…an expectation to murder people that you’ve confirmed are not in fact a threat to anyone let alone a country, an expectation to topple democratic nations when your boss tells you to, a salary that doesn’t begin to cover the costs of mental health counseling that you’ll need daily, on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, coach class international travel, facial recognition getting you pulled aside 9/10 times that you try using a fake ID…
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There was one, but the OP mysteriously disappeared.
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Actually if you were a spy you’d have a cover job that is a legitimate job, such as work at the local US embassy of that country.
You may or may not have a cover job. Keep in mind, you often have to apply for said job; they don’t necessarily give it to you. It’s part of your job description to figure out how to live your double life. I do know people who no longer but formerly worked in military intelligence. The government literally owns you. You have no freedom. At all. In TW, pre Tsai, TW spies were sent to China to do their dirty work for them. This isn’t a secret. Everyone who’s worked in the TW military (so, every Taiwanese man that wasn’t being a baby as a tidaiyi) has been more than happy to share that info with me. Some top dog got caught doing something very, very illegal? Guess who’s responsible for planting evidence that “random person on the street” actually committed the crime? “Random person on the street” then goes to trial and probably prison for it? The “random person on the street”, you, the spy, unless you agree to do whatever the heck dangerous other shit the government tells you to do.
The only spy movie I’ve ever watched and thought “this is spot on” is “Anna”, and it flopped at the box office, perhaps because it doesn’t do much to romanticize the story? No one actually wants to be a spy. People become spies out of desperation or because their life is directly threatened.
Huh? Most spies aren’t spies, but assets.
I think if you are a top dog in the U.S. spy game, your fake i.d.s and passports are guaranteed to work no prob… you are government, so you are part of the system - even if at war internally with another agency along with the “enemy” overseas. I am not talking embassy operations, but agent level, internationally mobile dual-role model assets… they are highly paid… but so is anyone who works high up in government…
Weird to think… we have evolved so far and achieved such feats of science and technology, yet we still live in a world built from dog eat dog polarization… is this warfare and political grandstanding only a function of economics, or just a stubborn animal gene that prevents humanity from stepping up and forward, to live without fear?
I ask myself this question. I kinda thought since we basically declared ourselves to be animals, we are acting like them.
Do government agencies war with one another? How is this even possible? How can a house divided even stand? Maybe this is why so many countries prefer to be autocratic…
Curiously, I think you hit the nail on the head… with respect to animal behavior – you say we are “acting like them” …which to my mind suggests we are beings of mimicry and not absolute identity. The implication is that we must learn how to behave like humans. This requires a major rethink of behavior and reminding ourselves not to get angry or aggressive. If people could train themselves to forget their aggressiveness, we would no longer need the FBI or the CIA, a lot of people would be out of work, munitions makers, for example…
As to inter-agency warfare, it is nothing new, and harks back to Reagan’s war on drugs… Basically the DEA and FBI vs the CIA, and sometimes the DEA vs the FBI, etc… Nothing new… Just watch Narcos Mexico, lol… Good ol’ Ollie nOrth… paid to sell drugs by Ronnie et al… That might have involved military vs. DEA and FBI, too…
CIA involvement in Contra coke trafficking
I might add that things are likely much worse in states more totalitarian than the US, in which nobody trusts anyone, and each agency lives in a bubble of illusions and fear… It is a pity that Putin, for example, has his roots in the FSB, or whichever secret service it was… Had a normal, non-paranoid person risen to power, things would be very different now… I wonder what kind of gun was stuck into Yeltsin’s back, at the time…?
“On 31 December 1999, Yeltsin announced his resignation, with his chosen successor, then prime minister Vladimir Putin, succeeding him as acting president who then was elected to his first presidential term following an election held on 26 March 2000.”
(Wikipedia)
I know of ants and termites, chimpanzees and baboons- any other species that engage in war against their fellows? Predation doesn’t count.
But ever since Darwin, look what has happened. There weren’t any wars before that.
one of those things people called to. foil hat, meanwhile a decent number were warning us all not to do such dumb things. free wifi, plug ins, apps, or codes etc are all compromising your security. if facebook is that important to check right away, then folks should have a burner phone and keep their devices truly separate. I dont even login to the same emails with my important computer that I do with my phone.
I think people people are starting to listen to the “crazy” people once again and we are noticing our ignorance. hopefully.
I think the problem was we basically declared we weren’t animals. that led to high egos and retardation on every level. now we are simply (slowly!) undoing such stupid and arrogant notions and our understandings are moving forward at lightning speed. needed to get rid of these old religious styled hindrances and we could start accomplishing loads more.
Jack is fucked. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
No, I’ve heard a number of news reports mentioning that “it’s harder to be a spy these days” due to racial recognition. Not everyone is hacked into by the US gov
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It might work in the US itself but I doubt they can affect foreign countries…
One could ask how representative are these organs of state? Intelligence agencies are built upon secrecy, partly to keep enemies guessing, and partly (and importantly due to agency conflicts) to keep their own citizens in the dark. It is quite possible that a lot of issues classified as ‘state secrets’ are just a cover to protect corruption and malfeasance. Furthermore, the dominance of violence in politics (yes, the organisations are very political in formation, operation and impact) does not necessarily mean acceptance by majority; even if people know what shenanigans they get up to, individuals might (feel they do) not have the power to change things due to the very nature of power mechanisms at play. How does/can citizenry assert its will in a non-violent manner upon privileged organs of state violence?
In short, warfare and grandstanding are merely a reflection of dominant of those exercising power, rather than will of all the people.
I think it’s more than that. Probable more like it.
Outside conflict scenarios, the value of secrecy is debatable.
Sure, I agree. I don’t need to know that the Chinese nearly bombed India last week but didn’t, for example.
True, you do not need to, and there is no necessity to prohibit dissemination of such either.
Being free from prohibitions against accessing or disseminating information on how representatives choose across political, legal and military solutions is healthy for democracy.
For instance, many societies have codes against deployment of violence within the society, simply because usually there are other solutions besides violence e.g, mediation.