Do not Work for the Department of Defense
by
me | 02.16.2008
Working for the Department of Defense is a mistake you may not outlive.
You've been studying for years, working
on your technical, scientific or mathematical degree. The time of
studying is coming to an end and you realize that you must begin
seeking employment. A glance at the Help Wanted ads reveals an
assortment of opportunities. Many of the most interesting, it would
appear, include the requirement of "citizenship" or the
successful acquisition of a security clearance. You imagine yourself
as an intelligence agent. You imagine yourself as a software
engineer working on cutting edge research for a defense contractor.
Would it hurt to at least try? Perhaps you will get that security
clearance. These positions often pay well.
The truth is, working for the
Department of Defense or an intelligence agency could be the worst
mistake you will ever make. On a moral basis, there is no
wiggle-room. If you choose to work for the military or an
intelligence agency, you have made a mistake, for you have offered
yourself up to assist in murder in exchange for pay. There is no
lower calling for a human being. However, let us suppose that you
are not a moral person to begin with and this, at least at the
moment, does not matter to you. Does taking a job which requires a
security clearance have practical negative effects on your life that
will persist beyond your tenure with shady government agencies and
their corporate enablers?
Let's begin at the beginning. Suppose
you interview for a position requiring a security clearance. A quick
initial investigation based on the information you provide is made
and an offer is given to you. The offer is contingent upon the
government deciding to give you the security clearance. That process
can take anywhere from three months to a year. In the meanwhile, you
are given work and issued a provisional low level clearance. To
accept the job, you must turn down other offers and hope that you
will not be dismissed from your job when the investigation is
complete.
When you start your new job, you must
fill out a large set of forms with probing questions about your
personal beliefs, prior drug use, sexual history, and a long list of
prior associates, the names and addresses of neighbors, everyone you
ever worked with, and so on and so forth. You may need to take a
series of polygraph tests, drug tests, and so on as well. You will
be finger printed. Your finger prints will be submitted to the FBI
as well as the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and, in all
likelihood, other government agencies. The FBI and DIA (and perhaps
the CIA as well) will all open up files on you into which information
will be collected, on an ongoing basis, for the rest of your life.
You are now a person of interest.
Everyone you have listed on those forms will be contacted. They will be asked about your
sex life, your friends, your history with drugs, your political views, and anything and everything
else under the sun a creepy DIA agent can think of. Moreover, they will ask that person for a list
of other people who may have something to say about you. Each of the people referred by
each of your references will get similar visits. In time, those folders will be filled with all kinds
of things about you - some true and some untrue.
Upon receiving your clearance (and you
probably will receive it, after all, I received one), you will face
new restrictions. You will be required to report to a security
agency any prolonged, extended, or romantic encounters with foreign
nationals. You will need to obtain prior approval for foreign travel
(even after you leave the employment of the agency for some period of
years) and you must willingly agree not to travel if they determine
they do not want you to. Anything you publish while in their employ
and for several years (in some cases, 20 years) thereafter will need
to be approved by the agency.
Let us suppose that you take the job,
you like it, and you decide to make a career of it. In all
likelihood, this means that you are a shallow person willing to give
up your liberty in exchange for a salary slightly above what you
might receive otherwise. It also means that you are willing to
contribute to war and murder for pay. You will be surrounded, on a
daily basis, with like-minded sociopaths. These sociopaths will
become your social circle. You will all bey like sheep together and
nearly everyone you know will be willing to stab you in the back to
get ahead because, after all, like you, everyone you know is a
sociopath.
On the other hand, if you decide to
leave the employ of the evil beast and chalk your error up to
youthful indiscretion, the fact remains that you are now a person of
interest. The files about you will continue to grow. Your contacts
will continue to be scrutinized, and if you, by some miracle, come to
grow a conscience and take up social or political activism, you will
become a target.
"A target!" you exclaim.
What could I possibly have learned while working for that dark beast
that would me it worth their while to silence or discredit me? The
answer is, probably nothing at all. That's not the point. The point
is that they will do this because they can do this. The kind of
person that chooses to be an intelligence agent hates free thinkers.
More than anything, this kind of person hates anyone that would
question the Government. The Defense Intelligence Agency, for
example, stipulates that you may work in their employ if and only if
"he/she has unquestioned loyalty to the U.S." It's one
thing to reject the position of the U.S. Government, but it is
another thing entirely to have once been embraced by the spooks and
then to turn around, reject their evil realm, and work against them.
That makes you an enemy.
Now, you would think that after 20
years they would forget about you and just give up, but they won't.
It's forever.
Many people have worked for the DoD or
the DIA and quit without having a problem. It is not about the
quitting, it is about what you do after you quit. If you join a
revolutionary organization or actively work against the policies and
goals of the Department of Defense, they will interfere with your
life.
I propose that if you are an
intelligent, creative, or compassionate person; or if someday you
think you might be; working for the Department of Defense or an
intelligence agency is a mistake you will never outlive. Think not
once or twice before walking down that path, but think many times and
then make the choice not to walk down that path. There are many
productive, interesting, and cutting edge jobs out there that are not
associated with the Department of Defense, DIA, or CIA. Keep your
lifetime options open. Do not sell yourself short by selling your
freedom. You will learn nothing worth the sacrifice by working for
the darkness.
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Comments
You're paranoid.
Submitted by John (not verified) on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 5:20pmYou really are extremely paranoid. This is the most overly opinionated obnoxious thing I've read, possibly ever. Now It's good to not completely trust the government. It is this cynicism that protects Americans. However most people do not believe that the actions of the department of defense amount to murder. Security and background checks are to be expected and these measures are perfectly acceptable. You also have no idea what the definition of a sociopath is.
The DoD may do things that would disgust most people but this is in reality a necessary natural force in the universe. In fact humans are capable of doing terrible things when acting as a group or under the authority of others as exemplified in, for example, the Milgram Experiments and similar studies. The truth is that there is no room in this world for pacifists. The world never was a Utopia and it never will be. Take, for example, socialist ideals. People, on average, tend to benefit especially in the short run but the most successful socialist examples of the modern era have all immediately degraded into dictatorships. No matter what we do there will be an authority. There will be a master and it's sad to say but individualism as you would like to perceive it does not exist. Only the strong survive and it is only in accordance with that "dark" authority that an individual can truly thrive.
I know you like to think that you're different. You like to think that you have a say in the way that the world works. You think you can make a difference, but you're mostly powerless just like the rest of us. You need to sell your soul a little to get ahead. Also don't think for a second that "the man" couldn't, if properly motivated, eat you alive and defecate on your soul. Is all of this right? No it's not. Would the world be a better place if we really changed? Hell yes. Will it happen? No, evil is hard-wired into the human race, deal with it.
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