Two Cons and the Emperor's new clothes

The Security con and most securities cons have one important thing in common. They are both variations of the "emperor's new clothes" con. Both rely on often faulty intelligence and analysis Sometimes folks really know what they are doing, but it is easier to play the con, and cheaper. In real life the more data one has the more muddy the picture of what is going on usually is. To get information out of that data one must analyze it, and that introduces personal biases, group biases, cultural, and emotional biases. For that reason it is easier to simply apply those biases and pretend one's data is better quality than it is in fact. Both the security game and the financial game rely on secrecy to make that so much easier.

You remember the story:

A group of salesmen come to the Kings court and tell the king they are weavers of the most wonderful clothing. They arrange an audience with the king in which they pay people to help them convince the king they are selling such clothing. They show him bolts of cloth so magical that only a fool can't see it's wondrous qualities, and all the people in the room nod and pretend that they are looking at real cloth while there actually is nothing there. They then take money from him and begin pretending to weave, and next thing you know he's parading down the street stark naked. All are convinced "that only a fool can't see this cloth" and so everyone watches in awe, pretending that the clothes are magnificent. Meanwhile the grifters abscond with their takings and head for the hills. In the story sometimes a little boy notices the nakedness and points it out and that is how the con is revealed. In some versions they stone the little boy and don't realize the con until they see the grifters have robbed the pallace during the parade.

Our Financial and Security industries have been running such cons.

There are legitimate reasons to keep both economic information and military-industrial-police-security information secret and private. Ironically the main reason is to protect that information from falling into the wrong hands. However, while the "wrong hands" are usually sold to people as outside enemies. The most likely enemy to individual security, safety, privacy and wealth, is usually found in the trustees of that information. Thus we are in most danger for our personal wealth from our security personnel and from those we've trusted to invest our money. Our republic is in danger, not from outside enemies (they are a danger more to their own communities than ours), but from these grifters who are using our injust laws and spy state to steal from us and empoverish us. In the name of "security, jobs, and prosperity." We once had nice clothes, now all of us are naked because of the cons.