Tyler Cowen: belief

Transcript context

…Wow. That’s a good question. As you know, from all of my books, I report on the Pentagon, the military, and the intelligence community. Many people do not realize that there are 17 or 18 intelligence agencies in the United States of America. The CIA is just one of them. I’ve written about a number of them. Some of them, like NRO, for example, are extraordinarily classified. What’s the best run? They’re run differently. The mindset of the Pentagon is fascinating to me in terms of order and systematic control. The mindset of the Central Intelligence Agency is fascinating to me in terms of what I perceive to be individual action. They almost are diametrically posed in that regard that when you’re at the Pentagon, you are following the system. Often, not always, but often — I’ve interviewed many more CIA operators than analysts, people who are out there on the ground — it seems to be about individual course of action. Which is better? I think you need both. Certainly, in our own human lives, I want to have order and discipline and work from a system, whether it’s in my professional life or my family life, my community. But I also want to have individuality and make decisions. In a strange way, I think that the intelligence community and the military community work hand and glove. Are they perfect? Of course not. Am I perfect? Of course not. I think of the Pentagon as being one of the worst run and parts of the deep state as being relatively well run. That’s my personal impression. You differ from that? Interesting. When you say deep state, you mean the intelligence community?…

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