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I don’t think that enough press is given to how our connected society prevents the hiding of atrocities.

It’s easy to find fluff press about how all of our transactions and comings and goings are logged by systems, public and private, and to read about paranoia of government controlled biometric databases (which, given the track record of the government with data, I think is possibly warranted) but it’s interesting to consider that it’s pretty much impossible for a government to ‘get away with’ things any more.

I had this discussion over lunch today. Avi Halaby in Cryptonomicon has a personal interest in the free flow of information, outside of government control specifically, because he believes it will stop future holocausts.

The great thing is; that’s real, the Internet is so far beyond control (for better and worse) that Iranian theocrats can’t effectively stop the transmission of video and photos from Tehran during rioting. America couldn’t stop the dissemination of photos of caskets from inside cargo planes during the last decade’s wars, and nor could they hide what what happening in Guantanamo bay.

The proliferation of cameras, regular and cell-phone, and the ubiquity of Internet access, even in theatres of war mean that it only takes a single whistle-blower to make things public. Once information is out, it’s out.

Now, the traditional defences of down-playing and discrediting still apply, and there’s nothing to say that once the information is out that people will do anything constructive with it. I imagine there are still people angry about the response to Guantanamo, especially when it comes to higher ranks of government, and of course the footage of rioting on the streets in Tehran is yet to change the outcome of the election.

It’s that, by informing people, you allow democracy (where it really is practised) and even free market economics to work correctly - if the people in charge (government or private) don’t respond adequately to an embarrassing act that they’ve committed, it’s up to individuals to vote against them, or take their money and spend it with a competitor.

The real win of our free-market-based society is that everyone can be a stakeholder; if you have money, and people want you to spend it with them, then it becomes economically advantageous to “be good”. If the chances of “being bad” and getting away with it decrease, and the public perception is to spend your money ethically (where possible) then companies will have no choice.

Coca-Cola are currently looking to improve their ethical and renewable image. It’s not that the board had a sudden pang of guilt or concern for the environment, it’s a cynical - but beautiful - logical step. And when you’re big, and you make claims to how groovy you are, there’s definitely people waiting to point out, loudly, if you’re lying.