Sworn to Secrecy – Mosse Lectures

In modernity, “open” and democratic societies guarantee public participation, information and transparency, contrary to traditional societies, where secrecy served to constitute political sovereignty and religious authority. Georg Simmel, however, has argued that to “maintain secrecy is one of the greatest achievements of mankind”, considering that a society without secrets, normally associated with guilt and shame, distance and distinction, would not be worth living in. Any discourse of enlightenment has to take into account this peculiar kind of knowledge which emerges from the interaction of secrecy and revelation, of concealing and unveiling. It is not the secret as such, but the process of keeping something secret or binding somebody in secrecy that creates this dubious reality, frequently resulting in an act of betrayal or conspiracy. Historically we can speak of an “economy of secrecy” when symbolic actions, social structures and corporate relationships are affected by this precarious knowledge, as for instance in the Early Modern Age in the social relationship between Christians and Jews. In literature, gothic novels as well as detective stories are inspired by such hidden knowledge and deliberately obscured meaning. The Mosse-Lectures will deal with multiple forms of the secretum, the making of secretive knowledge, from the mysteries of Judaism to the practices of the political Arcanum; issues of intimacy as well as political power plays of secrecy will be discussed, not to forget modes of coding, reaching from ancient cryptography to electronic encryption. Methods and practices of granting and refusing access will be observed, giving evidence of the cultural logic and effects of secret events, their staging and the eruptions of scandal. The lectures will focus on the mechanisms of the institutions of secrecy, from Freemasonry to the secret services and intelligence apparatuses of our days which specialize in the management of secrecy.