Scholars generally agree that all human societies were tribal at the early stages of their development. Some anthropologists describe them as head-hunters for their inclination to aggressiveness. They were aggressive mostly in self-defense.
But reality in our times is that the so-called head-hunters have become wealth-hunters all over the world. Prosperity is everyone’s desire. But exaggerations in generating wealth can have negative consequences. A sense of responsibility must be brought to every human endeavor.
Peter Frankopan describes how Europeans sailed East to Asia in search of spices and silk, went West to America hunting for gold and silver, pushed South to Africa looking for slaves to work in plantations and mines. Today, he says, the general rush is to the Middle East, from the East and the West, from the South and the North. The world has discovered that oil is money.
OIL IS POWER
But those who control affairs in the oil region think that oil is power. They feel that they can dictate to the world, that they hold the fates of the nations in their hands. They little realize that they are being used. For, money flows both ways. While oil is sold in a big way to the West, arms are sold in a bigger way to the Middle East. That explains how over 50% of the world sale of arms go to the Middle East (Frankopan, 447). Wealth thus returns to the West.
It is not frankly admitted that a great deal of big power diplomacy is about arms deal, of Trump as well as of Macron, of Putin as well as of Xi. Much acclaimed glamorous discussions are about surface-to-surface missiles, anti-tank devices, and fighter jets, tanks…not about international peace or cooperation for poverty removal. If oil is money, arms are both money and power. But masters of money and power can turn victims of their own creation.
We have moved into an age when computers make more and more financial decisions, they may dominate the markets, invent new financial tools. They can analyze, manipulate and generate languages, compose music, fashion designs, produce videos, says Noah Harari. Therefore, anyone who writes a computer code must take responsibility; he/she is redesigning politics, culture, and society.
Facebook, Amazon, Baidu, Alibaba lobby, influence the government, throttle regulations. Currencies, bonds, stocks have become digital entities. The general public understand less and less of such complicated matters. Tech giants should pay taxes to countries from which they extract data, Harari insists.
Everyone is worried about the elimination of privacy and spread of data colonialism from the data that companies are collecting from individual internet users. Knowing the likes and dislikes of people is wealth. There is indeed a dangerous information asymmetry. Big company bosses are better informed than legislators themselves. They can/do violate privacy. In 2023 a billion CCTV cameras were being used worldwide.
Take care! Computers can be racist, misogynist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, based on the data provided to them. Self-correcting mechanisms are required. Society must invest in truth. People have risked their lives in behalf of truth. Artificial Intelligence is expected to add $15.7 trillion to global economy, 70% to US and China.
CORRUPTION LEADS TO WEALTH
Of late, hidden forms corruption have moved into the highest places–governments, bureaucracies, legislatures, judiciary, law-enforcing machinery, pollution-controlling agencies, customs departments, tariff teams, immigration offices, official and open markets.
Fake goods of every kind are on sale; duplicate goods of every variety are available: books, DVDs, imitation machinery with substandard parts; adulterated medicines, spurious drugs; endangered species, human beings (women for sex, children for sweatshops), human corpses, live organs for transplant; even machine guns, and rocket launchers! There are pirated copies of classics, of bestsellers, popular music; whatever can be copied or imitated is available.
The globalized world provides the anonymity and distances that illegal traffickers need to keep their business invisible. The deregulation policy that most governments have adopted has weakened the law-enforcing machinery, and illicit traders keep hopping between jurisdictions.
International terrorism follows the track of international illicit trade, using the same techniques and facilities. Those who deal in illegal arms keep backing regular criminals, terrorists, urban rioters, political protesters, communal radicals, and secessionists.
Critics are inclined to point their finger at autocrats who go for such excesses. In a democracy, citizens are responsible… those who brought these rulers to power and remain unthinking followers.
Confucius taught that one should pursue justice, not profit. Likewise, Taoism teaches “Be honest like Heaven in conducting your affairs” (Taoism, Tract of the Quiet Way). “There is no misfortune greater than being covetous” (Tao Te Ching, 4).
Use honest scales, honest weights, and honest measures (Leviticus, 19:35-36). Be honest (Leviticus, 19:15), use honest scales (Leviticus, 19:36), serve with integrity (1 Kings, 8:3), do not accept bribes (Exodus, 23:8; Proverbs, 17: 8, 28:21); God does not tolerate fraud or partiality (2 Chronicles, 19:7). If we listen to this voice, the world can change.
