Secret or illegal operations make system boundaries function as trust boundaries.

Evidence

One finds system boundaries characterized as trust boundaries particularly in all social systems engaged in operations which are not supposed to be revealed to the outside or are even illegal and therefore have to be kept secret. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 315

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Darlington’s covert Nazi-appeasement diplomacy is precisely a secret operation whose boundary demands internal trust — Luhmann here predicts the very dynamic Stevens is caught in. Bolsters the reader’s claim of total ethical abdication.

Related

• System boundaries enable specifying where trust or distrust applies (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Trust rests on structural system guarantees that relieve individuals of risk assessment #expands (0.65) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 297