Moral Agents

In the wake of an article about spies in the Economist, the head of MI6 has felt obliged to point out to the readers of that august journal that fiction is not true. Other revelations are that professional snoopers are less likely to be gun-toting alcoholic sex addicts than coldly manipulative, emotionally stunted bureaucrats, and that the "quiet integrity" of the latter is prized much more highly than the "brash antics" of the latter. Equally surprising, no doubt, will be the assertion that national intelligence agencies reflect the values of the countries they serve; or in Oldspeak, the governments which pay them. The Stasi, who did their own torturing, demonstrated what East Germany was all about; British intelligence, who prefer to sit around watching while the CIA does the dirty work, shows a good deal about modern Britain, although the head of MI6 is justifiably indignant at the idea of a moral equivalence.