A Radical New View on Privacy
What would a world of truth without secrets look like?
“Total transparency begins with me— transparent to myself, transparent to others. For what leverage can be used to manipulate me, if I know my own flaws and gifts, if I am not ashamed of my “secrets”, and if I demand the same from those who would try to rule over me?”— Zeus Yiamouyiannis
I begin this essay amid the reality of a world increasingly driven by illusion and delusion— cheap fakes and deepfakes, bots and computer viruses, virtual and “augmented” perception — in which those with access to mechanisms of perception and distribution can “define” not only you as a person but the larger opinion environment upon which modern so-called “reality” relies.
The gist overall is that deepfakes and cheap fakes end up with the same end result, namely producing fake, false, or misleading content, and the effort required to produce such content is either done with the assistance of AI (artificial intelligence) in the use case of deepfakes or done without the use of AI in the use case of cheap fakes.
At one time we cherished our idea of ourselves as kingdoms unto ourselves: “I may not control much, but I control ME.” This was perhaps an outgrowth of 17th and 18th century Enlightenment ideals of the “natural (individual) rights” of man over and above kings. Philosopher Rene Descartes’ famous saying “I think therefore I am” was perhaps the most succinct encapsulation of a fundamentally naive mentality: “I, this brain-possessing person in this meat suit, am a sovereign chooser, thinker, feeler, and doer. I make my own life, and I alone reap the benefit and consequence.”
Nothing could be further from the truth, especially now. You can “be made to be” many things you are not, and that image can be defined and distributed without your knowledge or consent by someone with a little computer savviness and internet access. As Mark Twain supposedly said: "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes." So given this environment of perceived image over personal genuineness, what is your best response? My contention, is that we need to establish a public habit and record of our true thoughts, feelings, words, and actions, and act as if all of these are viewed by the entire world!
How can someone else define you when you have already, vigorously and thoroughly and enduringly defined who you are, NOT BY IMAGE, but by a track record of real ACTION and EXPRESSION involving overt integrity, declaration, competence, and moral courage. Fighting for the underdog, bouncing back from failure, refusing to bow to social pressure, all entail integrity, awareness, and a measure of courage. Rather than being driven by a gauzy reputation based on virtual markers, your bonafides are stamped indelibly in the hearts and minds of those your have helped, loved, and treated respectfully. With some media-savviness, you heart-driven work also shows up in the internet record, not as bragging, but as advocacy. Your spiritual call to exert your own unique, natural talents becomes your guide to real life, rather than what is trending on Facebook or X.
Interbeing
Vietnamese Buddhist and activist Thich Nhat Hanh has observed that we have always and ever been creatures of “interbeing.” My identity, my person is a locus of meaning-making in a vastly more complex web of meaning. If I define myself AGAINST that larger interdependent web of existence and shut myself out from it, I become not only “private” but deeply alone. What good does it do me to be all-powerful in my private sphere of dreams, gratifications, and pretensions when I have made myself a hard pebble, rather than a fish, in the flowing stream of larger life and world.
In order for my dreams to become reality, I must contact and interact with the larger world. This will mean confronting my manufactured internal world. I am invited to step outside of myself and my privacy. I am enjoined to “prove out” and come out of hiding to embrace a more authentic human life, which is not purely private but social and public.
Yes, the private, internal sphere serves some important purposes. It helps manage my growth and vulnerability in a pace that suits me, preventing overwhelm and perhaps even boosting my self-esteem in ways more substantive than Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley character did on Saturday Night Live. (Who can forget: “I’m good enough, I’m strong enough, and, doggone it, people like me.”)
However, this management of interior psychological climate should never come at the expense of the truth of one’s own authentic and vigorous development amid the challenges of the world. Increasingly, we will need to recognize and communicate our incompleteness in order to open and learn. We will increasingly need to publicly inquire into “Who am I?'“ rather than simply assume the answer. We will increasingly need to build ourselves through novel interactions, rather than be “sold” assumed and adopted selves that follow social trends and fashions.
