Is the devil dressed in greed? Toward a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order

Abstract

Is the devil dressed in greed? Greed stimulates corruption, which promotes self-alienation, facilitates systemic failure, worsens inequality, and generates false pledges and divide-and-conquer policies. Despite the United Nations’ (UN) existence for much of a century, most countries continue to exploit and compete for cheap labor, causing poverty rates to climb. Most UN member states and other affiliated and international organizations have institutionalized bad governance, corporate abuse, and social injustice to benefit themselves, thus committing institutional crimes and aiding the global elite in a vicious conspiratorial cycle. The entire UN system has harnessed a mafia-like culture of power with impunity in intermestic affairs to control human experience and generate authoritarian paradigms. This in turn stimulates psychological captivity, irrational preferences, and negative herd behavior and divides nations both internationally and domestically. A literature-based transdisciplinary study was conducted to substantiate these assertions and to propose feasible systemic solutions that point toward humanistic paradigms by cultivating psychological freedom and implementing good governance. In this way, the related cognitive processes can be systemically and intermestically amended while resolving the structural weaknesses of the UN, eliminating inequality, uniting nations internationally and domestically, and developing a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order.

IMPACT STATEMENT

Is the devil dressed in greed? From greed, corruption gains, self-alienation dominates, the system fails, inequality exacerbates, and false pledges play the divide-and-conquer game. I wondered how governments worldwide are allowed to act as they please, while becoming increasingly involved in systemic failure, and still get away with it. The entire United Nations (UN) system and its greedy leaders are collectively responsible for harnessing a mafia-like culture of power to control the human experience and generate authoritarian paradigms. This, in turn, stimulates psychological captivity and negative herd behavior and divides nations both internationally and domestically. A transdisciplinary study was conducted to propose feasible solutions that point toward humanistic paradigms by cultivating psychological freedom and implementing good governance. In this way, the related cognitive processes can be amended while resolving the UN’s structural weaknesses, eliminating inequality, uniting nations both internationally and domestically, and developing a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order.

Keywords:

• Authoritarian paradigms
• conflicts of interest
• divide-and-rule politics
• good governance
• humanistic paradigms
• mafia-like culture
• self-alienation

Reviewing Editor:

• Robert Read, Economics, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK

Subjects:

• Global Governance
• International Politics

1. Introduction

The term ‘intermestic’, combining the words ‘international’ and ‘domestic’, refers to the increasingly interdependent and interconnected international relationships and domestic politics that are part of the globalization process in which the United Nations (UN) system plays a prominent role (Garcés, 2019). In a speech in May 1954, the former Secretary-General and posthumous Nobel Peace Prize winner Dag Hammarskjöld stated that ‘the UN was not created to take mankind to heaven but to save humanity from hell’ (Guterres, 2016). The League of Nations, a precursor to the UN, was established in 1919 to formulate a peaceful global order. After the UN was officially launched in 1945, it became involved in global governance and assumed responsibility for preserving global peace and security; protecting fundamental human rights and freedoms; resolving territorial conflicts; and enhancing human development, economic well-being, and social progress (United Nations, n.d.a). In 2006, the late UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that the UN had failed to rectify inequalities in the world economy or improve human rights and safety. Many governments have been denounced for grossly violating human rights (United Nations, 2006). However, these injustices have persisted. Global security has become dilapidated, creating a situation that is not conducive to political stability. When risky peace operations were necessary, UN Security Council members regularly prioritized national interests and undermined UN peacekeeping missions, compromising the commanders in charge of their units. In some cases, the UN placed international peacekeepers in danger, as UN authorities did not intend to authorize them to maintain peace. The UN often had to manage accusations of rape and sexual exploitation against its peacekeepers, which increased distrust in the UN as a global institution (Greenberg, 2015; The Guardian, 2015).

In other cases, those in power violated international norms with impunity. More than one in four people live in parts of the world that are plagued by urban crime and violence. This is partly because of the effects of globalization, which has led to the rise of transnationally organized criminal groups, including gangs involved in cybercrime and human trafficking (International Alert, 2013; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2018). Many people labeled as terrorists view themselves as fighters against oppression (Townshend, 2011). It is unclear whether these people are freedom fighters or terrorists, primarily because more than half of the 815 million hungry people worldwide reside in countries affected by crime and violence (Hunger Notes, 2018). Hunger is caused by exploitation, poverty, and inequality (Holt-Giménez et al., 2012). Moreover, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has stated that governments exploit the fight against terrorism. Not only do they limit freedom of expression and association, they also suppress dissent and democracy in the name of fighting terrorism. Human rights form the basis of economic growth and peace (Zeid, 2017). This worldview tends to shift more toward hell than heaven, and thus, more toward dystopia than utopia. This contrasts with the national constitutions of each UN member state, which are inspired by ‘placing people first’.

