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Showing posts from June, 2008

Inner Reality and Outward Mask

In one of his letters to Indira Gandhi, Nehru distinguished between privacy and secrecy. The terms should not be confused. Much of privacy is regulated by cultural demarcations. Privacy relates to modesty and decency. Secrecy relates to discretion. Privacy is ruled by external culture, secrecy is governed by inner understanding. Shame is opposed to modesty and occurs when privacy is violated. Fear or anxiety often accompanies exposure of secrecy. There is a healthy aspect of both privacy and secrecy. Privacy of our dressing room and secrecy of military strategy, for instance. However, when secrecy tries to cover inner foulness by means of a false masquerade, then the secrecy and privacy are means that are abused. The affront of dignity that conceals inner immodesty is hypocrisy. When the internal fails to accord with the external, inner confusion, delusion, or overt rebellion is bound to occur. Fear conceals inner reality and brandishes a fake glowing face as long as social ties seem n