Secrecy, Conspiracy Theory, and Social Theory

I’ve been thinking a lot about secrecy, invisibility, conspiracy, and social theory lately, and all the things they have in common. I’m nowhere near ready to start blogging about them, but there’s a great link here on exactly that topic from the folks at Savage Minds, reflecting on the fact that much of conspiracy theory works on the same principles as much of social theory. He ain’t wrong, C. Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination notwithstanding.

And then there’s this wonderful piece by Jeff Vail, whose blog and book I highly recommend, on secrecy and its essential uselessness. Not sure I entirely agree with him yet, though like Malatesta, my general policy is that “whenever possible, we should act openly and publicly as we can.”