--- /dev/null
+[[!meta title="The Sociology of Secrecy"]]
+
+## Excerpts
+
+ [...]
+
+ All relationships of people to each other rest, as a matter of
+ course, upon the precondition that they know something about
+ each other. The merchant knows that his correspondent wants
+
+ [...]
+
+ rough and ready way, to the degree necessary in order that the
+ needed kinds of intercourse may proceed. That we shall know
+ with whom we have to do, is the first precondition of having
+ anything to do with another. The customary reciprocal ptresenta-
+
+ [...]
+
+ reciprocally recognized. Their necessity is usually observed only
+ when they happen to be wanted. It would be a profitable
+ scientific labor to investigate the sort and degree of reciprocal
+ apprehension which is needed for the various relationships
+ between human beings. It would be worth while to know
+ how the general psychological presumptions with which each
+ approaches each are interwoven with the special experiences
+ with reference to the individual who is in juxtaposition with us;
+ how in many ranges of association the reciprocal apprehension
+ does or does not need to be equal, or may or may not be permitted
+ to be equal; how conventional relationships are determined in
+ their development only through that reciprocal or unilateral
+ knowledge developing with reference to the other party. The
+ investigation should finally proceed in the opposite direction;
+
+
+ [...]
+
+ given by the total relationship of the knower to the known.
+ Since one never can absolutely know another, as this would mean
+ knowledge of every particular thought and feeling; since we
+ must rather form a conception of a personal unity out of the
+ fragments of another person in which alone he is accessible to
+ us, the unity so formed necessarily depends upon that portion of
+ the other which our standpoint toward him permits us to see.
+
+ [...]
+
+ on the other hand the actual reciprocity of the individuals is based
+ tupon the picture which they derive of each other. Here we have
+ one of the deep circuits of the intellectual life, inasmuch as one
+ element presupposes a second, but the second presupposes the
+ first. While this is a fallacy within narrow ranges, and thus
+
+ [...]
+
+ or by dissimulation he may deceive us as to the truth. No other
+ object of knowledge can thus of its own initiative, either
+ enlighten us with reference to itself or conceal itself, as a human
+ being can. No other knowable object modifies its conduct from
+ consideration of its being understood or misunderstood. 'Tlhis
+
+ [...]
+
+ in misconception about the true intention of the person who
+ tells the lie. Veracity and mendacity are thus of the most far-
+ reaching significance for the relations of persons with each
+ other. Sociological structures are most characteristically dif-
+ ferentiated by the measure of mendacity that is operative in
+ them. To begin with, in very simple relationships a lie is
+ much more harmless foir the persistence of the group than
+ in complex associations. Primitive man, living in communities
+ of restricted extent, providing for his needs by his own produc-
+ tion or by direct co-operation, limiting his spiritual interests to
+ personal experience or to simple tradition, surveys and controls
+ the material of his existence more easily and completely than the
+ man of higher culture. In the latter case life rests upon a thou-
+ sand presuppositions which the individual can never trace back
+ to their origins, and verify; but which he must accept upon faith
+ and belief. In a much wider degree than people are accustomed
+ the economic system
+ to realize, modern civilized life -from
+ which is constantly becoming more and more a credit-economy,
+
+ [...]
+
+ to the pursuit of science, in which the majority of investigators
+ must use countless results obtained by others, and not directly
+ subject to verification- depends upon faith in the honor of
+ others. We rest our most serious decisions upon a complicated
+ system of conceptions, the majority of which presuppose con-
+ fidence that we have nlot been deceived. Hence prevarication in
+ modern circumstances becomes something much more devasta-
+ ting, something placing the foundations of life much more in
+ jeopardy, than was earlier the case. If lying appeared today
+ among us as a sin as permissible as among the Greek divinities,
+ the Hebrew patriarchs, or the South Sea Islanders; if the
+ extremne severity of the moral law did not veto it, the progressive
+ upbuilding of modern life would be simply impossible, since
+ modern life is, in a much wider than the economic sense, a
+ "credit-economy." This relationship of the times recurs in the
+ case of differences of other dimensions. The farther third per-
+ sons are located from the center of our personality, the easier can
+ we adjust ourselves practically, but also subjectively, to their lack
+ of integrity. On the other hand, if the few persons in our imme-
+ dia<te environment lie to us, life becomes intolerable. This
+
+
+ [...]
