{"id":1165,"date":"2016-01-31T20:49:24","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T20:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2016-01-31T20:49:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T20:49:24","slug":"against-transparency-truth-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/01\/against-transparency-truth-balance.html","title":{"rendered":"Against transparency, truth, balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The standard argument against transparency<\/a> needs to be ridiculed for the nonsense it is. It always sounds exactly the same.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Want to label GMO products? Want to label products made in Israeli illegal settlements in Palestine? Want to show people that their email inbox is raided and read on a daily basis by US spies and Google is doing nothing to prevent it, no matter what country they live in?<\/p>\n

Apparently, the above acts are political conspiracies, “bias”, a kind of “activism”, and terrorism. That is the argument always given against transparency, of any kind.\u00a0It is the argument almost certain to be given by US Republican Party lawmakers against President Obama’s possible “dark money” executive order (read this NYT article<\/a>!). An order for large government contractors to reveal which parties and pressure groups they are donating campaign gifts to. Apparently, giving that information to the public is breaching the political rights of those corporations.<\/p>\n

Merely showing people what is really going on\u00a0is likened by opponents of transparency to a type of advocacy. It isn’t. Revealing the facts\u00a0is revealing the facts. It is the most neutral, most balanced and purest\u00a0act\u00a0a person can do.<\/p>\n

For Obama to do something good for truth will earn\u00a0him “good President” points in a lot of people’s book, and this is something\u00a0he needs before he leaves office. Bravo, if you go through with this executive order, and even more so if you ignore the fools sitting\u00a0in\u00a0Congress who already contaminate the US political system with their corporate money.<\/p>\n

But what of the political rights of the public to know who is controlling their government, funding their officials to get into office? What about the rights of people to know the truth? All these phony arguments offered against transparency have done is reveal that power and excess have apologists. I would not be surprised if the apologists have received generous campaign gifts of their own, and this is why they find it so biased and unfair that their dirty dealings are going to be exposed.<\/p>\n

Don’t buy into the\u00a0despicable reasoning against transparency and truth. There is nothing affecting\u00a0the the health and prosperity of the public\u00a0that can be legitimately hidden from the public eye. The standard, oft-repeated cry that people trying to reveal the truth to the public are conspirators with a harmful agenda against some firm, nation or other is absurd, and must be rejected as a lie as soon as it is it is uttered.<\/p>\n

\"hjb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The standard argument against transparency needs to be ridiculed for the nonsense it is. It always sounds exactly the same. Want to label GMO products? Want to label products made in Israeli illegal settlements in Palestine? Want to show people that their email inbox is raided and read on a daily basis by US spies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,8,353,18,66,40,15,89],"tags":[1383,301,954,1384,1382,25,1331,807,1381,809],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alter-globalization","category-antistatism","category-censorship","category-nsa","category-politics-2","category-publishing","category-us","category-wikileaks","tag-activism","tag-barack-obama","tag-israel","tag-nyt","tag-political-campaigning","tag-politics","tag-president","tag-privacy","tag-public","tag-transparency"],"yoast_head":"\nAgainst transparency, truth, balance - L'Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Villains who stand against transparency can offer nothing but the same dull argument equating conscientious, truth-loving people with harmful conspirators.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/01\/against-transparency-truth-balance.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Against transparency, truth, balance - L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Villains who stand against transparency can offer nothing but the same dull argument equating conscientious, truth-loving people with harmful conspirators.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/01\/against-transparency-truth-balance.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-31T20:49:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2015\/10\/hjb-signature-new-opaque-2.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry J. Bentham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Against transparency, truth, balance - L'Ordre","description":"Villains who stand against transparency can offer nothing but the same dull argument equating conscientious, truth-loving people with harmful conspirators.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/01\/against-transparency-truth-balance.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Against transparency, truth, balance - L'Ordre","og_description":"Villains who stand against transparency can offer nothing but the same dull argument equating conscientious, truth-loving people with harmful conspirators.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/01\/against-transparency-truth-balance.html","og_site_name":"L'Ordre","article_published_time":"2016-01-31T20:49:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2015\/10\/hjb-signature-new-opaque-2.png"}],"author":"Harry J. 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Bentham","description":"Harry J. Bentham is a British futurist blogger who has been a contributor at a number of think tanks including the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies since 2013. His work at Press TV and the L'Ordre blog featured at the multi-faith Beliefnet website has gained increasing attention and praise, including in the international media. Commentaries on political and ethical controversies by Bentham have been published at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, H+ Magazine, Dissident Voice and numerous other publications. 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