Tyrell: people are especially confused about epistemology. They think that it is inherently unethical to acknowledge one's ignorance. I don't think that any beliefs about how government should be structured are common among ordinary people other than an affirmation of however they are told that things *are* structured. In practice, it is an old observation that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. As an elected leader it is even easier to get the people to accept secrecy without ever challenging it than to ask forgiveness. Of course, the people want to elect the available leader who seems most like one of them whenever they can get away with it, and such leaders are, as the last 7 years show, utterly disastrous.