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-[[!meta title="The Sociology of Secrecy"]]
+[[!meta title="The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies"]]
+
+By Georg Simmel.
 
 ## Excerpts
 
@@ -32,7 +34,6 @@
     knowledge developing with reference to the other party. The
     investigation should finally proceed in the opposite direction;
 
-
     [...]
 
     given by the total relationship of the knower to the known.
@@ -478,7 +479,6 @@
     more decisive possibility of remaining secret.
     While secrecy, therefore, is a sociological ordination which
 
-
     [...]
 
     As a general proposition, the secret society
@@ -487,3 +487,278 @@
     the violent pressure of central powers. This is true, not alone in
     political relations, but in the same way within the church, the
     school, and the family.
+
+    [...]
+
+    Thus the secret society
+    cotinterbalances the separatistic factor which is peculiar to, every
+    secret by the very fact that it is society.
+
+    [...]
+
+    lating will; for growth from within, constructive purposefulness.
+    This rationalistic factor in their upbuilding cannot express itself
+    more distinctly than in their carefully considered and clear-cut
+    architecture. I cite as example the structure of the Czechic secret
+    order, Omlaidina, which was organized on the model of a group
+    of the Carbonari, and became known in consequence of a judicial
+    process in I893. The leaders of the Omladina are divided into
+    "thumbs" and "fingers." In secret session a "thumb" is chosen
+    by the members. He selects four "fingers." The latter then
+    choose another " thumb," and this second " thumb " presents himn-
+    self to the first "thumb." The second "thumb" proceeds to
+    choose four more "fingers"; these, another "thumb;" and so
+    the articulation continues. The first " thumb " knows all the
+    other " thumbs," but the remaining " thumbs " do not know each
+    other. Of the "fingers" only those four know each other who
+    are subordinate to one and the same "thumb." All transactions
+
+    [...]
+
+    of the Omladina are conducted by the first "thumb," the " dicta-
+    tor." He informs the other "thumbs" of all proposed under-
+    takings. The "thumbs" then issue orders to their respective
+    subordinates, the "fingers." The latter in turn instruct the mem-
+    bers of the Omnladina assigned to each. The circumstance that
+    the secret society must be built up, from its base by calculation and
+    conscious volition evidently affords free play for the peculiar
+    passion which is the natural accompaniment of such arbitrary
+    processes of construction, such foreordaining programs. All
+    schematology - of science, of conduct, of society - contains a
+    reserved power of compulsion. It subjects a material which is
+    outside of thought to a form which thought has cast. If this is
+    true of all attempts to organize groups according to a priori prin-
+    ciples, it is true in the highest degree of the secret society, which
+    does not grow, which is built by design, which has to reckon with
+    a smaller quantum of ready-made building material than any
+    despotic or socialistic scheme. Joined to the interest in making
+
+    [...]
+
+    The secret society must seek to create among the cate-
+    gories peculiar to itself, a species of life-totality. Around the
+    nucleus of purposes which the society strongly emphasizes, it
+    therefore builds a structure of formulas, like a body around a
+    soul, and places both alike under the protection of secrecy, because
+    only so can a harmonious whole come into, being, in which one
+    part supports the other. That in this scheme secrecy of the
+    external is strongly accentuated, is necessary, because secrecy is
+    not so much a matter of course with reference to these super-
+    ficialities, and not so directly demanded as in the case of the real
+    interests of the society. This is not greatly different from the
+    situation in military organizations and religious communities.
+    The reason why, in both, schematism, the body of forms, the fixa-
+    tion of behavior, occupies so large space, is that, 'as a general pro-
+    position, both the military and the religious career demand the
+    wvhole man; that is, each of them projects the whole life upon a
+    special plane; each composes a variety of energies and interests,
+    from a particular point of view, into a correlated unity. The
+    secret society usually tries to do the same.
+
+
+    [...]
+
+    The secret society must seek to create among the cate-
+    gories peculiar to itself, a species of life-totality. Around the
+    nucleus of purposes which the society strongly emphasizes, it
+    therefore builds a structure of formulas, like a body around a
+    soul, and places both alike under the protection of secrecy, because
+    only so can a harmonious whole come into, being, in which one
+    part supports the other. That in this scheme secrecy of the
+    external is strongly accentuated, is necessary, because secrecy is
+    not so much a matter of course with reference to these super-