Unequal ownership of capital fosters economic inequality, a trend observed in nearly every region globally over recent decades (Global Policy Forum, 2013; The World Inequality Lab, 2018). In response, the 67th UN Department of Public Information (DPI)/Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Conference, themed ‘People-Centered Multilateralism: A Call to Action ‘We the Peoples … Together Finding Global Solutions for Global Problems’’ was held in August 2018. The conference aimed to encourage people-centered multilateralism to address global challenges. This included helping people whose human rights were being violated, environmental protection, pressuring all stakeholders to share accountability, and expanding the role of civil society partnerships, including youth. The outcome document from this conference affirmed that international norm violations by those in power increase inequality and that representatives of civil society are in physical danger and often murdered with impunity. Nonetheless, civil society has called upon UN member states to fulfill their legal obligations, adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, enhance civil society rights, and enact policies to eliminate extreme inequality. They also requested that multinational corporations adopt business models that include social and environmental responsibilities aligned with sustainable development goals (SDGs). Finally, they implored the UN Secretary-General to end tax avoidance, corruption, and rights violations by corporations (United Nations, 2018a; United Nations, 2018b). These organizations are violators of international norms and human rights. From an intermestic viewpoint, this civil society approach is naïve and can be interpreted as playing the devil’s advocate.

More than a few decades ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that corruption is closely linked to how governments operate and cannot be substantially reduced without governing authorities changing their ways of conducting affairs or reforming their states. Moreover, the integrity of leadership against corruption and its zero tolerance, as well as transparent and non-discretionary policies, including financing political parties, are also essential to combat corruption successfully (Tanzi, 1998). Nevertheless, the world situation has worsened: What happened politically at the top trickled down to the lower levels and encouraged criminal thinking (Bhikharie, 2023a) and measures to take the law into one’s own hands. Many world leaders and chief executive officers (CEOs) can potentially be categorized as psychopaths because they lack the ability to empathize (Dodgson, 2017), as the aforementioned intermestic effects suggest. A possible explanation is that money-primed participants are more likely to be distant from others than those not primed with money (Vohs et al., 2015). In another study, two experiments demonstrated that exposure to luxury caused people to feel superior to others. When primed with luxury, people are more likely to endorse self-interested business decisions even at the expense of others, thus exhibiting a lack of moral judgment (Chua & Zou, 2009). In a video message for the ninth session of the Conference of the State Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that greed over need harms everyone. Therefore, tackling corruption is essential for protecting human rights and promoting democratic accountability, which are important steps toward inclusive and sustainable development (United Nations, 2021). Is the devil dressed in greed? Greed promotes corruption when descriptive norms or standards are low (Li et al., 2023), facilitates systemic failure, and widens inequality (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Good Governance, n.d.). In this study, I investigated the related cognitive processes intermestically.

2. Methodology

This study adopted a constructivist psychological perspective, which asserts that human participation is essential to constructing knowledge and is based on the following principles: a) the perspective of the observer and the object of observation are inseparable; b) the nature of meaning is relative; c) phenomena are context-based; and d) the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding is social, inductive, hermeneutical, and qualitative. This implies that postmodernism or constructivism emphasizes the creation of personal and social realities instead of their discovery and underlines the viability of, instead of the validity of, knowledge claims when examining epistemological issues (Sexton, 1997).

I conducted a literature-based transdisciplinary study by applying a postmodern or constructivist paradigm. Paradigms are mental models that filter information, partially defining brain functions continually conditioned by life experiences. Thus, paradigms function as perceptions or perspectives (mental views) that influence attitudes and behaviors (Geller & Wiegand, 2005, p. 34; see also Honolulu Community College, 1998). Transdisciplinary approaches investigate the world across and beyond different disciplines to unify all knowledge. This approach is vital, as reality is a social construction and multi-referential (Nicolescu, 2000).

