These are all justifiable uses of secrecy, although they can be (and often are) abused. But in a democratic society, all use of secrecy must be questioned, and if it cannot be justified, it is antithetical to a self-governing society. As James Madison famously put it, a popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or tragedy, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
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