This ability to discern between a real, in-process inner reality and a manufactured, fully packaged outer image becomes critical. For without this critical ability, one cannot choose to actively cultivate “realness” on the outside to match the inside. To live an integral inside-matches-outside good life, I don’t need to constantly confess my thoughts, and let everyone know everything about my problems. I am not some cheap daytime talk show! However, I must continually delve into, develop, and share who I am at this present time and who I aspire to be.
In order to become greater and deeper, I must accurately note my challenges and gifts and learn into my own life. This is not done by some egoistic exertion of my will, but by the grace offered to me by my life and spirit. My spirit constantly presents me with ongoing opportunities to break out of claustrophobic shells of self-definition.
When your castle is your prison
A man’s home is his castle? Really? And what exactly is a castle when you look at it more closely? I contend that realistically and metaphorically a castle in an unwitting prison. We set up our “man caves” and McMansions as Disneylands of self-gratification and refuge. Our “home entertainment systems” and appliances provide us with convenience, leisure, and pleasure to make up for the exploitation we experience in the labor and consumer market.
Whether this “castle” is a home or one’s own self-identity, it tends to maintain itself and spurn outside influence. Therefore new experiences, new relationships, new creative opportunities, new walks in nature become characterized as if they are inconveniences or even invading armies. “Integrity” from a castle standpoint, is maintaining the SAME ways and privileges at the expense of growth coming from challenge, engagement, and learning
This wall of image we put around ourselves, this private ditch of ignorance we surround ourselves with prevents interaction, self-knowledge, acknowledgement of our own sins and errors as well as our injuries and hurts. This privacy bids us to “put on a brave face” and keep a “stiff upper lip.” Our social media filled with “happy selfies” hides any trace of the true uncertainty, sadness, and anxiety we experience. This privacy-prison also militates against healing, expression, communication, openness, and recognition of our mutual vulnerability and fragility.
Jesus said it well on his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5: 21-24 : What good is to follow all the Ten Commandments in public behavior yet privately poison ourselves with rotten attitudes? What good is it to outwardly appear holy, and inwardly seethe with malevolent thoughts toward brother and sister?
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother[c] will be liable to judgment; whoever insults[d] his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell[e] of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Reconcile the inner and the outer if you are to be whole and good!
In protecting ourselves and our “secrets” we close out the world, and we close off your umbilical connection with that which created us and sustains us far MORE than our own efforts. We do not create our breathing, our metabolism, our heart beating, and anything else that keeps us from dropping dead within a few minutes. We largely don’t even control our own thoughts and feelings, merely endlessly reacting to cleverly researched and perpetrated algorithms, advertisements, social opinions that through sheer reputation reach the unearned status of “truth” or “reality”. Yet all this is pure fabrication. How do we break out?
Let down the drawbridge to the castle permanently.
You still have the castle moat in the form of critical thinking. You still have guards at the entrance of your self-“castle” in the form of excellent observation and questioning of visitors, friends, family, strangers, and politicians! You do not need people to enter, admire, and affirm the interior of your castle. Your castle-self needs only to radiate who it is from the watchtower and let those rays find people who welcome them.
Those who would seek to take advantage of your hospitality or attempt to exploit an invitation, whether a marketer or a narcissist, will be confounded by the unapologetic glare of the virtue you shine forth, along with the transparency with which you reveal your own identity. Authenticity and confidence replaces gimmickry and mimicry, and people are brought out from under their pretty lies and competitive sniping. Only now can we cheer each other on, because we know who one another are, and we don’t hide our motives.
Even a holy and Enlightened One, like Siddhartha Buddha (the founder of Buddhism), was not always so spiritually aware and translucent. According to Buddhist lore, he was raised to be a royal prince within a luxurious, protective palace, ignorant of any pain or poverty. The world was literally at his feet. In a similar way, we in modern society are taught to place the world metaphorically at our feet, to have the world serve as step-servants for our material desires and shallow emotional needs. We are taught through smart phones to pull up our “castle” drawbridges and languish in the sheer existential misery of meaningless creature comfort.
Alone we are, with a delusion of connection through an Samsung- or iPhone-induced fantasy where the world is brought to us, where all serves us, and where we lack nothing but the most important things— true love, human connection, and truth itself. Everything that we see on this not-so-smart phone is a filtered, tailored, and pale reflection of our deeper potential and deeper experience. These images on TikTok and Instagram are at best entertaining distractions and at worst the modern form of the furies, sirens, and harpies that lure sailors to their deaths upon the rocks with their temptations, vengeances, ravages, and songs.
