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Also, if you want to try an experiment about most people relative to BF, at your next party or large social gathering, where you barely know most people, just mention to a lot of people you have seen BF. Most cannot withhold a smirk or downright laughter. Only a very few will ask questions as if they believe you. That widespread public skepticism is the best thing going for any agency that wants to keep the lid on BF. People are reluctant to tell anyone even when they don't have a job at stake.

Maybe not brain washed but when you have a government pension at stake, believe in the company line, and whistle blowers may not be fired but can find themselves transferred to very nasty remote places, there are many ways to deal with someone with information the government does not want out. Classified information always has jail time as a reward for blabbing for those in the military. Part of what I think goes on is compartmentalization. Only those with the need to know are told directly. The military uses that technique very effectively. At times with the military, even classified information has been withheld from the President and certainly Congress because they always shoot their mouth off. There are many instances of that going back to before the Second World War. If others find out on their own, by witnessing a BF, they can be sworn into secrecy and become, in their own mind, in the inner circle and worthy of higher position, if they don't blab. Lower level people can be ridiculed, and will keep things to themselves. We see that a lot with law enforcement witnessing of BF. Peer ridicule is very effective.

And a very good (and informed) opinion it is! Wish I could plus YOU! And thanks for plussing SWWASAS for me. And hiflier, I think your brain is working very well viz-a-viz the 'authorities' and their disinclination to tell the truth. It appears they do not tell the truth unless forced to. That is not to say that there aren't many fine and decent people in the employ of the government who are trying to do the right thing, because I think there are many such people. But as SWWASAS is suggesting -- and is very evident, from the many, many stories about this -- threats of job loss, along with compartmentalization, are great tools for keeping people silent. And I think what SWWASAS said about the sense of privilege and specialness that comes from being one of the few 'in the know' is a big factor in the success of compartmentalization. And Norseman's observation that people who do the wrong thing often believe in what they're doing is yet another factor that contributes to the blocking of the flow of information. The pattern of government interference with the free flow of information seems pretty clear, to me. But I admit to some ambivalence about fixing this problem, partly because I think the BF themselves have ambivalence about it, and I believe that that should be respected. But it is galling to be lied to, even for 'good' reasons. But things will change. The public's patience with being lied to appears to be running out. Look what just happened in Hollywood..... We're moving in the right direction.... The trick will be to try to be kind to those civil servants who really did think they were doing the right thing, at the same time that we stop this practice of hiding the truth from everybody. And the other trick will be to help people not freak out at the truth they learn. Freaking out while sitting in your living room is just as useless as freaking out when you're in the woods. It doesn't help anything. Being calm, though, does. Everyone here knows that they're safe, because they go out into the woods and come home again every day. If those of us who know this can share it with the general public when The Time Comes, we will be doing everybody a big favor....

I completely disagree with the idea that the government can keep any secrets. There would just be too many people involved, shoot the NSA just lost their hacking tools, the incompetence is just too great and you are giving them too much credit.