It is useful to some of us to know that, perhaps built into our human nature that most people are pretty much the same, much like what we are.
From a standpoint of consciousness, others are either as little informed as we are and often less informed on those subjects of our individual interests. It's always a delight to find someone less human in these characteristics, with great intellect, knowledge and the appropriate mixture.
Those who contain this special mixture seem to be shy and do not make great celebration of their great possession. The others on the opposite end tend to become politicians pretending to be one of those and really not knowing the difference.
Rather than becoming leaders they are more comfortable following but from a position at the front of the march which makes it seem that they are leading.
They are in a sense play actors, except that they cannot separate themselves from the role that they play. And they love the stage and stage managing. They are harmless in a sense, except that they often have to make important decisions. Here pretending doesn't work and where following those who are not leaders sometimes takes them into dangerous situations.
They are often more concerned with holding the center of the stage and sensitive to others trying to share it. They then find that they must put themselves into position of power to hold the stage. And there are various ways of gaining and of holding this power.
This is the process that becomes dangerous as no thought is given “the people” in this exercise. The over-extending ego, often produces a conscious effort to exclude everyone else, and in politics that generally means “the people.”
Possession of information that others do not have is ego-satisfying and provides a sense of power. Therefore, the exclusion of information to others, among politicians is a normal, if not an unconscious practice.
The concepts of citizen participation, let alone accountability to citizens, unfriendly to the insecure position the politician holds, appear in the eyes of the politician to diminish both power and position.
Therefore, information is withheld where and when it is not necessary to do so. It is felt that information must only be made available on the stage under managed situations.
Of course, there must be some discussion within and among groups to get things operating in government, but to pretend that there isn't any or there is never any need to report back on what happened behind closed doors, in some supposed interests of developers, for example, versus the citizens' right to know, underlies the dissatisfaction with the way things are.
In politics hidden information is like currency or credit in the banking business. Few politicians are likely to practice the generosity of information distribution unless it gives them direct credit.
This is the kind of underlying knowledge that makes some citizens better able to understand the conditions and to weigh the information that comes their way. There is some question as to how useful this knowledge is in our everyday lives of getting on with our own interests.
This general situation delights the press for finding this information and revealing it to the public becomes their profession and business. It makes news good enough to print and to sell.
