Overview
If we can’t talk about it, we can’t change it.
People in power withold and misrepresent information as a form of control. It allows them to manipulate our collective perception of reality. That’s one of the reasons why a free press is so important to democracy. Good journalism makes the world more transparent and gives us the information we need to govern ourselves and hold others accountable.
We don’t need to depend on journalists alone. As we build this more beautiful world, we can take steps toward radical honesty in everything we do, including in our communities and workplaces. When a business openly shares its employees’ wages and benefits, the workers can use the information to organize against exploitation. When a community organization writes a report about a project that has failed, people can learn to avoid repeating past mistakes. When neighbors regularly communicate with each other in healthy ways, they are more likely to notice opportunities to improve their community with collective action.
Often, information is hidden because revealing the truth would require admitting imperfection or failure. It is true that transparency can create tensions. But as American abolitionist Frederick Douglass once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” We must overcome any aversions we hold toward tension and disagreement if we are to build an honest society. The ability to respectfully disagree with one another allows us to have critical conversations about strategy, ethics, and many other topics necessary for societal transformation.
Similarly, we must also overcome a culture of discarding people when they make mistakes. We need cultures of mutual respect and practices of transformative justice, where it is safe for people to be honest with each other. We must create environments where people know that, even when they mess up, it is possible to make amends and restore relationships.
Transparency requires us not only to be honest and share information with others, but also to be able to receive information from others. We must be able to listen and disagree while still holding one another’s inherent worthiness.