+
+ in the majority as compared with the liar who gets his advantage
+ from the lie. Consequently that enlightenment which aims at
+ elimination of the element of deception from social life is always
+ of a democratic character.
+ Human intercourse rests normally upon the condition that
+
+ [...]
+
+ development may gain vitality by alternate concession and resist-
+ ance. Relationships of an intimate character, the formal vehicle
+ of which is psycho-physical proximity, lose the charm, and even
+ the content, of their intimacy, unless the proximity includes, at
+ the same time and alternately, distance and intermission. Finally
+ -and
+ this is the matter with which we are now concerned -the
+ reciprocal knowledge, which is the positive condition of social
+ relationships, is not the sole condition. On the contrary, such as
+ those relationships are, they actually presuppose also a certain
+
+ [...]
+
+ By virtue of the situation just noticed, that antecedent or
+ consequent form of knowledge with reference to an individual-
+ viz., confidence in him, evidently one of the most important syn-
+ thetic forces within society -gains
+ a peculiar evolution. Confi-
+ dence, as the hypothesis of future conduct, which is sure enough
+ to become the basis of practical action, is, as hypothesis, a mediate
+ condition between knowing and not knowing another person.
+ The possession of full knowledge does away with the need o,f
+ trusting, while complete absence of knowledge makes trust evi-
+ dentlv impossible.' Whatever quantities of knowing and not
+ knowing must comnimingle, in order to make possible the detailed
+ practical decision based upon confidence, will be determined by
+ the historic epoch, the ranges of interests, and the individuals.
+
+ [...]
+
+ what is not forbidden is permitted, and, what is not permitted is
+ forbidden. Accordingly, the relationships of men are differen-
+ tiated by the question of knowledge with reference to each other:
+ what is not concealed may be known, and what is not revealed
+ may yet not be known. The last determination corresponds to the
+ otherwise effective consciousness that an ideal sphere surrounds
+ every human being, different in various directionsi and toward
+ different persons; a sphere varying in extent, into which one may
+ not venture to penetrate without disturbing the personal value of
+ the individual. Honor locates such an area. Language indi-
+ cates very nicely an invasion of this sort by such phrases as
+ "coming too near" (zu nahe treten). The radius of that sphere,
+ so to speak, marks the distance which a stranger may not cross
+ without infringing up,on another's honor. Another sphere of
+ like form corresponds to that which we designate as the "signifi-
+ cance" (Bedeutung) of another personality. Towards the
+ "significant" man there exists an inner compulsion to keep one's
+
+ [...]
+
+ signifies violation of the ego, at its center. Discretion is nothing
+ other than the sense of justice with respect to the sphere of the
+ intimate contents of life. Of co-urse, this sense is various in its
+
+
+ [...]
+
+ voluntarily reveal to us-must
+ necessity. But in finer and less simple form, in fragmentary
+ passages of association and in unuttered revelations, all commerce
+ of men with each other rests upon the condition that each knows
+ something more of the other than the latter voluntarily reveals
+ to him; and in many respects this is of a sort the knowledge of
+ which, if possible, would have been prevented by the party so
+ revealed. While this, judged as an individual affair, may count
+ as indiscretion, although in the social sense it is necessary as a
+
+ [...]
+
+ voluntarily reveal to us-must
+ necessity. But in finer and less simple form, in fragmentary
+ passages of association and in unuttered revelations, all commerce
+ of men with each other rests upon the condition that each knows
+ something more of the other than the latter voluntarily reveals
+ to him; and in many respects this is of a sort the knowledge of
+ which, if possible, would have been prevented by the party so
+ revealed. While this, judged as an individual affair, may count
+ as indiscretion, although in the social sense it is necessary as a
+ condition for the existing closeness and vitality of the inter-
+ change, yet the legal boundary of this invasion upon the spiritual
+ private property of another is extremely difficult to draw. In
+ general, men credit themselves with the right to know everything
+ which, without application of external illegal means, through
+ purely psychological observation and reflection, it is possible to
+ ascertain. In point of fact, however, indiscretion exercised in
+ this way may be quite as violent, and morally quite as unjusti-
+ fiable, as listening at keyholes and prying into the letters of
+
+ [...]
