Is there anything spies do that doesn't reduce to or is ultimately in service of blackmail of one kind or another? I'm negative on spy stories these days. From

Is there anything spies do that doesn't reduce to or is ultimately in service of blackmail of one kind or another? I'm negative on spy stories these days. From everything I've read it's just, "find adversary's source of power, co-opt or subvert it, run adversary as your own or neutralize them." Where "adversary" is basically, "everyone" these days. As though their job is to physically embody a foundational lie of state power, and be the provisional wing of bureaucracy. A kind of bizarro world anti-aristocracy that props up a kakistocracy. Spy fiction is full of self pitying people, and they aren't really admirable or role models, probably because they are created by writers, but it's a real theme. If you spend a great deal of time in bureaucracies and in security you encounter spooks from time to time, and the gross vibe they have is because they appear to operate on deception as a basic premise of all things, and I suspect some are just trained that deception itself is power. One of many tells is they often add a reflexive lie about something trivial so they have something to distance themselves from others with and manage, and as a honeypot for scrutiny. I'm unimpressed by stories about them now, as I've seen the results of tolerating them, and someone should balance the romanticisization of them by calling it what it is: propaganda.