ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the puzzles related to secrets. However, it will not deal with secrecy as a marketing strategy. It deals with people who unraveled secrets or have the power to do so. Some people create secrets; others decipher secrets; others have a pile of secrets in their cupboard. The chapter explores Tuchman's book with a focus on the working of secrets, secret messages, and their decoding. Public secrets are defined as secrets that everybody knows – and everybody knows that everybody knows – but nobody admits this knowledge in public. The revelation rule made the secret a private one to each individual that believed in it and accepted it, and was subject to it because he or she had an office or a reputation to lose. Artists have a long and intensive tradition of working with secrets and many artists have made a secret out of their art.
