Really, and who gets to decide what is safe for us to know? I'm damn sure there are people who get their rocks off having that sort of power.
And that's why we have elections. If you don't trust the people in power, don't vote for them again and vote for people you do trust.
Trouble is that almost none of the people that you can vote for are trustworthy, and you need stuff loads of money (either your own or from dubious sources that want your soul) to gain power yourself. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely as the old saying has it. I don't have a magic solution and neither does anyone else. That's why I like whistle blowers and people who are willing to risk all leaking stuff like this. They turn over the log and exposing all the vermin that crawl underneath.
Exactly. Plus, to me, I feel elections, least presidential elections, are rigged. Look at the 2004 election, I felt the it was handed over to the incumbent. And, like you said, anyone that has tons of cash are only able to run....and I've never seen a person run for office and keep the promises they said they were going to do. Also, many people in politics are on a 'need to know' basis...including the ~sarcastic gasp~ president.
It amazes me that so many people out there say they can't stand their government and would love to see it change, but won't bother doing anything about it. These whistle blowers are doing just that, showing exactly what the all mighty Oz is behind the curtain.
There really are some things the public shouldn't know. Total openness is anarchy, and counterproductive.
What makes THEM privy to knowledge and not us normal people?
You remind me of Lester from Primeval, who thinks the government is right and that we lowly peons have no right whatsoever to know what's actually happening, and that we should just stick to working our asses off, making money, paying taxes and reproduce in order to make new future tax payers.
Knowledge is power. And since why should us...the people who supposedly elect these guys, be kept in the dark? Since when should only the military and the government have a monopoly of truth? We can't simply just little, well behaved monkeys working hard, make money, and pay taxes to be lied to and all that.
According to what you just said, the Chinese and former Egyptian governments are in the right restricting knowledge and keeping the public there all dumb and in the dark, then. I pray you never run for government positions.
Also, think of this:
What if the following occur, which I myself feel are happening:
1: Several of the wars we had the past were artificially created for the reasons of making money, gaining power, and taking away personal rights, and that so many people died for the mere sake of suits in congress and big business wanting some extra profit or power
2: Products, like say a prescription drug or food additive, can and will harm/kill someone that takes/uses it, and the makers knew that the entire time
3: That alien life, both hostile and friendly, are out there and visiting us on a regular basis, and it's been kept from us all this time. And that we could have begun a new era of learning, new technology, and meeting actual aliens have been prevented for so many decades? It's even been said the president is on a need to know basis regarding this topic.
4: The Kennedy actually was killed by several people and not some mere hick because the president wanted to tell us, the public, about something that was going on.
5: That internet uses could be cut off over here in the states in 'times of crisis', it happened in Egypt...and, ironically, the Egyptian government proved how ignorant and illiterate is was about its people.
6: That an illness or social problem that was supposedly a 'pandemic of epic proportions' was, in fact, just a lie to make money off it, or to merely scare people to keep them busy from thinking about something else.
7: That there are in fact much better sources of energy out there and that those in big oil are going out of their way to make sure we can't get it. Or that there's a cure for these big diseases out there, and it's something as simple like an herb or a mineral (something that you can't patent), and that big pharma has kept it secret and just making pills and chemicals that just don't work or make us sicker
And before anyone shouts tin foil hat wearing crackpot, think about it. You really feel that those guys running the government and military really are honorable men and women who want to serve us....I highly doubt it. Like the first person I quoted, as well as Dr. McCoy, "Some people can not resist the urge to play god". We need people to stand up and shout, "The Emperor's got no clothes on!" or to show the almighty Oz is just a sniveling little old man using smoke and mirrors to make us fear him.
If mankind is the survive this next millennium, we can not have these.....'truth embargoes' that run rampant. As I said, Truman was more regretful of making this whole national security thing he did more than bombing Japan (and that's saying something), and Eisenhower, after leaving office,
warned us about the danger of the military industrial complex that was beginning to grow after the WW2 and post WW2 era.
Knowledge is power, we can not afford to the so-called 'gift' of ignorant bliss. There's a whole universe out there, and I want to know what's going on...does the government and military have the right to whack me upside the head with a rifle butt or zap me with a taser for wanting to know what's out there? I think not, and if you do, then you are a liar if you call yourself a patriot.....patriotism is not simply shouting "USA! USA!" and waving little flags about, you know. It's about keeping your government and military in line and demanding to know what's going on.