It was not until Buddha was able to sneak out from his own created luxury-laden palace prison, that he began to not only meet the world, but for the first time know himself. We must all do the same. We must not merely peak out from behind our door and drawbridges, but VENTURE out to meet our maker and fashion our fates. In this, our own permeability, vulnerability, and utter honesty becomes spiritually necessary.
True connected identity (“sat nam”) vs. isolated avatar
In the Kundalini tradition, there is a phrase ‘Sat Nam’ which means True Name or True Identity, and it is identified with the spiritual and eternal nature of the human being showing up authentically in the world.
“Your world is mind-made subjective enclosed within the Mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of memory… I live in a world of realities while yours is of imagination. Your world is personal, private, unshareable, intimately your own. Nobody can enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think your thoughts in your world. You are truly alone, enclosed in your ever-changing dream which you take for life. My world is an open world common to all, accessible to all. In my world there is community inside, love, real quality.”— Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That
True identity is shared essence. Only by denying our shared spirituality and humanity (and cultivating willful ignorance) can we even think to exploit and injure others for our alleged “individual” benefit. Generous sharing is not done BY our small, private will, but according to a larger grace and blessing which inherently connects all creation.
The story of the monk Hakuin:
In an often-told Zen tale, the parents of a village girl storm the hut of the aging monk Hakuin and thrust on him their daughter’s newborn child. They blame him for fathering the baby, mock his esteemed reputation, and name him a dirty old man. Awkwardly cradling the squalling baby, Hakuin makes a deep bow and responds with equanimity, “Is that so?”
That night, as a chill wind penetrates the hut, he encircles the baby with his own warmth, offering her protection. He nurtures this child as a daughter: stitching her clothes from his monk’s robes, sharing his own meager broth and rice, schooling her in poetry, brush painting and the wisdom of the Dharma.
When the true father is revealed, the girl’s parents appear once again at Hakuin’s hut, this time to claim the child as their own and to take her away. They praise Hakuin for his generosity, ask forgiveness for tarnishing his image as a monk, and name him a great benefactor. As he releases the beloved child, he makes a deep bow and again with equanimity responds, “Is that so?”
The author of this retelling, Barbara Gates, wondered aloud if she could bring this equanimity into her own dealings with those close to her:
But what if instead, like the Zen monk Hakuin, I had responded with a gracious nod, “Is that so?”…. Not so easy. I try to imagine our monk by the doorway… (W)hat a feat to hold steady in himself, to be unshakable. For me, pulled as I am by enthusiasm, by hurt or thirst for certification, such freedom from the addiction to identity doesn’t come easily.
What is your true identity? Meditate upon that.
When they can access your privacy but you can’t access theirs
“Total power is unconditional access; total powerlessness is being unconditionally accessible. The creation and manipulation of power is constituted of the manipulation and control of access” (Marilyn Frye 1983, The Politics of Reality, 103 in “Feminist Perspectives on Power”).
It should be apparent by now that privacy as a concept and practice is an illusion in a post-modern world. The only ones now with any real privacy are those with power and access, and even then the powerful compete and compel each other with data breaches, extortions, and blackmails, sexual kompromat, and the like. They get access to your geo-location, consumer preferences, emotional states, sexual predilections, through data collection and “user agreements”. You don’t get access to Epstein’s list, Pfizer’s unredacted COVID test data, John F. Kennedy assassination files, insider trading information, and “official secrets.” People with power use it to compel inside information on other people and prevent access to their own secrets.
Furthermore, executive privilege openly PUNISHES whistle-blowers who virtuously expose power-brokers who break the law, act hypocritically, and/or behave psychotically. Edward Snowden’s unmasking of illegal NSA spying painted a bulls-eye on his forehead and landed him in exile in Russia. Mike Pompeo and CIA brass secretly discussed assassinating Julian Assange after he exposed their treachery and criminality. Donald Trump pardoned the war criminals involved in shooting unarmed civilians. Recently Joe Biden pardoned a judge, Michael Conahan who took $2,800,000 in bribes from a private prison in exchange for locking up 2,300 kids, one of whom committed suicide after being jailed unfairly for a minor drug possession offense.