More specifically, this transdisciplinary study applied a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology to understand and transform cognition regarding the global change in intermestic affairs; this approach conforms to postmodern paradigms by positing that people construct meaning (the hermeneutic aspect) through lived experiences (the phenomenological aspect), based on the understanding that cognition is a product of particular circumstances in time and place (Sammel, 2003). Cognition (i.e. the underlying mental processes necessary for generating knowledge and comprehension) includes both epistemology (the relationship between the knower, the known, and what can be known) and ontology (the form and nature of reality, and what can be known; Shanon, 2002). Ultimately, human behavior is a cognitive product of continuous interactions among intrapersonal development, interpersonal transactions, and the interactive functioning of organizational, social, and political systems that sanction decisions and measures (Bandura, 1978; Kautilya Society, n.d.). All these interactions and factors are subject to constant change and consequently create challenges and limitations in implementation.

Hermeneutic phenomenology focuses on the meaning that emerges from the interpretive interactions between historically produced texts and readers. There cannot be a defined set of procedures that structure the interpretive (hermeneutic) process because interpretation arises from a dialectical movement between preunderstanding and text (Allen, 1995). Hermeneutics integrates the epistemological and ontological perspectives. Consequently, the main methodological question is, ‘How can a researcher discover whether whatever he or she believes or theorizes can be true (viable)?’ Thus, epistemological and ontological perspectives are integrated into one another because the former address whether the latter can be realized or is viable (Blumenfeld-Jones, 1997; Gadamer, 2004; Guba & Lincoln, 1994) while unifying the collected data in compliance with transdisciplinary approaches.

3. Research aims

This article explores whether the UN system and its leaders are to be held intermestically accountable for systemically endorsing economic growth for the benefit of the global elite while forsaking most of the world’s population—worsening inequality—by facilitating a mafia-like culture of power with impunity and disseminating twisted moral standards and non-essential values. Moreover, the goal is to explore whether the UN system and its leaders have simultaneously erected authoritarian paradigms with implanted concepts, encouraged a follow-the-leader mentality and psychological captivity, hampered human development, misshaped human experience, and divided nations both internationally and domestically.

The purpose of this study is to urge viable systemic changes to intermestically amend cognitive processes to achieve a global humanistic paradigm shift and to unite nations both internationally and domestically to attain a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order per the UN’s mission.

4. Procedure

Following the abstract, introduction, methodology, and research aims, this study is organized as follows:

• Chapter 5 assesses the political, economic, physical, social, and psychological effects of these intermestic operations.

• Chapter 6 investigates how international and national organizations spread false claims, twisted moral standards, and non-essential values about these effects, restraining human development and modulating authoritarian paradigms.

• Chapter 7 scrutinizes the ramifications of authoritarian paradigms and imprinted concepts to demonstrate how nations are divided internationally and domestically; Suriname is also briefly introduced as a typical intermestic product.

• Chapter 8 suggests viable systemic changes for intermestically modifying cognitive processes to achieve a global humanistic paradigm shift, establishing humanity’s lost interdependence and interconnectedness in an all-lives-matter environment, and uniting nations both internationally and domestically. Its purpose is to enable the development of a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order.

• Chapter 9 draws conclusions to help guide intermestic activities.

5. Intermestic effects

The world order constitutes the arrangement of power and authority associated with realizing values such as peace, economic growth, equity, human rights, and environmental health and sustainability. These values are listed as needs and desires in the outcome document of the UN DPI/NGO Conference. Thus, the world order reflects global politics (Falk, 1999), and intermestic affairs are repeatedly created in this process. According to the outcome document resolution, the UN’s objectives are to transform the world order and engender a peaceful, just, and sustainable world through people-centered multilateralism in the spirit of global citizenship. The UN also seeks to effectively reposition its system in collaboration with civil society. It is led by political leaders from member states who also belong to other affiliated organizations and international organizations, such as the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States. On September 28, 2018, the EU and 79 ACP countries began negotiations on the future of cooperation after 2020 (European Commission, 2018). These institutions and organizations of global governance are responsible for shaping the international order, thereby conditioning the paradigms and concepts of this governance. This implies that these institutions have instilled ideas, beliefs, and misinformation about political leaders, policies, governments, and institutions in people (Oddenino, 2010; Lundquist, n.d.) and exert intermestic dynamics in such a way as to determine whether nations will be united internationally and domestically.

