Roberts puts forward an interesting concept developed by another academic, Irving Janus, called “groupthink”. This is where you limit the access to information to a small group of people. That group becomes absorbed with the data and fails to consider alternatives.
The Iraq war came about based on a number of factors that were later found to be untrue. A prime example was the question of weapons of mass destruction. If a wider audience had access to the scientific and intelligence information, it is likely that this claim would have been found to be false before the war started. Even more disturbing was that the various organs of government were not even communicating with each other. This is a great example of where the principles of a FOIA philosophy could have changed a very serious situation.
Roberts writes from a very interesting position, the book is well-balanced, explaining both sides of the argument. This is most certainly a work from academia, and there always seems to be a barrier preventing this type of book from hitting the mainstream reader. But this is a book that deserves to cross that line.
If you are concerned about transparency in government, personal freedoms, and in many ways personal privacy, this is a book that you should put on your reading list. There is a lot of great quotable material in Blacked Out, but my absolute favorite is the ending. I think it sums up the entire issue.
“Do we have a right to information? Certainly. But we also have a responsibility to act on it.”
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