There are some who become spies for money, or out of vanity and megalomania, or out of ambition, or out of a desire for thrills. But the malady of our time is of those who become spies out of idealism.
Max Lerner
Spies for Money
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I think that depends on what one means by “malady of our times”…
If one is thinking “likely to remain undetected for the longest,” that might have been true before pervasive electronic communications — before “social media,” before even “e-mail.” The record of ideological predisposition is now just too there to remain hidden for more than a half-dozen years or so. The “unjustly (in their own minds) dismissed” are more likely to be a problem; just ask the CIA and FBI about that (specifically thinking of a certain CIA officer who was denied promotions he thought he deserved…).
If one is thinking “causes the most damage,” simple greed wins hands down every time. And not always the greed of the actual miscreants; the Snowden situation, for example, traces back to various types of greed in determining a “need” for contractors and refusal to supervise them… then there’s always the Walker Family.
If one is thinking “not preventable,” ideology is a distant third to greed and blackmail.
If one is thinking “makes a great premise for another unrealistic ‘espionage’ novel intended to advance the author’s own ideological agenda,” though, Lerner is exactly right!
I think Aldrich Ames made about $4 million, and Walker made about $1 million. Both of them left a lot of money on the table.
And the Rosenbergs?
By most accounts they were ideologues and did far more damage.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg
Sure. I’m always amazed at the value of the information vs the compensation to the spy. If I was an ideologue, I’d rather be a rich ideologue than a poor one.