+    ficialities, and not so directly demanded as in the case of the real
+    interests of the society. This is not greatly different from the
+    situation in military organizations and religious communities.
+    The reason why, in both, schematism, the body of forms, the fixa-
+    tion of behavior, occupies so large space, is that, 'as a general pro-
+    position, both the military and the religious career demand the
+    wvhole man; that is, each of them projects the whole life upon a
+    special plane; each composes a variety of energies and interests,
+    from a particular point of view, into a correlated unity. The
+    secret society usually tries to do the same. One of its essential
+    characteristics is that, even when it takes hold of individuals only
+
+    [...]
+
+Counterpart of the official world, detachment from larger structures in
+which it's contained (the next level of recursion):
+
+    Moreover, through such formalism,
+    just as through the hierarchical structure above discussed, the
+    secret society constitutes itself a sort of counterpart of the official
+    world with which it places itself in antithesis. Here we have a
+    case of the universally emerging sociological norm; viz., struc-
+    tures, which place themselves in opposition to and detachment
+    from larger structures in which they are actually contained,
+    nevertheless repeat in themselves the forms of the greater struc-
+    tures. Only a structure that in some way can count as a whole
+    is in a situation to hold its elements firmly together. It borrows
+    the sort of organic completeness, by virtue of which its members
+    are actually the channels of a unifying life-stream, from that
+    greater whole to which its individual members were already
+    adapted, and to which it can most easily offer a parallel by means
+    of this very imitation.
+
+    -- 482
+
+Freedom and law from the inside:
+
+    In exercise of this freedom a territory is occupied to which the norms of the
+    surrounding society do not apply. The nature of the secret
+    society as such is autonomy. It is, however, of a sort which
+    approaches anarchy. Withdrawal from the bonds of unity which
+    procure general coh,erence very easily has as consequences for the
+    secret society a condition of being without roots, an absence of
+    firm touch with life (Lebensgefiihl), and of restraining reserva-
+    tions. The fixedness and detail of the ritual serve in part to
+    counterbalance this deficit. Here also is manifest how much men
+    need a settled proportion between freedom and law; and, further-
+    more, in case the relative quantities of the two are not prescribed
+    for him from a single source, how he attempts to reinforce the
+    given quantum of the one by a quantum of the other derived from
+    any source whatsoever, until such settled proportion is reached.
+
+    -- 482
+
+Existem a partir de sociedes públicas e de forma exclusiva::
+
+    The secret society, on the other hand, is a secondary structure;
+    i. e., it arises always only within an already complete society.
+
+    [...]
+
+    That they can build them selves up with such characteristics is possible, however, only
+    under the presupposition of an already existing society. The
+    secret society sets itself as a special society in antithesis with the
+    wider association included within the greater society. This anti-
+    thesis, whatever its purpose, is at all events intended in the spirit
+    of exclusion. Even the secret society which proposes only to
+    render the whole community a definite service in a completely
+    unselfish spirit, and to dissolve itself after performing the service,
+    obviously regards its temporary detachment from that totality as
+    the unavoidable technique for its purpose. Accordingly, none of
+    the narrower groups which are circumscribed by larger groiups
+    are compelled by their sociological constellation to insist so
+    strongly as the secret society upon their formal self-sufficiency.
+    Their secret encircles them like a boundary, beyond which there is
+    nothing but the materially, o,r at least formally, antithetic, which
+    therefore shuts up the society within itself as a complete unity.
+    In the groupings of every other sort, the content of the group-
+
+Aristocracy:
+
+    This significance of secret associations, as intensification of
+    sociological exclusiveness in general, appears in a very striking
+    way in political aristocracies. Among the requisites of aristo-
+    cratic control secrecy has always had a place. It makes use of
+    the psychological fact that the unknown as such appears terrible,
+    powerful, and threatening. In the first place, it employs this fact
+    in seeking to conceal the numerical insignificance of the govern-
+    ing class. In Sparta the number of warriors was kept so, far as
+
+    [...]
+
+    On the other hand, the democratic principle is
+    bound up with the principle of publicity, and, to the same end, the
+    tendency toward general and fundamental laws. The latter relate
+    to an unlimited number of subjects, and are thus in their nature
+    public. Conversely, the employment of secrecy within the aristo-
