Urgently Addressing Immorality - Part A

Humans are highly opportunistic in ecological terms, and in political terms.  They frequently attempt to outwit nature, and each other.

All political activities have much in common with workplace politics.

All politics involves ambition. 

What do you know about the extent of pay-to-play in various human activities?

How do you define criminality, and do you usually do so in the same way as corrupt governments?

How do you define morality and immorality?

The Revolutionary Climatological Needlepoint Committee urgently requires your assistance in addressing immorality in various parts of the world.

How, if at all, are you willing to assist, and where, and when?

Perhaps you have been unsealing an important pithos or opening Pandora's box or attempting to understand the deceptiveness of fake pathos or opening a can of worms or letting a genie out of a bottle or a cat out of a bag.

Much crime is ignored by corrupt governments, as is much immorality in other ways.  The people involved in wrongdoing often deny their actions are wrong.  They have no conscience.

Trouble can only be foreseen if its causes are understood.

What do you know about the history, politics and economics of legal and illegal trade routes?

What do you know about the global antiquities market and the global art market and the global real estate market and various other gambling markets associated with globalisation and money laundering?

Who buys luxury goods, and why?

Who sends children to expensive schools, colleges and universities, and why?

How do you distinguish between responsible investments and immoral ones?

Who has most influence in the world, and why, and how?

Defining influence appropriately is very important.

How do you define a crisis?

What do you know about the excessive accumulation of wealth as a form of problem gambling?

How have you examined the connection between the financing of terrorism and the illicit trade in art and antiquities?

What do you know about organised crime, and how do you know it?

Perhaps you regard domineering political organisations as semi-organised criminal networks.  That would be an accurate assumption.

Perhaps you are intoxicated by money, power, fame, success, and access to cultural artifacts.

How have you attempted to inform yourself about historical climatology if not through various artifacts and documents and scientific evidence?

What do you know about the upper class from various times and places in history?

The urgency of the task ahead of you is only matched by its danger.  Please be careful.

How do you usually assess credibility, authentication and provenance?

What are the learning artifacts you have produced and why have you done so?

What do you know about the skills involved in producing forgeries of various sorts?

What do you know about looting, including during wars?

What do you know about smuggling in various circumstances? 

What do you know about corruption associated with economic sanctions, including the Oil-for-Food Programme, the Iran-Contra affair, the 1973 Oil Crisis and the 1979 Oil Crisis?

What do you know about fraudster politicians, electoral fraud and corrupt officials in various parts of the world?

How do you usually assess the value of prestige, and from whose point of view? 

How do you assess the politics and economics of status?

What do you know about insurance fraud?

What do you know about fake claims of fraud as fraudulent themselves?

What do you know about the reasons behind those claims, particularly if there are political and/or financial reasons involved?

What do you know about economic freedom and economic liberalism in relation to economic inequality and social inequality and structural inequality and the prevalence of fraud and corruption? 

What do you know about the kleptocratic abuse of the United States real estate market?

What do you know about drug cartels and the associations with corrupt police in various parts of the world? 

There is likely to be considerable corruption in any organisation in which abuses of power are possible, including those associated with market power, bureaucratic authority and/or the provision of 'human' services.

In many situations where abuses of power are possible, there are stated and unstated codes of silence.  There is also considerable groupthink.

That is why the people who speak, and write, the truth, or otherwise express it, are likely to be regarded as a threat by their corrupt colleagues.

How do you tell the difference between an art forgery, a genuine work, counterfeit copies and authorised replicas? 

What do you know about casinos, banks and cryptocurrencies as conduits for organised crime?

Gambling has often been associated with international trade and international crime.

What do you know about various abuses of power associated with 'religious' organisations.

There are many forms of racketeering, some of which are associated with abusive 'requests' for donations and/or bequests.

What do you know about 'religious' hoaxes?

What do you know about literary forgeries?

How do you compare official trade routes of the past and present with unofficial ones?

How have you become aware of money laundering through the art market?

What do you know about the repatriation of stolen art, antiquities and other cultural properties, and human remains?

How do you interpret one image and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another, and do you do so as an expert of some sort?

What do you know about Tiglath-Pileser III and the Incense Trade Route?

What do you know about the Spice Road and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative?

When will you be ready to answer questions in Part B of this series?