This is the justification for modern government secrecy, spying on its people, and even torture. In the name of security, apparently everything is okay for the government.

This plot (don't tell the people, they'll panic!) is repeated over and over, always with the assumption that the regular people can't handle the truth.

"You regular people need government officials to protect you, bear the burdens of danger in secret, and never tell you when there are real dangers," goes this argument.

One problem with this view is that it is downright false. Another problem is that this view is dangerous. In the American founding, the colonists won because the people were informed. Period.

The people knew the challenges, the dangers, and so they took action when it was needed. Today's government secrecy is the opposite of Paul Revere's attempt to wake everyone up -- the more who knew of Britain's secret attack, the better.

Someone might say, "But the technology of their day was so different than ours. Nowadays the government has to be secret."