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TimS comments on Open Thread, June 2-15, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion
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In practice, desire to implement reform-from-within is a strong negative to promotion to positions that could implement the change. If the organization thought your issue was a problem, they probably would address it without your intervention. Since they don't, that means they don't agree that your issue is a problem.
One could adopt a false persona for years to get the promotions to powerful positions. But you still might not get the promotion. And do you want to be a faithful cog in implementing bad policy in the meantime?
And even if you did, you still might not be in position to make the change you want. With the benefit of hindsight, we know Gorbachev could and did make major reforms. But could he have predicted that at the beginning of his career, even if he wanted to?
Also, if you adopt a false persona over a sufficiently long time, there's a risk of that becoming your real persona.
Spies do it all the time, right? Maybe this should be called the "infiltration strategy" or something. Sounds sexier.
Although spies do have handlers whose entire career consists of guiding them in their missions, and being a spy is what they are getting paid to do. That seems like a decent amount of social pressure not to defect. I wonder what defection rates for spies are like? What ways are spies selected for low defection probability aside from being citizens of their home country? I've heard that the NSA doesn't like to hire people who have smoked marijuana.