Could You Go Undercover For A Year?

In My Humble Opinion
1

You see movies and hear stories of people going undercover for long periods of time.

Assuming the FBI or CIA or some government agency needed you, and you were assigned to go undercover for a year in some (mafia/drug dealer/terrorist) group. You get a new name, fake identity (new personal “history” about yourself), and basically live a lie about your real life to blend in with the bad guys. Could you pull that off for a year?

  1. Think you could do it and not once screw up and drop your real name or something real about you or your real family?
  2. Would you feel guilty building personal, close relationships with the bad guys to get information, living and working with them, knowing they were going to be busted at some point?
  3. For the greater good, could you completely cut off all ties with your real friends and family during this year?
2
  1. Yes I think I could not screw that up if I put a band on something like my toothbrush I used every morning and on seeing it repeated who I was supposed to be playing etc.
    2: Well if they were bad guys then not at all. Or I don’t think so anyway. I have cut off close people to me before for bad deeds, and I don’t have regrets about it. If it was like infiltrating something I personally didn’t agree with but was legal and the agency wanted to find something to nail them on, then I probably wouldn’t be involved in the first place.
    3: Nope couldn’t do it, so I would be a failure as a secret agent :frowning:
3

No, no and no.

I’d make a lousy mole.

4

Sure. Why not? I’ve been undercover my whole life.

5
  1. I would become delusional and start believing that the fake identity was my real identity, which might cause some problems.
  2. Torn apart by inner conflict, I’d ditch my old loyalties and embrace a life of crime.
  3. This is the only part I can do. That pretty much sounds like my life for the past year anyway (apart from the “greater good” part).
6

Sounds too dangerous for me. I think the high stakes would make it harder to maintain the facade.

7

Yes.
No.
I’ve cut various ties for ridiculous reasons, so doing it for a legitimate one would require less explanation and a better pay-off. Literally!

8

I suspect that you’d have to beware of a version of the Stockholm Syndrome.

9

No, I watch movies and TV shows about people working undercover and I always think “I could never do that.” I can barely keep my real life straight without screwing it up.

10

I could do it. Rather, I could have done it; now that I am married, it wouldn’t fly with the hubbie for ANY reason.

But otherwise, yes.
Perhaps it’s coincidental that, when I was in high school, being an undercover cop was my only career goal? :stuck_out_tongue: But the decades since haven’t shown me any reason I wouldn’t be good at it.

  1. I enter new situations easily
  2. I don’t make friends easily at ALL, yet get along with just about everyone. I just don’t get that close.
  3. I’ve had a relatively varied life, and known a fair number of interesting people who’ve had their own interesting lives. I can ad-lib at the drop of the hat, using someone else’s experiences, if not my own.
11

When do I start?

12

I believe I could pass all of the OP’s guidelines. What I would have trouble with would be the illegalities involved with the new group I would be in. I doubt that I could kill, deal drugs, or do terroristic stuff well. I am not a moralistic man, but those things may be over the line.

13

  1. Maybe. My impression is that they try to give real-life undercover agents a story that is as close to the truth as possible to minimize this. You don’t need to lie about where you grew up, just about your experience in the criminal underworld. I’d have a very tough time remembering a false name, though. My Mom still sometimes writes her maiden name without thinking about it, even after thirty years of marriage - I imagine that I’d have the same problem but much worse.

  2. Yeah, I could probably do that. I might feel bad when the trial rolled around, but during the undercover part of the operation feeling some sort of friendship would make fitting in with the group easier. The hardest part would be acting like I’m not morally repulsed by what they/we are doing.

  3. As with question #1, my (admittedly limited) understanding is that undercover agents usually don’t have to leave their families, they just keep family REALLY separate from work. I could leave everyone except my spouse, that would be a no-go.

I grew up in a pretty conservative Christian environment (possibly fundie, depending on your definition of fundie, but it wasn’t abusive or anything particularly horrifying) and I’ve often thought that I could do well going undercover with a Christianity-based cult. I speak can the right language and play the harmless, docile female role well. I also hate their guts.

15

Undercover where? With the Taliban in some Afghan desert craphole or James Bond style traveling to exotic locations all over the world? Miami Vice style where me and my hip partner are given a Ferarri and an expense account and given free reign to do whatever I want?
I suspect I would be very Archer-ish. Basically using my undercover status for my own personal interests, eventually pissing both sides off.