+
+ strangers. To anyone with fine psychological perceptions, men
+ betray themselves and their inmost thoughts and characteristics
+ in countless fashions, not only in spite of efforts not to' do so, but
+ often for the very reason that they anxiously attempt to guard
+ themselves. The greedy spying upon every unguarded word;
+ the boring persistence of inquiry as to the meaning of every slight
+ action, or tone of voice; what may be inferred from. such and
+ such expressions; what the blush at the mention of a given name
+ may betray-all this does, not overstep the boundary o'f external
+ discretion; it is entirely the labor of one's own mind, and there-
+ fore apparently within the unquestionable rights of the agent.
+ This is all the more the case, since such misuse of psychological
+ superiority oiften occurs as a purely involuntary procedure. Very
+ often it is impossible for us to, restrain our interpretation of
+ another, our theory of his subjective characteristics and inten-
+ tions. However positively an honorable person may forbid him-
+
+ [...]
+
+ so unavoidable, the division line between the permitted and the
+ non-permitted is the more indefinite. To what extent discretion
+ must restrain itself from mental handling " of all that which is its
+ own," to what extent the interests of intercourse, the reciprocal
+ interdependence of the members of the same group, limits this
+ duty of discretion - this is a question for the answer to, which
+ neither moral tact, nor survey of the o'bj ective relationships and
+ their demands, can alone be sufficient, since both factors must
+ rather always work together. The nicety and complexity of this
+ question throw it back in a much higher degree upon the respon-
+ sibility of the individual for decision, without final recourse to
+ any authoritative general norm, than is the case in connection
+ with a question of private property in the material sense.
+ In contrast with this preliminary form, or this attachment of
+
+ [...]
+
+ quently friendship, in which this intensity, but also this
+ inequality of devotion, is lacking, may more easily attach the
+ whole person to the whole person, may more easily break up
+ the reserves of the soul, not indeed by so impulsive a process,
+ but throoughout a wider area and during a longer succession.
+ This complete intimacy of confidence probably becomes, with
+ the changing differentiation of men, more and more difficult.
+ Perhaps the modern man has too much to conceal to make a
+ friendship in the ancient sense possible; perhaps personalities
+ also, except in very early years, are too peculiarly individualized
+ for the complete reciprocality of understanding, to which
+ always so much divination and productive phantasy are essen-
+ tial. It appears that, for this reason, the mo,dern type of
+ feeling inclines more to differentiated friendships; that is, to
+ those which have their territory only upon one side of the person-
+ ality at a time, and in which the rest of the personality plays no
+ part. Thus a quite special type of friendship emerges. For our
+ problem, namely, the degree of intrusion or of reserve within the
+ friendly relationship, this type is of the highest significance.
+
+ [...]
+
+ must come sooner or later.
+ In marriage, as in free relationships of analogous types, the
+ temptation is very natural to open oneself to the other at the
+ outset without limit; to abandon the last reserve of the soul
+ equally with those of the body, and thus to. lose oneself completely
+ in another. This, however, usually threatens the future of the
+ relationship. Only those people can without danger give them-
+ selves entirely to each other who canntot possibly give themselves
+ entirely, because the wealth of their soul rests in constant pro-
+ gressive development, which follows every devotion immediately
+ with the growth of new treasures. Complete devotion is safe
+ only in the case of those people who, have an inexhaustible fund
+ of latent spiritual riches, and therefore can no more alienate them
+ in a single confidence than a tree can give up the fruits of next
+ year by letting go what it produces at the present moment. The
+ case is quite different, however, with those people who, so to
+ speak, draw from their capital all their betrayals of feeling and
+
+ [...]
+
+ intensity so soon as it is confronted by a purpose of discovery.
+ Thereupon follows that purposeful concealment, that aggressive
+ defense, so to speak, against the other party, which we call
+ secrecy in the most real sense. Secrecy in this sense- i. e., whichi
+ is effective through negative or positive means of concealment
+ is one of the greatest accomplishments of humanity. In contrast
+ with the juvenile condition in which every mental picture is at
+
+ [...]
+
+ by the fact that what was formerly putblic passes under the pro-
+ tection of secrecy, and that, on the contrary, what was formerly
+ secret ceases to require such protection and proclaims itself. This
+ is analogous with that other evolution o,f mind in which move-
+ ments at first executed consciously become unconsciously me-
+ chanical, and, on the other hand, what was unconscious and
+ instinctive rises into the light of consciousness.
