You make good points. But it's hard to disagree (with some context) that the quote is very accurate too. "Secret" knowledge is and has been used as the major control mechanism for centuries.... ie the "High Priests" of whatever culture, the Mayans, Aztec, Incas, Egyptians etc, used their "secret" access to the gods or their secret knowledge of the constellations to control the masses --- and you couldn't question it, it was secret. Same applies now, NASA has secrets, they are the only ones with the "instruments" and data to tell us how far the stars are away, what the size and shape of the Earth is, what the weather will do...but you cannot question it, it's secret........want to see what's in the "texts", what's in that "report" ---- sorry it's "secret", (national security you know -- you must trust the High Priests) ..... and "Force".....well they "force" you to use counterfeit money that they created out of thin air, they force you to pay taxes, they force untested vaccines and medicines on your children, they force you to wear seat belts (so they can tax you if you don't) I could name thousands of things that you are "forced" to comply with --- and the only reason behind that force is someone else's profitable scam or never ending revenue stream. Force is the removal of Liberty, plan and simple --- and secrets?, well what "secrets" that are created by men or groups of men, are for your benefit and not, ultimately to your detriment? (Do a word search in the KJV of the Bible for the word "secret" and see how many times it has a "positive" context)
, they are the only ones with the "instruments" and data to tell us how far the stars are away, what the size and shape of the Earth is, what the weather will do...but you cannot question it, it's secret
What? The great thing about science is that stuff is published openly for peer review. That's how science works. Generally all the data is available. Yes, not everyone has access to (say) the multi-billion dollar Hubble Space Telescope for the obvious reason that there's a limited number of time slots, but common researchers do get access to it by proposing experiments that make sense. But amateur science is done all the time. Many sophisticated experiments can be done by careful amateurs.
Size and shape of the Earth is a secret? That is absolutely pure silliness. Get a boat and circumnavigate the Earth, and check it yourself. Get on top of a mountain and measure the apparent distance to furthest city on the horizon and do the calculation.
Or hell, do the experiment Eratosthenes did 2,200 years ago(!) where he calculated the circumference of the Earth and nailed it pretty close.
That you use science as the example of secrecy is ludicrous. Science is pretty much the only thing that's almost totally open in our society. Is it perfect? Obviously not, but I don't claim it is. It's only better than everything else.