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Spies Vs. Cops
Had a really good conversation the other night with a friend on the subject of what the ultimate solution is. By that I mean, you can spend all your time trying to root out the original source of the problems in our world and society and in ourselves. But at the end of the day, what are you supposed to do with it? Some people seem to believe the solution is to totally strike out on your own and start over and say good riddance to culture and country and civilization itself. I for one don’t take that to be a viable solution. I don’t want to just give up, nor am I really convinced such a thing is really even possible.
So what is the solution? My friend suggested that it had something to do with spy movies, and offered the explanation that what spies do is they basically play the game, even though they know they game is rigged, and they are often involved in its rigging. But there’s some weird space of freedom and uncertainty in that - if you are helping to rig the game, then you can see that it doesn’t always work. That your plans don’t always go through, that missions fail. In other words, if someone has to rig the game in the first place, then that means that the game can’t actually be rigged after all. Because there is still that space of uncertainty. And within that space is also freedom, adventure, romance, danger, passion - in short, all the most thrilling parts of human life. (Our conversation didn’t go quite like that, but close enough) Put another way, when you go under cover, you pretend to accept how things are, but actively work to change them. Your motives, however, are your own. It may be that you believe in the cause, or simply that the thrill of adventure is too strong to resist.
On the other end of the spectrum, I think, is what the cop represents. While the spy represents putting on the masks of society and playing the part on the surface (while sneaking around and screwing with stuff below the surface), the cop represents forcing everyone to conform to society. They take the rules and make sure that everybody is following them. Unless you’re a cop, your only option then is to either obey the rules as given to you, or else to become a spy and only obey the rules on the surface. What is a criminal then in this scheme of classification of life according to movie stereotypes? Are they someone who doesn’t obey the rules at all, or who only seems to disobey the rules, while actually perpetuating the system on some level? Also, don’t the spies actually usually work for the cops on some level?
Sort of a nice set of metaphors to untangle, which is why I thought I’d bring it up here. Do you ever feel like you’re a spy? Who are you spying for? What are you spying on? What’s your mission. Do you believe in it and do you feel like it’s succeeding? I respect if you don’t want to blow your cover, of course!
(See also my Pop Culture Tarot card, the Triple Agent for more fun in this direction)
- Cops come and try to snatch my crops
- Virtual Terrorists
- Anarchy in the UK
- Fish fighter
- Undercover cops posing as protestors
- Prev: Growing Up
- Next: “The least relaxation of his vigilance”
September 19th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
Met a guy who does ’spook work’ as he called it and dated a girl years ago who was an undercover cop. Both were deeply disturbed by the challenge of pretending to be another person on a regular basis. Their souls were darkened by it.
September 19th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Are not ours as well? How often do any of us here have to hide our true interests and thoughts from those around us because of the trouble we know it would cause?
September 19th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Amen to that. I feel like this on a daily basis, and it certainly takes its toll. I feel as though this has to do with the lockdown on language that we see in our culture…so many taboo issues and ideas that are unwelcome. That’s why I think the “spy” metaphor here is a good one…it becomes necessary to don a “mask” of sorts, in order to function and fit in. Behind that mask, however, I often feel as though I’m taking bits and pieces from around me, trying to make sense of it within a larger context.
September 19th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Spies always end up broke and in the gutter. Just ask Patrick McGoohan. His prisoner series was the ultimate illustration .
September 19th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
seems like that would bear out for most of us as well!
September 19th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
broke and in the gutter? no………..you guys are choosing the wrong masks. accepting the wearing of masks is the first step to happiness. delight in the playing of a part in a play. do it to the best of your abilities. who knows, maybe you`ll win an oscar.
September 19th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
This is a very interesting angle. It’s like V for Vendetta meets Syriana.
September 19th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
The Spy role I think is very tempting, but I think what it signifies is absence of responsibility and accountability. When someone works outside of societies rules and conventions they are actually that, outside society, all the while enjoying and benefitting from societies contracts and norms. It would be great if someone did this for the greater good instead of a minorities interests, but even if they did, or tried, they are going around the democratic process, not even indulging the open society at all.
A more ideal society I think would be one where the members are more honest, accountable, responsible, open not less. A spy is really just a sanctioned crook, part of James Bond’s appeal is that he has a “Licensce to Kill” and goes outside the law to ultimately save the foundation of the law by taking on false roles. He’s not a citizen he’s something more, a hidden controller.
I’m just blathering but to sum up, I had a boss once who was very unreliable, dishonest, basicaly sneaky, we got stuck together in boston the week of 9/11 for a conference and probably due to the heightened circumstances he let his guard down and told me in a rare unguarded moment that his childhood dream was to be a spy. Suddenly it was clear, I think he wanted to be something that would sanction his anti-social tendencies that he barely could keep contained on a day to day basis.The spy is the ultimate anti-hero, by doing bad he is really doing good, or is he?
September 19th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
Spies are free thinkers who have broken free of social indoctrination against free thinking, and thus become creative people with clear consciences.
Cops are free thinkers who have not broken free of social indoctrination against free thinking, and thus become violent people with guilty consciences.
September 19th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
I would have to disagree about spies bieng free thinkers, immune to indoctrination, etc, Most spies are hired guns, working for the state, I imagine the majority of CIA operatives believe the party line or they wouldn’t put themselves in harms way. Inside spies, moles who give secrets to the enemy have just traded one social indoctrination for another.
September 19th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Holy shit, Brekin! You just rocked my world. Great comments, especially this:
That is precisely why its so tempting, the “license to kill” aspect you mentioned. Good stuff. I need to process this more
September 20th, 2006 at 7:35 am
I would propose that it is the spymasters who are in control of almost all levels of law enforcement, whether the cops know it or not.
September 20th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
Patrick McGoohan turned down the James Bond role after reading the script. He joked about it for years, and always considered it an asinine set of movies. He went on to make one of the perhaps greatest dramatic series that has ever been made, The Prisoner.
One of the main reasons that he turned down the James Bond role was that he thought the mindless violence in it over fake cultural value stuff was not intelligent.
His series holds up rather well for the most part today. The questions that he raises are fundamental questions of the role and meaning of the individual and society.
September 20th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Two good books that deal with “The Spy or Secret Agent of History” phenomenon in politics and culture are Garry Wills The Kennedy Imprisionment and Hobermans The Dream Life. The allure for intelligence agents and guerilla tactics it’s argued caused the Kennedy slide into The Bay of Pigs and then Vietnam. James Bond helped legitamize such “dirty tricks” to the public. Until the mood changed briefly with the end results and Nixon was cruxified for normal operating procedures by people who did similiar things everyday.
September 21st, 2006 at 12:31 pm
I would also disagree with the “spy as free thinker” theory. Cops and Spies are both concerned with maintaining the status quo– the only difference between the two is that cops are not allowed to break the rules, whereas spies operate on a system that assumes you have to bend and/or break the rules in order to keep the larger system of rules (society) in place. As soon as that spy becomes a ‘free thinker,’ that is working without regard to the ideology of the society that sanctioned him/her, the spy is no longer called a spy; the spy is a terrorist.