Simmel On Secrecy
In small groups secrets are not needed because everyone is so similar. In larger groups secrets are needed because everyone is so different. In a secret society the society is held together by the need to maintain the secret, which also causes tension because without the secret the society does not exist. Even in marriage secrecy must exist. In revealing all, marriage becomes dull and boring and loses all excitement. Sharing a common secret allows for there to be a strong “we feeling.” The modern world depends on honesty and therefore a lie can be considered more devastating than it ever has been before. Money allows there to be a level of secrecy that has never been attainable before it allows for “invisible” transactions, because now money is such an integral part of human values and beliefs. It is possible to buy silence.
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Famous quotes containing the word secrecy:
“Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)