Some other models for admission to an inner circle have been used.
In the old days, the way you got to be a spy for Her Majesty’s Government was to be the “right sort”, sound opinions, lively mind, and you might one day receive the metaphorical tap on the shoulder, and someone would suggest to you that a sound chap like yourself might be interested in an opportunity to serve your country in certain ways. This was not something you could explicitly put yourself forwards for, but if you cultivated the right connections, and the right attitudes, and impressed your tutors at Oxford or Cambridge, then you might find yourself invited into the agency that was never officially acknowledged to exist.
The entrance test for certain esoteric schools (it is said) was to discover their existence and to find your way to them on your own initiative.
Some other models for admission to an inner circle have been used.
In the old days, the way you got to be a spy for Her Majesty’s Government was to be the “right sort”, sound opinions, lively mind, and you might one day receive the metaphorical tap on the shoulder, and someone would suggest to you that a sound chap like yourself might be interested in an opportunity to serve your country in certain ways. This was not something you could explicitly put yourself forwards for, but if you cultivated the right connections, and the right attitudes, and impressed your tutors at Oxford or Cambridge, then you might find yourself invited into the agency that was never officially acknowledged to exist.
The entrance test for certain esoteric schools (it is said) was to discover their existence and to find your way to them on your own initiative.
The freemasons and other semi-occult organisations also recruit that way.