On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 6:55 AM, Royce Williams <ro...@techsolvency.com> wrote:
> Daniel Ellsberg's attempt to explain this to Kissinger is insightful. It's a > pretty quick read, with many layers of important observations. (It's Mother > Jones, but this content is apolitical): > > > http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/02/daniel-ellsberg-limitations-knowledge Er ... I forgot to include the part of the Ellsberg quote that was most relevant to the discussion, with the last sentence here being the icing on the cake: "You will deal with a person who doesn't have those clearances only from the point of view of what you want him to believe and what impression you want him to go away with, since you'll have to lie carefully to him about what you know. In effect, you will have to manipulate him. You'll give up trying to assess what he has to say. The danger is, you'll become something like a moron. You'll become incapable of learning from most people in the world, no matter how much experience they may have in their particular areas that may be much greater than yours." In other words: the very politicians with the clearances necessary to strike the best balance are the ones that we cannot expect to hear us, even in our areas of expertise. Security engineering must take this fact as a constraint. Royce