Those who expose truths that embarrass official power are punished, and those that cover for official power, not matter how egregiously they break the law, are rewarded. Criminals are protected from prosecution by the so-called “lawmen and women” and people with integrity attempting to reveal and enforce the actual on-the-books law are targeted as enemies.
This has huge implications for strategies around privacy going forward. Your enemies could use deepfake artificial intelligence to portray you having sex with a child even if you have actively advocated for victims of sexual exploitation. The only real defense you have is to develop a public record of your real contributions and activism and let people widely know your stances, your actions, and your convictions in public forums. Substack is really a great forum for this, as it seems to resist censorship and and allows an open diary of your life, thoughts, and actions.
This will be the necessary wave of the future. It not only protects you but emboldens others to “come out” and openly organize against the intimidating use of power, punishment, and censorship against courageous and virtuous individuals.
Fighting censorship with reality and science
Early in the Covid pandemic, many national governments in the world decided to unilaterally cancel medical choice by mandating privately-produced, profit-driven inadequately tested mRNA vaccines. Along with this, they effectively cancelled medical privacy by insisting on Covid vaccination proof to serve in the military and other work spaces. A “show your papers” vaccine card was even required to eat food in many restaurants. All this for an inoculation that proved not to prevent contraction or transmission of Covid. The definition of vaccine was even changed by Merriam-Websters to include this novel therapy that did not actually prevent the disease but at least induced an immune response.
Early on, I came out against the Covid “vaccines” as an untested and dangerous technology apt to generate autoimmune disease and antibody dependent ENHANCEMENT of Covid (i.e. worse than nothing) rather than the miracle that it was touted to be. As early as May 2020, I already had convincing proof of its origin in a Wuhan, China laboratory. I had turned up scientific proof of Covid’s the lack of danger for kids (May 2021), the superiority of natural immunity, and the advisability of Sweden’s approach, which resisted lockdowns (June 2020 and follow-up in September 2020). I supplied scientific papers even from the CDC itself, and six of my videos got censored and taken down, including promising vitamin therapy for the treatment of Covid. On Substack, that has yet to happen, and I can put up videos. I may do so more often in the future.
A great danger of this asymmetry of access to data and privacy is the control of public channels of information to manipulate people’s perceptions of reality and attempts to change behavior through social rewards and punishments, not unlike China’s attempts to develop a social credit score based on obedience to their official propaganda. Again, if more us refuse to keep our heads down, and stand up and speak out against this wave of official censorship the SAFER we all will be. Our transparency and our activism becomes our VACCINE against an overreaching government. Conviction, armed by real science (vs. fake commercialized ScienceTM) replaces shame and doubt with conviction, resistance, and organization.
Oswald Chambers— Truth in action: The actual vs the real
The things of honesty make a (person’s) character sublime… Anything that awakens the sense of the sublime is an honourable thing. In the natural realm a sunset, a sunrise, mountain scenery, music, or poetry will awaken a sense of the sublime. In the moral, truthfulness in action will awaken it. Truthfulness in action is different from truthfulness in speech. Truth-speaking people are an annoyance, they spank children for having imagination; they are sticklers for exact accuracy of speech and would have everyone say the same thing…; they drag down the meaning of truth out of its sphere. — Oswald Chambers, The Complete Works, p. 719
This is absolutely critical: Virtue has been watered down to thinking, saying, and writing good INTENTIONS. Real virtue depends upon acting courageously and effectively upon utter CONVICTIONS that turn up results. Being a moral person isn’t about simply dreaming about justice; it’s about acting from internal justice for external justice.
Justice is not simply a representation or a theater production. It is either a reality or not a reality. We are indoctrinated by worldly powers to idealize a perfect world in our minds and allow an abusive world in practice. That’s the deal we have unwittingly struck: “You little people get your private dreams and movies about a perfect, just world that ends happily ever after, and we war-mongering a-holes get to rule the public, to extort, exploit, and abuse the people and the planet for our own power and profit.” According to Oswald Chambers this power and justice asymmetry is “actual” or “factual” but the our capacity and necessity to correct this morally is “real”.
