Do not Work for the Department of Defense

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 and 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.

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 is 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.