In the beginning there was sex. Or to be more accurate, there was prostitution according to those who maintain that intelligence is 'the second oldest profession'. This is, of course, absolute nonsense.
The need to know is just as deeply embedded in our biological and social make-up as the need to reproduce. 'Real time information' on the world around us, whether we are in a cave or a spaceship, is as essential to our day-to-day survival as any other human function. indeed, our primary survival reflex actually depends on a keen awareness of the threats around us, as any sparrow hopping around looking for food in a cat-infested garden knows. Intelligence on the threat as the key to survival is, therefore the oldest profession and not the second - if profession it is. Intelligence is part of mankind's basic survival instinct and as old as humanity itself. Perhaps if Adam had had a little more intelligence about what Eve and the Serpent were up to, we may not be in quite the mess we are in today.
There are many different meanings of the word 'intelligence'; but we all admire it and we all recognize the real thing when we see it. Intelligence is good.
One of the best examples of intelligence in its many forms was demonstrated by the bored and hung-over members of a British Field Security Section in Germany on New Year's Day 1946. Faced with the prospect of handling the captured Berlin suburb of Magdeburg back to the Soviets, including full lists of all those Germans wanted for questioning as ex-Nazis, the members of Britain's Intelligence Corps lived up to their name. One of its members asked:
"Why are we wasting our time and effort chasing Germans around in the freezing cold trying to arrest them? The Germans are a disciplined people, used to obeying orders. Why don't we just put an official advertisement in the local papers ordering all ex-Nazis to report to the Security Officer?"
What seemed a good idea over the wine the night before was - rather unusually - carried through and the advertisements duly appeared. To the astonishment of the duty officer, at 0745 on the appointed day a long queue of Germans were found standing in the snow outside the Field Security Office at the town hall, stamping their feet and complaining of the cold. 'We have come to report, as ordered', their leader said to the startled NCO at the gate. 'Where do we have to register?' Thus truly was the lie given to the cheap old jibe, 'military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.' This was intelligence, in all its forms, of a very high order.
From the dawn of time, mankind has been snooping on its neighbors. This natural curiosity is not only a common and deeply inherited trait but has often been an evolutionary lifesaver. Even chimpanzees like to know what their neighbouring troop is up to. Most humans and their institutions have their own secrets, things that we do not wish our neighbors to know. Whether from fear, weakness, greed or shame we all have things we wish to conceal. The same is also true of humanity writ large: the nation state.
