Watching Enigma last night, one fact leaped out: the Brits withheld honor from their intelligence people and codebreakers. They also withheld honor from their heavy bombers. So they followed a pattern we also see elsewhere: some people get the light and others, who may be causally very important to the success of the lit-up folks, remain in the shadows. One way of thinking about it: authorities honor those whose actions they think people can safely imitate: the lonely Spitfire pilot, going up against the Nazi hordes, the dogface toughing it out in the trenches. But some people's efforts are taken to be only occasionally useful: seeing what people try hardest to keep secret, ruthlessly applying overwhelming force to the innocent in pursuit of an all important goal -- and these get forgotten very quickly. Enigma is nice because it shows someone crossing the line, applying codebreaking skills to the "code" of his own country's policies.
I recommend Enigma, perhaps in a triple feature with Turing and A Beautiful Mind. It's not great stuff, but it starts some trains of thought running, about the way intelligence is understood in our public culture.
Posted by shea0017 at October 19, 2004 10:38 AM