Somethings are Secret

What you are about to read is only known to a few people in the world. It may shock you, it is guaranteed to awe you. And with this knowledge you can gain anything you want.

Actually that's not true, I am only trying to make a point, but what did you feel when you read that? I have been considering the role of secrets in motivating peoples decisions. This was inspired again by Freakonomics. It has a chapter on information scarcity. In brief what it says is that the Klu Klux Klan was very successful (back in the 20s I think) because of how it portrayed itself as a secret organisation and once its secrets were published openly it lost most of its appeal and its member numbers fell drastically.

A lot of organisations seemed to be based on secrecy and mystery and these organisations are reasonably powerful. e.g: some organised religion, cults, military, companies etc.

Most of the time I don't think their secrets amount to much but it is the perception that people have about the power that these organisations hold that gives them more power ironically. The factors that make secrets powerful (will update if I think of more):

• Makes the holder of the secret feel special.
  
• People fear what they don't know. So those that hold "secrets" are feared and therefore respected. In this way I feel that the perceptions of secrets around a lot of things hold people back from achieving what they can. For example if you feel someone who has achieved a lot has done so only because of the secrets that he holds then it can lead to you feeling dis-empowered.
  

Here are some things that are required to have a good secret organisation:

• Clear mission statement and purpose
• Some heirachy of requirements to be entitled to secrets, with preferable many secrets ranging from the easy to the ultimate secret.
  
• Generally one leader who is some kind of role model
• Something that makes the members "special", whether its class, creed, skills etc.
• Some perceived or actual gains from being in the organisation.
• Other competitor organisations. This is not necessary but competitiveness goes a long way to polarise opinion.
  

I have been considering whether there is a startup idea based on a community around secrets. I actually think that would be fun, maybe other people have explored this area already, can anyone think of something? Or maybe they are so secret no one knows about them :-), I think if there was a truly successful one then everyone would know about it, perhaps to be truly successful in the sphere of secrecy you need to have a physical presence. Obviously some invitation only services exploit the power of exclusivity.

I am looking at this all light-heartedly. A lot of secret organisations have caused a lot of harm to their members and others and obviously that's not something I would aspire towards, but understanding them is important.