Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Sub rosa

 If you want to keep a secret, the best way is to not say anything. If anyone asks you about it, say you don't know. Otherwise...

Years ago I was acting (well, pretty much an extra) in a school play. One of the women in the cast dropped out. A guy who knew her said that she was going through a lot but that he couldn't talk about it. I recognized this as a deliberate invocation of what would later be called the Streisand effect. He was hoping someone would badger him until he "had to" spill the beans. That someone wasn't going to be me.

It helped that I was pretty much indifferent.

2 comments:

susan said...

I'd been under the impression someone had deliberately targeted Streisand's home and not that the image was part of a geological study of the coastline until I read your wikipedia link. It's pretty funny the picture had been accessed only a half dozen times (twice by her lawyers) until the lawsuit, after which it jumped to half a million views.

I know what you mean about some people needing little encouragement to gossip. It's one of those human frailties that's more common than the average person prefers to admit.

Good for you not falling for that trick.

Ben said...

I've seen the picture in question. It's not like there's a big sign you can see from the air reading "Babs" or "Sam You Made the Pants Too Long." If she'd stayed cool not only would fewer people have seen it but anyone seeing it would have had no reason to think about whose mansh it was.

I understand the instinct towards gossip. It usually turns out to be less satisfying than you expect, though.

You live and you learn. I'm sure some other experience led up to that.