Definitions
Insider is a fluid term: depending on the usage, it can have strongly positive, negative, or neutral connotations. It is probably safe to say that in all contexts, being an insider implies relatively great, if fleeting, personal power, and therefore engenders some form of respect, and in certain situations, fear.
Active participation is a defining factor: being a witness alone does not make a person an insider. An insider is usually one who is privy to, not simply facts and procedures, but also the day-to-day working relationships and dynamics of people in a group.
Underlying the concept of the insider is a widespread belief, and fact, that in most human social activities, there are two simultaneous, intertwined systems or processes at work: the "way things seem" and the "way they really are". In any one situation, the way things seem may or may not actually be how things work most of the time, but there is always some significant deviation, usually through the clandestine activity of small numbers of individuals within the larger group. Revealing these activities is the role of the insider.
In this way, an insider comes into existence only on or near the act of revealing what they know to an outside party. The majority of people have some area of insider knowledge, but they only become insiders when tapped for that information.
In law, a formal value is assigned to insider knowledge when it is cited to qualify a person as an expert witness. It is also recognized in intelligence and law enforcement, when insiders are deliberately created in the form of deep cover spies and undercover officers, to obtain knowledge not available through surveillance and investigation.
Two broad classes of insider are commonly recognized: those who are principal players in close-knit groups with specific objectives (e.g. the upper management of a corporation; members of a secret society), and participants in a general area of endeavour, such as a particular industry or profession, a company, or a government department (e.g. a lawyer, an employee of XYZ Inc., a postal worker).
Read more about this topic: Insider
Famous quotes containing the word definitions:
“The loosening, for some people, of rigid role definitions for men and women has shown that dads can be great at calming babies—if they take the time and make the effort to learn how. It’s that time and effort that not only teaches the dad how to calm the babies, but also turns him into a parent, just as the time and effort the mother puts into the babies turns her into a parent.”
—Pamela Patrick Novotny (20th century)
“What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of judgment, nothing of resounding through eternity and nothing of the footsteps of the Almighty.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“Lord Byron is an exceedingly interesting person, and as such is it not to be regretted that he is a slave to the vilest and most vulgar prejudices, and as mad as the winds?
There have been many definitions of beauty in art. What is it? Beauty is what the untrained eyes consider abominable.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)