And when they aren't built into the system, they get ugly, as Marie Antoinette discovered.

State (and state-rivaling corporate) secrecy is out of control, and this is a consequence. I don't agree with his absolutely no secrets position. I also don't agree that hurricanes should destroy cities.

Transparency in government is entirely at the whim of bureaucrats who understand that any information, no matter what it is, can come back to bite the politician they report to. What you don't release can't come back and bite you, anything you do release can. It is not a sustainable situation for a democracy or a semi-free market. Hell, it isn't even sustainable in a dictatorship anymore, as CHina is finding out. Something is going to break. Wikileaks is one of the breaks, there will be more. Lots more.

It's not going to be pretty.