Howard Hunt & Gnosticism

OF all the heresies that have plagued the great monotheistic religions, none has been more pernicious — or as seductive — as Gnosticism. The notion that there is a secret knowledge, a special wisdom accessible only to a purified elite seems to exert an irresistible pull on a certain kind of mind.In our own time, a secular variation of this old fallacy has arisen to justify the role of the intelligence agencies in the creation of what we now can recognize as the national security state. John le Carré captured the essence of this tendency in his great novel of the Cold War, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" when he has double agent Bill Haydon proclaim that "the secret services" are the essential expression of a nation's character.