[Ansteorra] Re: Secrecy vs. openess (was Banishment stuff)

Marc Carlson marccarlson20 at hotmail.com
Sat Dec 29 16:19:01 PST 2001


>From: Aaron Robb <philo_net at yahoo.com>
>I totally agree with the e-mail below. I thought I understood the
>basic rationale for officials not talking about the situation - I sit
>on both a corporate and a non-profit board (mundanely) and often
>decisions are made that can't be explained in detail for liability
>reasons but are still correct and proper procedure. When people ask
>me "why X?" I respond with something similar to what Pug posted
>(although somewhat less eloquently, I may be borrowing his words in
>the future).

Looked good to me.

>What I don't understand is why the "official" response is along the
>lines of "If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me
>directly." What can be said directly that cannot be said on this
>list? And why, when there is a reasonable and forthright explanation
>available, do we instead hear evasiveness?
>...but creating an
>air of secrecy only further raises suspicions and rumors. Light a
>candle in our darkness - it won't stop the noises in the shadows, but
>it may make us a little less afraid of them.

This is the key point here -- begging Mistress Clarissa's pardon, but the
issue isn't this specific banishment.  That issue is being handled elsewhere
by other people and really isn't anyone's business except that it happened -
and that's why it's published.

The issue is being presented with a situation that has been published and
therefore THAT information should be available to anyone and being told by
the peerage that "nobody can talk about this publically (but if you want to
know, come talk to me privately)".

And then people whine and bitch because we have such a viscious and
wide-spread rumor mill.  Guess how we GOT that way?

Every time people say "I won't talk about this publically, but you can come
to me to get the truth" they are ENCOURAGING that rumor mill.  And with the
backyard fence communication system comes not only the secrecy of darkness
that makes people afraid of making "the truth" public, but also leads to
misinformation being spread as truth since it can never be verified.  I
can't even pretend to know how many people have been driven off during the
past twenty years I've been dealing with the SCA because people have made up
lies, or simply spread misunderstood facts as "the truth", but because
"nobody can talk about this publically (but if you want to know, come talk
to me privately)" nothing was ever -verified-.

Marc/Diarmaid


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