Open secret

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An open secret is a concept or idea in government and military circles that is officially restricted in knowledge, but is actually widely known.

Examples

• Area 51
• Nuclear weapons in Israel
• SOSUS
• Delta Force

The term open secret also refers to something which is widely known to be true, but which none of the people most intimately concerned is willing to categorically acknowledge in public.

For example, it may be widely known that an individual government minister holds a particular opinion, but is at present unable to express that opinion publicly because it is contrary to the formally expressed view of the government of which he or she is a member.

The term has also been applied to public knowledge of a person's sexuality. For example, the composer Benjamin Britten was a homosexual, but never identified himself as such. Nevertheless, it was widely known and was thus an open secret.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ Philip Brett, 'Musicality, Essentialism, and the Closet', Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology (London: Routledge, 1994), p18.