Orchestrated by the World Trade Organization (WTO), corrupt motives often determine interactions between trading blocs (Hilary, 2004). International agencies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), World Bank, and WTO supervise transnational rule systems, which negatively affect intermestic concerns. Not only do they lower the regulatory oversight powers of governments, but they also deploy police forces to protect the interests of large corporations. Hence, violations committed by international agencies continue to shift power from governments to corporations. Two-thirds of the world’s largest economies are corporations (Hart, 2017), and over two-thirds of the nations of the world are engaged in corruption. Moreover, the media is associated with higher levels of corruption, and NGOs continue to be repressed (Transparency International, 2018). Simultaneously, one in four people worldwide is multidimensionally poor (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, 2018); one in ten suffers from hunger, and undernourishment is escalating (Hunger Notes, 2018).

Corrupt big money obscures judgments and defies the principles of the UNCAC, a legally binding multilateral anti-corruption treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly on October 31, 2003, that entered in force on December 14, 2005. It covers several forms of corruption, including bribery, trading in influence, abuse of functions, and various other acts of corruption in the private sector (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2021). Corruption obstructs the enjoyment of inalienable human rights and, in some cases, can be considered a violation of human rights (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Good Governance, n.d.). However, these violations persist. For example, many journalists and media workers have been killed, even in EU states, while investigating the transnational links between organized crime and business and political elites (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2018). This reflects the underlying mafia-like culture embodied in the political and economic operations of criminal organizations.

Corporations continue to neglect their obligation to maintain certain human rights standards for workers and adhere to international and domestic laws, as required by the UN in the document ‘Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights’. Many employers violate these standards, and employers in the United States (US) are no exception. For this reason, a comprehensive body of relevant international laws has not given rise to the global peace that the ILO has striven to achieve since it was established in 1919 (Compa, 2006; Weissbrodt & Kruger, 2003). The corrupt practices that can be observed in intermestic dynamics legitimize the political and financial systems of most, if not all, countries. As a result, the bottom 30% of the global population collectively owns only 1% of global wealth, and approximately 85% of all wealth flows to the privileged top 10% of society, which includes the global elite (Davies et al., 2009). Moreover, poverty rates are rapidly increasing in both developed and developing countries. Similarly, the number of children living in poverty has increased, a trend also observable in the US (Bulman, 2018; Hartogs, 2016; Nadasen, 2017). This significant inequality suggests that governments and corporations are conspiring with each other. Moreover, 160 million children worldwide are exploited as cheap labor (Chelala, 2019). This unequal income and wealth distribution has become so extreme that 2,153 billionaires—the global elite—possess more wealth today than the 4.6 billion people who constitute 60% of humanity (Oxfam International, 2020). More than 50 million adults live as enslaved individuals, 54% of whom are women and girls and 24% children (The Global Slavery Index, 2023), with more than one million children entering the sex trade annually (United Nations, 2022). Another study demonstrated that both economic stratification and ecological strain could independently lead to the collapse of modern civilization, suggesting that global collapse will be difficult to avoid in the coming decades (Motesharrei et al., 2014).

Under the current intermestic model, uneven economic growth has bred undemocratic and unlawful practices. Over the last decade, 113 countries have experienced a decline in political rights and civil liberties. Worldwide, the rule of law, freedom of the press, rights of minorities, and fair elections are in jeopardy (Freedom House, 2017), and this erosion of democracy is ongoing (Foa et al., 2020, pp. 1, 6, 36). This is also true in the US, where corporate rights have been systematically privileged over consumer and environmental protection and the rights of workers, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and other minorities. People must confront corrupt big money and the lawless right-wing majority of the Supreme Court (Jackson, 2018; Pollman, 2021). Furthermore, history shows that the prosperity of wealthy countries is built on a history of slavery, colonization, and corruption, as well as theft from countries rich in natural resources but with poor populations, namely, ‘poor countries’. For example, Britain has stolen $45 trillion from India. Multinational corporations exploit these countries for their land and resources because poor countries are often corrupt and discriminatorily enforce laws. Additionally, divide-and-conquer politics and a lack of transparency help corrupt leaders remain in power (Hickel, 2018; Tharoor, 2017).

