Great excerpt from Daniel Ellsberg's book chronicling his advises to Henry Kissinger before sharing secrets with him.
"Henry, there's something I would like to tell you, for what it's worth, something I wish I had been told years ago. You've been a consultant for a long time, and you've dealt a great deal with top secret information. But you're about to receive a whole slew of special clearances, maybe fifteen or twenty of them, that are higher than top secret.
"I've had a number of these myself, and I've known other people who have just acquired them, and I have a pretty good sense of what the effects of receiving these clearances are on a person who didn't previously know they even existed. And the effects of reading the information that they will make available to you.
"First, you'll be exhilarated by some of this new information, and by having it all — so much! incredible! — suddenly available to you. But second, almost as fast, you will feel like a fool for having studied, written, talked about these subjects, criticized and analyzed decisions made by presidents for years without having known of the existence of all this information, which presidents and others had and you didn't, and which must have influenced their decisions in ways you couldn't even guess. In particular, you'll feel foolish for having literally rubbed shoulders for over a decade with some officials and consultants who did have access to all this information you didn't know about and didn't know they had, and you'll be stunned that they kept that secret from you so well.
"You will feel like a fool, and that will last for about two weeks. Then, after you've started reading all this daily intelligence input and become used to using what amounts to whole libraries of hidden information, which is much more closely held than mere top secret data, you will forget there ever was a time when you didn't have it, and you'll be aware only of the fact that you have it now and most others don't....and that all those other people are fools.
"Over a longer period of time — not too long, but a matter of two or three years — you'll eventually become aware of the limitations of this information. There is a great deal that it doesn't tell you, it's often inaccurate, and it can lead you astray just as much as the New York Times can. But that takes a while to learn.
"In the meantime it will have become very hard for you to learn from anybody who doesn't have these clearances. Because you'll be thinking as you listen to them: 'What would this man be telling me if he knew what I know? Would he be giving me the same advice, or would it totally change his predictions and recommendations?' And that mental exercise is so torturous that after a while you give it up and just stop listening. I've seen this with my superiors, my colleagues....and with myself.
"You will deal with a person who doesn't have those clearances only from the point of view of what you want him to believe and what impression you want him to go away with, since you'll have to lie carefully to him about what you know. In effect, you will have to manipulate him. You'll give up trying to assess what he has to say. The danger is, you'll become something like a moron. You'll become incapable of learning from most people in the world, no matter how much experience they may have in their particular areas that may be much greater than yours."
That's the curse of secret. Few months ago, someone came to me and in the middle of the conversation, the person spontaneously shared a secret. I was shocked and the ape inside me instantly spluttered - WHY? but the very next instant, I said - "No, I don't want to know, it's none of my business." The conversation took a different mundane turn from there.
After reading this excerpt I understood why I said that. That's my metamorphosis from Max which subsided the ape. The answer to the "Why" would have inadvertently made me prone to a life long bias and judgement, leave alone the burden of secret. In essence I would have lost little of my innocence which I have been trying to inherit from Max. I dearly guard my innocence. There needs to be room for Tabula Rasa - Blank Slate saved up to keep an open mind. Secret creates a sense of quasi-enlightenment leading to an illusion of knowing it all. A genesis of wisdom per-say when there is none and I don't want that. There is an immense satisfaction and pleasure in life long cumulation of wisdom and there are our innate biases which already act against that cumulation. Secrets add to that innate biases.
There are social implications of not willing to accept a secret. One might be branded as rude since the very act of sharing a secret is based on mutual trust. I was lucky to come out unscathed from my last encounter. But its not easy always. So anyone who I reading this please share your thoughts, not your secrets. Our bond can be more adhesive with an open mind rather than sharing secrets. I don't want to know who killed JFK instead please teach me the secrets of quantum physics. I wouldn't trade my innocence for anything. So thanks, but no thanks.
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