Getting “real” starts by refusing the temptation to shack up in an idealized, private world of childlike dreams while we allow the power-mad jerks of the world to consolidate control over our freedoms, our property, our data, and our rights. If we don’t arise and organize peacefully, then the asymmetries of power and enforcement of law may result in violence as they did with the recent shooting of United Health CEO Brian Johnson, whose insurance company not only used AI to deny valid medical insurance claims, but who was himself being investigated for fraud and insider trading to the tune of 15 million dollars.
While no one I know is excusing or advocating for vigilantism, precious few are expressing sympathy for the system or this individual allegedly killed as a self-professed act of public self-defense by Luigi Mangione. Here is an excerpt from Mangione’s manifesto on explaining his reasoning:
Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has all(o)wed them to get away with it…. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.
Conclusion: We have a choice to make
We have a choice to make: Remain weak and secret, cowering behind our castle walls in vanity and insecurity while attempting to broadcast from our radio towers a positive, confident public REPUTATION, or emerge public and strong demonstrating our interior CHARACTER in a consistent record of courageous, truthful, loving, beautiful, free, good public expression and action. We can unmask ourselves voluntarily and refuse avatars, not unlike the super models who take pictures of themselves without makeup.
Ten years ago I was invited by a colleague Vidar Brekke to participate in the development of an internet app called Meddle, which attempted to develop a credibility score among professionals by tying together there internet comments, analyses, essays, projects, etc. I thought it was a great idea but it floundered simply because it was too far ahead of its time.
I think the time is now for something like this, something tracking REAL character, intelligence, and personality over PRESENTED idealized imagery and simulation. This means making ourselves vulnerable and authentic publicly, but having the conviction and courage to do so and to “own it.”
Life is simply too short for “fake it until you make it.” You won’t make it. You will be building a house of cards based in overly rosy representation that doesn’t meet reality. Once you give yourself to this illusion-driven avatar, it owns you rather than you owning it. And THEN companies grab on to that image and massage it and sell to it. Fake meeting fake. Lie meeting lie. Exploitation meeting exploitation. It is all some kind of superficial minstrel show, which wastes the precious life given us.
Our inheritance by our very spirit is Love, Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Freedom, Eternity, Presence. Let us live into those with our actions and choices. The world would try to make us instruments of its designs. Let us instead become INTRINSIC in our authenticity. Let’s radiate realness back to the maw of vanity so circulated by materialistic market culture. Let us be spiritually confident, and step into our potential to “create in love as we were created in love.” Let us develop our true inheritance as sublime essence and stout character versus pretension, appearance, momentary career success, and false reputation.
Look to the eternal things. Our solution is not to squire our secrets or build up the house of cards called reputation, for we shall lose all this anyway as we die. Let your goodness be experienced and known IN ITS OWN RIGHT, not for some reward or image.
Admit your fallibility! For when the world knows all your flaws, what secret vulnerability can be used against you? When you have pre-surrendered your own entitlement and image, what hidden desire of yours can be leveraged to get you to buy something or enslave yourself to another person, institution, or formula? Being transparently “weak” puts you ironically in a very powerful position. It also advantages you in the learning sphere and the ability to cultivate life power and spiritual power. Knowing what you don’t know and sharing your shortcomings, clears the ground to develop REAL ability and faith.
I made the choice to make my private world public a long ago. With a strange and powerful name like Zeus Yiamouyiannis, I never had the luxury of believing I could hide. Growing up in a big talkative family, I never believed that anything I thought or did could remain private. So I decided early on to act in life as if everything I thought, said, or did would end up on the front page of the New York Times.
This means treating the customer service agent of a crappy corporation like gold, even if I don’t like the corporation. This has meant being directly and consistently honest in all situations I choose to engage. This strategy has gotten me fired or “non-renewed” from jobs. It has gotten me censored on YouTube. It has ended marriages. But this commitment has integrity, and I believe that I, and the world, are ultimately truer and better for it. I am hoping it also contributes to a culture that increasingly welcomes and supports honest, open expression and action.
Let’s join in this movement to the true. Let’s come out from behind our castle walls.
Share how you might do this in the comments!
Blessings, Zeus