“In America, “private” and “privacy” are good words. “Public,” by contrast, is somewhat suspect, suggestive as it does of faceless bureaucrats. In ancient Greece, it was quite the reverse. Recall that the word “idiot” is derived from the Greek word for “private.” To be a private person, living in the sheltered home, was to be an idiot. If one wished to be a fully developed human being, a citizen, one must be engaged with one’s equals in the city’s forum.” (http://www.yifutuan.org)