+ How this
+ development is distributed over the various formations of private
+
+ [...]
+
+ essential and significant. The natural impulse to idealization, and
+ the natural timidity of men, operate to one and the samne end in
+ the presence of secrecy; viz., to heighten it by phantasy, and to
+ distinguish it by a degree of attention that published reality could
+ not command.
+ Singularly enough, these attractions of secrecy enter into
+
+ [...]
+
+ not command.
+ Singularly enough, these attractions of secrecy enter into
+ combination with those of its logical opposite; viz., treason or
+ betrayal of secrets, which are evidently no less sociological in
+ their nature. Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of
+ revelation, finds its release. This constitutes the climax in the
+ development of the secret; in it the whole charm of secrecy con-
+ centrates and rises to its highest pitch - just as the moment of the
+ disappearance of an object brings out the feeling of its value in
+ the most intense degree. The sense of power connected with
+ possession of money is most comnpletely and greedily concentrated
+ for the soul of the spendthrift at the moment at which this power
+ slips from his hands. Secrecy also is sustained by the conscious-
+
+ [...]
+
+ 466
+ THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
+ ness that it might be exploited, and therefore confers power to
+ modify fo,rtunes, to produce surprises, joys, and calamities, even
+ if the latter be only misfortunes to ourselves. Hence the possi-
+ bility and the temptation of treachery plays around the secret, and
+ the external danger off being discovered is interwoven with the
+ internal danger of self-discovery, which has the fascination of the
+ brink o,f a precipice. Secrecy sets barriers between men, but at
+ the same time offers the seductive temptation to break through the
+ barriers by gossip or confession. This temptation accompanies
+ the psychical life of the secret like an overtone. Hence the socio-
+ logical significance of the secret, its practical measure, and the
+ mode o,f its workings must be found in the capacity or the inclina-
+ tion of the initiated to, keep the secret to' himself, or in his resist-
+ ance or weakness relative to the temptation to, betrayal. From the
+ play of these two interests, in concealment and in revelation,
+ spring shadings and fortunes of human reciprocities throughout
+ their whole range. If, according to our previous analysis, every
+ human relationship has, as one of its traits, the degree of secrecy
+ within or around it, it follows that the further development of the
+ relationship in this respect depends on the combining proportions
+ of the retentive and the communicative energies -the
+ former
+ sustained by the practical interest and the formal attractiveness
+ of secrecy as such, the latter by inability to, endture longer the
+ tension of reticence, and by the superiority which is latent, so to
+ speak, in secrecy, but which is actualized for the feelings only at
+ the moment o'f revelation, and o'ften also, on the other hand, by
+ the joy of confession, which may contain that s,ense o,f power in
+ negative and perverted form, as self-abasement and contrition.
+ All these factors, which determine the sociological role of
+
+
+ [...]
+
+ too great temptation to disclose what might otherwise be hidden.
+ But in this case there is no need of secrecy in a high degree,
+ because this social formation usually tends to level its members,
+ and every peculiarity of being, acting, or possessing the persist-
+ ence of which requires secrecy is abhorrent to it. That all this
+ changes to its opposite in case of large widening of the circle is
+ a matter-of-course. In this connection, as in so many other par-
+ ticulars, the facts of monetary relationships reveal most distinctly
+ the specific traits of the large circle. Since transfers of economic
+ values have occurred principally by means of money, an otherwise
+ unattainable secrecy is possible in such transactions. Three pecu-
+ liarities of the money form of values are here important: first,
+ its compressibility, by virtue of which it is possible to, make a man
+ rich by slipping into his hand a check without attracting attention;
+ second, its abstractness and absence of qualitative character, in
+ consequence of which numberless sorts of acquisitions and trans-
+ fers of possessions may be covered up and guarded from publicity
+ in a fashion impossible so long as values could be possessed only
+ as extended, tangible objects; third, its long-distance effective-
+ ness, by virtue of which we may invest it in the most widely
+ removed and constantly changing values, and thus withdraw it
+ utterly from the view of our nearest neighbors. These facilities
+ of dissimulation which inhere in the degree of extension in the
+ use of money, and which disclose their dangers particularly in
+ dealings with foreign money, have called forth, as protective pro-
+ visions, publicity of the financial operations of corporations.
