What’s to be done?
The CIA is (openly) secretly training anthropologist spies.
I should have known about this long ago, but I only found out on Thursday, thanks to a posting at anthropologi.info.
Dustin Wax has done a good job at demonstrating the utter badness of the idea of anthropological military collaboration, but, for me, it comes down to three basic points:
- It is unethical for us to gain the trust of innocent people under false premises and then to use the information we gather for purposes of which these people would not approve.
- It can’t work for very long: As people lose faith in us, we’re going to lose access to information in every society that has an uneasy relationship with the US government: The entirety of the “developing” world, for example.
- Increased suspicion will endanger the lives of non-CIA anthropologists who are (quite reasonably) distrusted by local anti-American individuals and organisations.
My gut reaction was to punch the cake I was baking. I did not do this. I then dreamed up a self-defeating sarcastic blog entry suggesting insurgency training for anthropologists. I then imagined a despairing post entitled ‘Can Americans be Anthropologists?’ But I don’t want to keep complaining about this. I want to do something.
So, gentle reader, I’m asking you: What can we do? The point is not to undermine the CIA: Becoming Abu Musab az-Zarqawi’s cultural advisor is not the solution. (’Hey, you know what would really strike terror into the hearts of the Crusaders?’) Neither is the establishment of a Cultural Relativist Jihad. The point is to maintain American anthropology’s ability to remain a fair science which no one, anywhere, who is interested in truth and dialogue need fear. How can we dissuade people from entering this program?
The AAA, unfortunately (?), doesn’t disbar members. The Freedom of Information Act won’t ever release CIA agents’ names (though if anyone out there knows anyone at the White House…), so it won’t be possible for individual departments to refuse to hire former spies. What are other possible responses?