Indeed, the rule of law is not followed in actual practice. In December 2000, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) was signed and enforcement of the treaty began on September 29, 2003 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004). Nevertheless, in 2020, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reported that the flow of illicit funds that have been illegally earned, transferred, or used costs African countries approximately $89 billion annually. The flow of illicit money is a common problem in developed and developing countries (UNCTAD, 2020), all of which feature an underlying mafia-like culture. On average, four environmental activists are murdered every week globally, and corporations and corrupt governments are likely to co-conspire in these murders. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environmentalist John Knox has stated that the emergence of a (mafia-like) culture of impunity has facilitated human rights violations (The Guardian, 2017). History has demonstrated that technological progress exacerbates self-alienation (becoming distanced from one’s authentic self), causing international and local wars, environmental pollution, and large-scale mental and material poverty (Capra, 1982, pp. 27–29). When money speaks, lies and deceit appear, corruption and a mafia-like culture of power with impunity hold sway, and empathy disappears, inducing self-alienation, causing systemic failure, and widening inequality.

The detrimental political, economic, physical, social, and psychological effects of such intermestic operations are due to the systemic weaknesses of the UN and its institutions. For example, the mechanisms underlying institutional global governance, such as those of the UN, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), World Bank, IMF, and WTO, are outdated, unproductive, and corrupt. The lack of coordination and integration of activities with common objectives impedes coherence and exacerbates fragmentation (Campos, 2017; Hilary, 2004; Mathiason, 2017). Corrupt practices, such as false billing, bribery (including sexual favors), and poor accountability, have negatively impacted the funding of UN agencies and their programs. Poor countries are the most susceptible to such corruption, which results in the emergence of another type of elite, the presumed UN elite. A large amount of taxpayer money is wasted in this manner (Ahmed, 2018). Altogether, the abuse of functions, bad (global) governance, mismanagement, exploitation, corruption, violations of international norms and human rights, oppression, and impunity have prevented the UN system, which also involves other institutions of global governance, from achieving a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order and reforming intermestic affairs. This is because political activities at the top trickle down to the lower levels, including criminal thinking.

It is naïve to expect these corrupt institutions, organizations, and political leaders, who are accustomed to acting and living above the law, to relinquish their personal power, unlawful income, and the ability to act with impunity. These greedy and corrupt political leaders first created and now constitute, operate, and maintain the UN system to profit unjustly from intermestic activity at the expense of the majority, upholding ancient and corrupt paradigms and concepts within a mafia-like culture of power. These greedy and corrupt attitudes are corroborated by the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) findings, on which 180 countries are ranked according to their perceived levels of public-sector corruption on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The 2022 CPI reveals that more than two-thirds of the countries scored below 50, and 155 have made no significant progress against corruption or have declined since 2012 (Transparency International, 2023).

A typical example of these perceived levels of public-sector corruption is Suriname. The United News magazine of Suriname reported that a recent poll disclosed that more than 80% of the country’s population distrusts its system of democracy and separation of powers. Democracy is perceived as a political tool wielded by corrupt politicians, who are seen as untrustworthy, solicitous of the interests of their ethnic groups and their own self-interest, and neglectful of the national interests of Suriname. No political or nonpolitical institutions scored above average (United News, 2022).

6. False claims, twisted moral standards, and authoritarian paradigms

Claims that the poverty rate is declining and extreme poverty will soon be eradicated are untrue and originate from biased sources such as the World Bank, wealthy governments, and, most importantly, the UN Millennium Campaign. Poverty has worsened significantly over time (Hickel, 2014). If poverty is defined as surviving on under $20 a day, nearly 80% of the world’s population currently lives in poverty, and that percentage is growing. As these data were gathered from pre-pandemic times, the current situation is likely worse (Roser, 2021), even though enough food is already grown on farms to feed the 10 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 (Holt-Giménez et al., 2012). Frustratingly, approximately one-third of all food produced is spoiled or wasted yearly (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013). The current international poverty line (IPL)—the threshold to determine whether someone lives in poverty—has shifted from $1.90 to $2.15 a day; this amount only covers minimum nutritional, clothing, and shelter needs. Sadly, as the current IPL does not include other basic human needs, such as sanitation, water, and electricity (The World Bank, 2015; Kenton, 2020; Hasell, 2022), let alone growth needs, slavery is legally justified.