+ This points to a closer definition of the formula of evolution dis-
+ cussed above; viz., that throughout the form of secrecy there
+ occurs a permanent in- and out-flow of content, in which what is
+ originally open becomes secret, and what was originally concealed
+ throws off its mystery. Thus we might arrive at the paradoxical
+ idea that, under otherwise like circumstances, human associations
+ require a definite ratio of secrecy which merely changes its
+
+
+ [...]
+
+ this exchange it keeps its quantum unvaried. We may even fill
+ out this general scheme somewhat more exactly. It appears that
+ with increasing telic characteristics of culture the affairs of
+ people at large become more and more public, those of individuals
+ more and more secret. In less developed conditions, as observed
+ above, the circumstances of individual persons cannot protect
+ themselves in the same degree from reciprocal prying and inter-
+ fering as within modern types of life, particularly those that have
+ developed in large cities, where we find a quite new degree of
+ reserve and discretion. On the other hand, the public function-
+ aries in undeveloped states envelop themselves in a mystical
+ authority, while in maturer and wider relations, through exten-
+ sion of the range of their prerogatives, through the objectivity of
+ their technique, through the distance that separates them from
+ most of the individuals, a security and a dignity accrue to them
+ which are compatible with publicity of their behavior. That
+ earlier secrecy of public functions, however, betrayed its essential
+
+ [...]
+
+ Footnote 2 This counter-movement occurs also in the reverse direction.
+ It has been
+ observed, in connection with the history of the English court, that the actual
+ court cabals, the secret whisperings, the organized intrigues, do not spring up
+ under despotism, but only after the king has constitutional advisers, when the
+ government is to that extent a system open to view. After that time-
+ and this
+ applies especially since Edward II-the
+ king begins to form an unofficial, and
+ at the same time subterranean, circle of advisers, in contrast with the ministers
+ somehow forced upon him. This body brings into existence, within itself, and
+ through endeavors to join it, a chain of concealments and conspiracies.
+
+
+ [...]
+
+ have thought possible. Accordingly, politics, administration,
+ justice, have lost their secrecy and inaccessibility in precisely the
+ degree in which the individual has gained possibility of more com-
+ plete privacy, since modern- life has elaborated a technique for
+ isolation of the affairs of individuals, within the crowded condi-
+ tions of great cities, possible in former times only by means of
+ spatial separation.
+
+ To what extent this development is to be regarded as advan-
+ tageous depends upon social standards of value. Democracies are
+ bound to regard publicity as the condition desirable in itself.
+ This follows from the fundamental idea that each should be
+ informed about all the relationships and occurrences with which
+ he is concerned, since this is a condition of his doing his part with
+ reference to them, and every community of knowledge contains
+ also the psychological stimulation to community of action. It is
+ immaterial whether this conclusion is entirely binding. If an
+ objective controlling structure has been built up, beyond the
+ individual interests, but nevertheless to their advantage, such
+ a structure may very well, by virtue of its formal inde-
+ pendence, have a rightful claim to carry on a certain amount
+ of secret functioning without prejudice to its public char-
+ acter, so far as real consideration of the interests of all is con-
+ cerned. A logical connection, therefore, which would necessitate
+ the judgment of superior worth in favor of the condition of pub-
+ licity, does not exist. On the other hand, the universal scheme of
+ cultural differentiation puts in an appearance here: that which
+ pertains to the public becomes more public, that which belongs to
+ the individual becomes more private. Moreover, this historical
+ development brings o-ut the deeper real significance: that which
+ in its nature is public, wvhich in its content concerns all, becomes
+ also externally, in its sociological form, more and more public;
+ while that which in its inmost nature refers to the self alone-
+ also, gain
+ that is, the centripetal affairs of the individual -must
+ in so-ciological position a more and more private character, a
+ more decisive possibility of remaining secret.
+ While secrecy, therefore, is a sociological ordination which
+
+
+ [...]
+
+ As a general proposition, the secret society
+ emerges everywhere as correlate of despotism and of police con-
+ trol. It acts as protection alike of defense and of offense against
+ the violent pressure of central powers. This is true, not alone in
+ political relations, but in the same way within the church, the
+ school, and the family.
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