth]

Ignorance is bliss until the people your listening to f*** you over.

 

In what position are we to change anything about any of the current administration. The most recent example of the gov't f****** us over just caused the gov't to centralize even more. The financial crisis allowed the government to direct the course of the manufacturers that were assisted by the bailout. I'd say for someone who supports lasseiz faire economics (GOP), it was a double f***.

 

It's much more relaxing to fall down a deep pit blindfolded and upright, than directly facing the bottom head-first. Also less painful, although both are going to kill you. :(

 

Source:

 

Article on federal takeover of a company: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122156561931242905.html

 

I personally think corporations are more corrupt then government...

 

My logic is the following...

 

The purpose of government is to protect its people, the purpose of corporations is to make money by any means possible.

 

@HM Lets not turn this into a 9/11 debate, but if the government did do it then telling us that they did it would defeat the purpose of doing it wouldn't it?

[Trandoshan]

Ignorance is bliss until the people your listening to f*** you over.

 

In what position are we to change anything about any of the current administration. The most recent example of the gov't f****** us over just caused the gov't to centralize even more. The financial crisis allowed the government to direct the course of the manufacturers that were assisted by the bailout. I'd say for someone who supports lasseiz faire economics (GOP), it was a double f***.

 

It's much more relaxing to fall down a deep pit blindfolded and upright, than directly facing the bottom head-first. Also less painful, although both are going to kill you. :(

 

Source:

 

Article on federal takeover of a company: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122156561931242905.html

 

I personally think corporations are more corrupt then government...

 

My logic is the following...

 

The purpose of government is to protect its people, the purpose of corporations is to make money by any means possible.

 

That's the ideology isn't it. I completely agree that it's government's 'purpose' is to protect people in the sense of democracy or limited monarchy. Monarchies, and other Dictatorship government types don't have to follow this rule. Like a corporation, those forms of government do not have to protect any interest other than those in power. Thank God the age of serfdom is in the past.

 

On topic...

 

It's kind of funny how people some how know all there is about their government despite the fact that the government hides everything from us. I have not yet analyzed this in detail, but because that secret government information is leaked at all means it could be done on purpose, accident, or true sabotage. Everything that is released information-wise seems to me to always be released after the fact, and because of this we are never able to stop the damage from happening. Do we even know the information leaked is correct? The media can buzz about a released document, and gain support from the masses even though the document may not even be real.

 

Perhaps I should not have said 'The government should hide information from us so we can all be lead to slaughter', but instead I should have said 'The government should hide information from us so the people can find it and verify it, instead of the government releasing information that could be otherwise false.

 

Really, the topic question is general. If it were 'Should the government not hide possibly true or false information from us',

 

I anticipate hearing your thoughts about this point, Marh.

[marharth]

Ignorance is bliss until the people your listening to f*** you over.

 

In what position are we to change anything about any of the current administration. The most recent example of the gov't f****** us over just caused the gov't to centralize even more. The financial crisis allowed the government to direct the course of the manufacturers that were assisted by the bailout. I'd say for someone who supports lasseiz faire economics (GOP), it was a double f***.

 

It's much more relaxing to fall down a deep pit blindfolded and upright, than directly facing the bottom head-first. Also less painful, although both are going to kill you. :(

 

Source:

 

Article on federal takeover of a company: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122156561931242905.html

 

I personally think corporations are more corrupt then government...

 

My logic is the following...

 

The purpose of government is to protect its people, the purpose of corporations is to make money by any means possible.

 

That's the ideology isn't it. I completely agree that it's government's 'purpose' is to protect people in the sense of democracy or limited monarchy. Monarchies, and other Dictatorship government types don't have to follow this rule. Like a corporation, those forms of government do not have to protect any interest other than those in power. Thank God the age of serfdom is in the past.

 

On topic...

 

It's kind of funny how people some how know all there is about their government despite the fact that the government hides everything from us. I have not yet analyzed this in detail, but because that secret government information is leaked at all means it could be done on purpose, accident, or true sabotage. Everything that is released information-wise seems to me to always be released after the fact, and because of this we are never able to stop the damage from happening. Do we even know the information leaked is correct? The media can buzz about a released document, and gain support from the masses even though the document may not even be real.

 

Perhaps I should not have said 'The government should hide information from us so we can all be lead to slaughter', but instead I should have said 'The government should hide information from us so the people can find it and verify it, instead of the government releasing information that could be otherwise false.

 

Really, the topic question is general. If it were 'Should the government not hide possibly true or false information from us',

 

I anticipate hearing your thoughts about this point, Marh.

 

The government can't always be sure everything they have is true either. There are probably secret documents that the government think are true, but might not be true.

 

Things might even be changed by the government so that if it is leaked it ends up helping them. A lot of the secret things that access might be entirely false on purpose.

 

Another thing you said about things being released after it happened. When people leak stuff they know the risk, so they will probably only leak stuff that seems very important at the time. For example, lets say someone in the military had access to documents and could leak them. Lets say one of the documents where about how the Chinese government did testing on wolfs, and the wolfs got sick from it. The person in the military probably wouldn't care much about that at this point, and wouldn't risk trying to leak it. However if there is a mass virus going around that seems to be coming from wolfs, and it seemed to start in china, then the military person might want to leak that.