[ydsylhez] Secret societies and democracy

Modern democracy was born in secret societies, according to Shachtman's Wired article about a deciphered Oculist manuscript .  Therefore, to safeguard democracy, we need either of two things:

More secret societies, with social and legal safeguards to allow and promote their existence. (Possibly these conditions already exist.)

Or, sufficient freedom such that the activities formerly performed only in secret societies can be performed openly, for example, freedom of speech without the threat of social retribution against politically incorrect speech.

Cryptography can help somewhat with the former, for example, something like Google Hangout but free from eavesdropping and attack by subpoena.

However, the problem of selecting who gets permitted in a secret society still remains a social problem.  Maybe technology can help: use machine-learning to discover who is beneficial or not to a society.

Interestingly, laws forbidding hazing must therefore strike a balance, on one hand attempting to decrease the harm caused by out-of-control hazing, and on the other hand attempting to decrease the harm caused by democratically beneficial societies being less able to properly select trustable members.  Hazing was reportedly rampant in those secret societies where democracy was born.