1. There are things which I write which are private, but if they were forcibly revealed then I would stand by my truth, including mistakes and things I'm ashamed of.
2. It's better to act as though you are in a free and decent society than to become your own policeman!
What really bothers me about society in the context of personal notes being made public is that I feel like we don't recognize that people can change their opinions on things. Writing can be a way of thinking through and playing with ideas and beliefs that one doesn't end up holding long term. But people are routinely judged harshly for things they wrote/said/tweeted years ago even if they no longer feel the same way. Or at least that's my cynical view.
Maybe a more optimistic look is that if more people were that open publicly, then maybe we would judge less, recognize the uncertainty and ebb and flow of thoughts and feelings, and see ourselves and each other more humanely.
1. What about when these things revealed may show that you broke the law, intentionally or even accidentally?
2. Amen. I've been reading more papers lately about the emotional burden of keeping secrets and not expressing ourselves and have been personally dancing with it for years. Thank you for saying this.
I wonder if my worry is not so much if people were to gain access to what I wrote in the journal, but by being the creator of the journal, someone gaining access to what someone else wrote and either the legal repercussions of that, or more likely, the physical and emotional ramifications of such.