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09/10/2001 Archived Entry: "Secrets"

(10 points to the person who spots the quote in this post)

I don't like keeping secrets. The whole idea generally worries me and more often than not, Bad Things come out of it. And no, before you start cursing that traitorous Adrian, I'm not talking about you. The only reason I bring this up is because lately I've been the recipient (sometimes unwanted) of information from all sorts of people all over the world which, well, is a bit sensitive and of course is not to be discussed elsewhere.

The problem with most secrets is that by their very definition, it's not a black and white matter. You have to worry about whether you're doing the right thing by not telling the person(s) who are not to be told. Another problem is that secrets require a fair bit of brainpower to keep since if you're not careful then you end up tripping over your own words, making internal inconsistencies in what you say and basically making a mess of things. Even moreso for lies.

There's an interesting hypothesis that states that one of the reasons for gossiping and social intercourse is so that we can keep track of the trustworthiness and reliability of members of our tribe/community. For example, back when we were monkeys you can imagine it would be useful if you talked to your neighbours and found out if that brown monkey over there kept on stealing food from people. In a way, keeping secrets that concerns other members of your community gives you an advantage over the rest in that you have valuable information which allows you to make superior judgements in the future.

Keeping this information to yourself, it's all very selfish, of course. Just like our genes.

But for those readers who've been made nervous after reading this - you know when people say that they can keep a secret, and they never do?

Well, I can keep a secret.