In addition, several countries abuse the IPL to secure cheap labor in order to shamelessly attract investment. When employees ask for raises, raising wages is argued to increase inflation, which is used as a cry to continue exploiting cheap labor (including women and children) in the supposed interest of competition. This is the prototype of antithesis. Therefore, it is unsurprising that roughly one-third of impoverished people in developing countries have jobs, as reported by the ILO Organization (Hartogs, 2016). Furthermore, poverty impedes human development, which in turn hinders the advancement of human well-being. Instead of focusing on economic growth, human development prioritizes people and their opportunities and choices, such as the freedom to develop and use their abilities (United Nations Development Programme, 2021). In contrast, one in three people worldwide continues to live at a low level of human development, and in 100 countries, women are legally excluded from various jobs (United Nations Development Programme, 2017). This may be because about 9 out of 10 people harbor fundamental biases against women, according to the 2023 Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI). These biases reveal people’s attitudes toward the political, educational, economic, and physical integrity aspects of women’s roles. The 2023 GSNI covers 85 percent of the global population; thus, the biases cut across all regions, incomes, levels of development, and cultures. Furthermore, gender biases are present in countries with both low and high Human Development Indexes, making them a widespread problem that hampers the achievement of the SDGs (United Nations Development Programme, 2023). Over the last two years, the global Human Development Index value has declined, and six out of seven people worldwide have experienced feelings of insecurity. This may be due to the destruction of the natural world and the widening of inequalities within and between countries (United Nations Development Programme, 2022). A study conducted by Princeton University confirmed that a person’s cognitive functioning diminishes with the constant effects of poverty, thereby limiting their developmental potential. People with a limited income are also more prone to mistakes and poor decisions (Kelly, 2013).

Corporations exploit cheap labor, pollute the environment, and bribe politicians to deliberately ignore these systemic wrongdoings, increasing mental and material poverty in developed and developing countries, particularly for women and children. These ethical and human rights violations counteract human development and well-being in intermestic affairs. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which entered into force in 1976, seeks to promote and protect human rights, namely, ‘the right to work in just and favorable conditions and the right to social protection, to an adequate standard of living and to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental well-being’ (United Nations, n.d.b). However, these rights are severely violated globally even though corporations create useful products and services.

At the national level, when people engage in bribery or other forms of corruption with a political party or leader, such as selling their authenticity and freedom of choice in exchange for votes, support, or promised future benefits, they consciously abandon their identity. Corrupt political parties and leaders blatantly disregard people’s dignity and values. Many countries suffer electoral fraud (Gathara, 2019) and other forms of corruption, particularly corporate corruption. For example, the pharmaceutical industry has lobbied politicians to pass government policies that favor them, while simultaneously creating public health hazards (Angell & Relman, 2002; Ebrahim et al., 2015; Sharma et al., 2016; Union of Concerned Scientists, 2012). In the US, lobbying by global elites has legalized corruption. The perspective necessary to change the status quo requires a paradigm shift. Lobbying requires a substantial amount of time, money, and dishonesty to invest in negotiations with governments in order to receive unfair and illegal privileges and competitive advantages that are legally permissible. However, when other countries perform similar acts, they are accused of corruption (Boaz, 2018). These corrupt practices have been studied in various cases, including in ancient Athens and Rome, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, medieval Venice and Siena, mafia commissions in Italy, and Appalachian families. For example, professional lobbyists were hired to coerce governments to legally exempt oligarchs (the global elite) from paying taxes by allowing them to maintain their wealth in tax havens. In turn, this tax system passes the burden of financing governments to middle- and upper-middle wage earners and the impoverished, who pay a much larger share of their income through different taxes, causing poverty and extreme inequality in recent decades (Winters, 2012). For every dollar of tax revenue, only four cents come from wealth taxes. There is no other way to adequately address this fatal course of events than by taxing the global elite to establish equality in taxation and redistribute wealth (Oxfam International, 2023).

The aforementioned lies, acts of deceit, institutional crimes, twisted moral standards, and oppression constitute an infringement of the Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, UNCAC, UNTOC, ICESCR, and Human Development and Dignity. The guilty global elite has intermestically disguised itself in various forms and structures, facilitating these dehumanizing endeavors. Most people are unaware that the global elite controls a core set of financial institutions and mega-corporations, including all the big media companies that control more than 90% of the news and entertainment in the US. Through these big media corporations, the global elite can alter human experiences at will, impose their own moral standards, mold people’s paradigms and concepts, and redraw people’s psychological roadmaps. Corruption plays a crucial role in these operations, enabling the global elite to dominate and exploit the planet (Snyder, 2018; Shapiro, 2020). These observations indicate the extent to which the operation of intermestic affairs is indirect, diverse, and mafia-like. Corruption and its associated costs have hampered sustainable development worldwide, exacerbated poverty and inequality, undermined economic and political stability, eroded trust and social cohesion, and destroyed natural resources. Up to 25% of global public spending (approximately $13 trillion) is lost due to corruption (United Nations, 2023). The Mafia business model has spread to economies worldwide and follows the same structure as legal multinational corporations (Monnet, 2022).

