The White Tower is opressive!

[Suttree]

There are two options here; If it isn't a secret , then the public already knows (because as you said, it would have been extremely difficult to keep quiet about, though not as much as you think it would), which is curious since no-one has shown such knowledge or negative outcry from it.

 

Keeping something quiet from Warders/Younglings and keeping something quiet from the general population are two vastly diff things as you know. With how little your average citizen knows about AS even in big cities, are you really putting forth it's curious that we haven't heard that the bond can compel from the general population?

 

Given how these things haven't happened , the other option is it being spread on a need to know basis.

 

Which would obviously include warders.

 

How ,in the nine hells , does an angry remark by someone who has been warder for years and doesn't appreciate that push in the least constitute as an indication of such knowledge being widespread in any way ? It doesn't , and neither does it give us an indication of WHEN or HOW he learned it.

 

Actually since one warder clearly knows and has for some time given he is sure she had "never once" used it, it could easily follow that other warders know as well. What it sure as in the nine hell definitively doesn't offer is proof for other warders not knowing, so why would you say?

 

The simplest explanation given these two is that they don't go around mentioning it (at least it's full...capabilities), something that would make sense given Lan's reaction,

 

Actually , I can.It shows how the whole bonding aspect is largely in the dark,unlike what you said, which also means that the compulsion effect is also in the dark.

 

Nope.Because said absence is actually part of my point.Shocking, no ?

Which is kinda funny; if it was ,as you said, known between the younglings where are all those references ? Could it be because they don't talk about bonding all that often ?

 

So your entire argument is based around the fact that there is no proof showing they keep it secret, which somehow supports your argument? How very convenient. Unfortunately that would fall under "Appeal to a Lack of Evidence" which is a logical fallacy.

 

The fact is RJ just didn't really touch on the subject within the framework of his story. The one time it is mentioned however the warder knows of it's existence. Far from fabricating some hidden meaning, creating implausible scenarios in which some warders do and other don't and thinking there is some grand conspiracy to keep it hidden, it is far simpler to imagine RJ just didn't consider it all that important and as such didn't write all that much about it.

[sleepinghour]

From Egwene's POV in ACoS:

 

At last the puzzle came clear for Egwene. She knew she should feel the same disgust as Siuan. Aes Sedai put bonding a man against his will on a level with rape. He had as much chance to resist as a farmgirl would if a man the size of Lan cornered her in a barn. If three men the size of Lan did. Sisters had not always been so particular though, a thousand years earlier, it would hardly have been remarked — and even today an argument could sometimes be made as to whether a man had actually known what he was agreeing to. Hypocrisy was a fine art among Aes Sedai sometimes, like scheming or keeping secrets.

[Suttree]

From Egwene's POV in ACoS:

 

At last the puzzle came clear for Egwene. She knew she should feel the same disgust as Siuan. Aes Sedai put bonding a man against his will on a level with rape. He had as much chance to resist as a farmgirl would if a man the size of Lan cornered her in a barn. If three men the size of Lan did. Sisters had not always been so particular though, a thousand years earlier, it would hardly have been remarked — and even today an argument could sometimes be made as to whether a man had actually known what he was agreeing to. Hypocrisy was a fine art among Aes Sedai sometimes, like scheming or keeping secrets.

 

Got to give it to you Sleeping, you pull some epic quotes! I am seriously impressed.

 

Yes I think the exception could be Warders that are found in the field and don't have much prior contact with others or the WT training grounds.