+    cratic regime is only the extreme exaggeration of that social
+    exclusion and exemption for the sake of which aristocracies are
+    wont to oppose general, fundamentally sanctioned laws.
+    In case the notion of the aristocratic passes over from the
+
+Freedom, obedience and centralization:
+
+    To this result not merely the correlation of demand
+    from freedom and for union contributes, as we have observed it
+    in case of the severity of the ritual, and in the present instance it
+    binds together the extremes of the two tendencies. The excess of
+    freedom, which such societies possessed with reference to all
+    otherwise valid norms, had to be offset, for the sake of the
+    equilibrium of interests, by a similar excess olf submissiveness
+    and resigning of the individual will. More essential, however.
+    was probably the necessity of centralization, which is the con-
+    dition of existence for the secret society, and especially when,
+    like the criminal band, it lives off the surrounding society,
+    when it mingles with this society in many radiations and
+    actions, and when it is seriously threatened with treachery
+    and diversion of interests the moment the most invariable
+    attachment to one center ceases to prevail. It is conseqeuntly
+    typical that the secret society is exposed to peculiar dangers,
+    especially when, for any reasons whatever, it does not develop
+    a powerfully unifying authority. The Waldenses were in
+    nature not a secret society. They became a secret society in
+    the thirteenth century only, in consequence of the external pres-
+    sure, which made it necessary to keep themselves from view. It
+    became impossible, for that reason, to hold regular assemblages,
+    and this in turn caused loss of unity in doctrine. There arose a
+    number of branches, with isolated life and development, fre-
+    quently in a hostile attitude toward each other. They went into
+    decline because they lacked the necessary and reinforcing attri-
+    bute of the secret society, viz., constantly efficient centralization.
+
+Responsibility:
+
+    Nevertheless, responsibility
+    is quite as immediately joined with the ego - philosophically, too,
+    the whole responsibility problem is merely a detail of the problem
+    of the ego - in the fact that removing the marks of identity of
+    the person has, for the naive understanding in question, the effect
+    of abolishing responsibility. Political finesse makes no less use of
+    this correlation. In the American House of Representatives the
+    real conclusions are reached in the standing,committees, and they
+    are almost always ratified by the House. The transactions of
+    these committies, however, are secret, and the most important
+    portion of legislative activity is thus concealed from public view.
+    This being the case, the political responsibility of the repre-
+    sentatives seems to be largely wiped out, since no one can be
+    made responsible for proceedings that cannot be observed. Since
+    the shares of the individual persons in the transactions remain
+    hidden, the acts of committees and of the House seem to be those
+    of a super-individual authority. The irresponsibility is here also
+    the consequence or the symbol of the same intensified sociological
+    de-individualization which goes with the secrecy of group-action.
+    In all directorates, faculties, committees, boards of trustees, etc.,
+    whose transactions are secret, the same thing holds. The indi-
+    vidual disappears as a person in the anonymous member of the
+    ring, so to speak, and with him the responsibility, which has no
+    hold upon him. in his intangible special character.
+    Finally, this one-sided intensification of universal sociological
+
+    -- 496-497
+
+    [...]
+
+Danger for the rest of society and the existing oficial and central power:
+
+    Wherever there is an attempt to realize
+    strong centralization, especially of a political type, special organi-
+    zations of the elements are abhorred, purely as such, entirely apart
+    from their content and purposes. As mere unities, so to speak,
+    they engage in competition with the central principle.
+
+    [...]
+
+    Accordingly, the secret society seems to be dangerous simply
+    because it is secret. Since it cannot be surely known that any
+    special organization whatever may not some day turn its legally
+    accumulated powers to some undesired end, and since on that
+    account there is suspicion in principle on the part of central
+    powers toward organizations of subjects, it follows that, in the
+    case of organizations which are secret in principle, the suspicion
+    that their secrecy conceals dangers is all the more natural.
+
+    [...]
+
+    Thus the secret society, purely on the ground of its secrecy, appears
+    dangerously related to conspiracy against existing powers.
+
+    [...]
+
+    The secret association is in such bad repute as enemy of central powers that,
+    conversely, every politically disapproved association must be
+    accused of such hostility!
+
+    -- 497-498