Exploring ‘what happens politically at the top trickles down to lower levels’, several studies have illustrated that both real-life models (such as parents, teachers, and enforcement authorities such as political or corporate leaders, governments, and institutions) and symbolic models (such as television and books) shape observers’ emotional responses, cognition, and behavior. Other studies have shown that emotions are cognitive states that cause behavioral changes (Bandura & Rosenthal, 1966; Bandura & Walters, 1963; LeDoux & Brown, 2017; Murray, 2008). The marketing industry uses psychology to influence people’s consumption by tempting them to engage in pleasures that exceed their basic needs. Thus, when people are unhappy, they often seek self-fulfillment outside of themselves—frequently through consumption—and prefer material things as an escape from their real problems (Blackman, 2014; Fromm, 1956; Kemp, 1998; Lindstrom, 2011; Van der Veen, 2003), or strive to ‘keep up with the Joneses’. Such actions and the preceding observations demonstrate how the authorities and market demands define value standards, which can be referred to as authoritarian ethics. Thus, authorities and market demands engender unsound and authoritarian paradigms that affect people’s consciences, aspirations, concepts, and social relationships. An authoritarian conscience consists of internalized external authorities and concepts that hinder inner growth and authentic self-worth, leading to a lack of self-control. The development of qualities such as empathy, trust, and creativity is stifled. People who have adopted authoritarian paradigms are indifferent to their authentic selves and tend to seek to please external authorities, such as governments, institutions, and political and corporate leaders, without realizing that they have internalized the values of these authorities. Many cultures focus on external orientations such as newspapers, radio, movies, videos, songs, and advertisements at the expense of listening to their inner voices. Consequently, such people are so controlled that they distrust their thoughts, feelings, and desires and identify the dictates of authorities as their own, thereby adhering to rigid concepts determined by the global elite. Adhering to these dictates and concepts enables people to feel a sense of security and wellbeing. Not complying with these dictates and concepts can instigate feelings of imperilment, and people may also experience noncompliance as a form of betrayal, which can lead to a master–slave relationship (Fromm, 1947) or a follow-the-leader mentality and psychological captivity that can reveal an unshakeable commitment to political or corporate leaders, institutions, governments, religious authorities, ethnicities, and superstitions.

From a paradigmatic viewpoint or psychological frame of reference, people in psychological captivity do not consider alternative ways of perceiving the world. Instead, they live within the confinements of the traditions and values into which they have been socialized, subject themselves to the judgments of others, and internalize positive or negative attitudes (irrational preferences). Such people do not doubt or dispute the claims made by external authorities, as they do not see themselves as observers of the object of observation. They tend to falsify or create a false image of themselves (i.e. self-alienation), leaders, and institutions, and remain trapped in unhealthy comfort zones (Kautilya Society, n.d.; Lonergan, 1997; Lundquist, n.d.; Oddenino, 2010). They also exhibit negative herd behavior, which reduces their cognitive abilities (Li & Zeng, 2017).

