Ever been in a situation where one person stood in your way? It could be at work where a fellow employee is trying to sabotage you. It could be at a university where one professor doesn’t want you to complete your degree. These people, if they have enough time on the job or enough tenure, can sabotage your life plans.

We’ve all been there and it is easy to see where this goes. You can try talking to the boss or the department head, but you’ll get little sympathy. The person you are dealing with is deemed valuable to them, and you haven’t been around long enough.

It only takes one FBI agent in a middle supervisory position to tell field agents not to worry about Muslims studying at flight school to enable them to finish their course. The problem is it can be blamed on the entire government. That deflects blame from the real perpetrators. Those perpetrators may be hoping people will turn against their government and will be waiting to take advantage of the situation.

What is the “government” anyway? I often hear people blame it for their problems. It is is a collection of people. Most are employees, citizens serving their country. Some are elected officials. It is not a homogeneous group. They have different political and religious affiliations. The group does not move as one and that’s a good thing. Change takes time and hopefully prevents the country being used at the whim of those with the mindset of dictators.

The problem is, with foresight, someone could get their guys into positions of influence in the government. The most useful positions would be one’s that are long term appointments. Positions like generals, or in the FBI, CIA or NSA. Even a position as a field agent opens up opportunity to further an agenda.