Bureaucrats and secret agents form the twin figures of imperial aimless process.

Evidence

The two key figures in this system, whose very essence is aimless process, are the bureaucrat on one side and the secret agent on the other. Both types, as long as they served only British imperialism, never quite denied that they were descended from dragon-slayers and protectors of the weak and therefore never drove bureaucratic regimes to their inherent extremes. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 557

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the paired figures of bureaucrat and secret agent as the two key types of empire — vocabulary to carry forward.
• XREF: The ‘dragon-slayers and protectors of the weak’ foundation legend parallels Arendt’s later treatment of how totalitarianism strips moral cover entirely.