Restrained by inner orientations and concepts, people with authoritarian paradigms are reactive and characterized by low self-awareness. They rarely take the initiative and only react to events without long-term goals. This implies that they employ a form of outside-in thinking. However, reactive people can find contentment in their nonprogressive lifestyles if left in peace. Nevertheless, when the repression or suppression of one’s true self becomes unbearable, reactive individuals reveal a pressing need for self-expression through occasional emotional outbursts. Proactive beings can be analytical and goal- and future-oriented; therefore, they may employ inside-out thinking. However, they can still be constrained by fixed outer orientations such as money, power, and status. In all these cases, people are likely to adopt beliefs, disbeliefs, values, norms, and behaviors from others and authorities as their own and act accordingly; this process is known as introjection. This internalization distorts one’s self-concept, causing one to move away from the real self and create a false self (Fromm, 1947, 1955; Rogers, 1951, 1961). The aforementioned ethical perspective, ascribed to both reactive and proactive people, is corroborated by Jung’s psychoanalytical perspective that people who unthinkingly adhere to others’ standards and expectations and deny unconscious signals and processes can be trapped by supposed social consciousness. By protecting their true selves against the unconscious in this mode, they fail to develop their talents or pursue their aspirations—a combination of unconscious and conscious signals and processes—and may become socially worthless and develop a false sense of self (Jung, 1989, 2003). Although one’s false self-image does not correspond with one’s true self, the expectations, aspirations, and demands of the false self still create pressure. Discrepancies between the conception of the self and the true self can cause distortions and self-alienation (i.e. abandonment of the true self; Horney, 1950; May, 2009). According to Rotter’s social learning perspective, mindlessly adhering to cultural standards or the expectations of others and thereby neglecting one’s true self can lead people to feel that they lack self-control or free will (Rotter, 1954, 1966). This implies that acting on the voice of a false self diminishes one’s cognitive-affective functioning and complicates the process of discovering and realizing one’s true aspirations, goals, and vocations. This hampers human development and makes people more susceptible to authoritarian paradigms and to the internalization of the beliefs of external authorities, including twisted moral standards and non-essential values, forming a vicious circle.

Under the influence of authoritarian paradigms, governing authorities at the global, national, and regional levels and their greedy and corrupt leaders surrender their power of regulatory oversight and enforcement in return for bribes, thus facilitating corporate abuse and the unfair distribution of essential resources. Useful institutions degenerate into unscrupulous market instruments that destroy livelihoods, displace people, and spark an insatiable thirst for money. These disguised market instruments encourage individuals to commit self-destructive acts that harm their families and communities (Jones, 2005; Korten, 2001; Lodge & Wilson, 2006). When the global elite successfully advocates twisted moral standards and nonessential values as frames of reference (within paradigms), the resulting insatiable quest for money and material things can seduce reactive and proactive people into confusing their means and ends. Consequently, people may judge others based on their wealth and assume that money has an intrinsic value independent of its ability to increase happiness. One cannot be happy without meaning in life (Fromm, 1955, 1956). This brainwashing can tempt people to engage in corrupt practices, as frames of reference guide perceptions and are affected by many external factors, such as culture, religion, political systems, institutions, role models, past experiences, and internal factors. These frames of reference incorporate concepts (such as twisted moral standards, nonessential values, and irrational preferences), personality components, and other mental faculties. Most importantly, intentions are a major motivating force, as—unlike other personality components—they combine other subordinate motives and provide insight into what someone is trying to accomplish (Allport, 1961; Kautilya Society, n.d.; Lundquist, n.d.; Oddenino, 2010). The continuous interactions between these internal and external factors shape behaviors.

Surprisingly, the global elite’s entertainment industry can violate and warp moral standards and ethics internalized by individuals through upbringing and formal education to induce negative herd behaviors. Video games, films, and song lyrics can encourage theft, drug use, violence, revenge, and vigilantism (Murray, 2008). Moreover, mass messages propagating debased moral standards and internalized nonessential values (such as authoritarian paradigms with implanted concepts) can cause motivational (psychological) imbalances and may even encourage radicalization (Khamis, 2017). Authoritarian paradigms and antiquated concepts also apply to religious leaders and people who monopolize religion and provide limited access to the divine to compete for conversions. Religions are a source of consolation for many; however, they are also a major source of power struggles, wars, and terrorism (Woodlock et al., 2013) based on irrational preferences. Self-improvement depends on the assumption of responsibility for one’s life and living conditions. Religion is a matter of revelation that can strengthen one’s attitude toward doing the right thing. Unfortunately, many people in both developed and developing countries resort to praying to improve their lives, reflecting both authoritarian paradigms and fixed concepts. In such cases, religion is often misused to advance the interests of authoritarian (autocratic) governments (Shenk, 1984). Strikingly, these paradigms and concepts do not discriminate between culture, ethnicity, vocation, education, age, or wealth.

Authoritarian paradigms may also explain the tolerance and acceptance of politicization in the medical sciences. Much of the current scientific literature is inaccurate, and many research findings are false, often resulting from conflicts of interest, prevailing biases, or relatively small sample sizes. In science, authoritarian paradigms include educational systems and peer pressure on researchers to be productive, competitive, and innovative rather than correct and righteous, thus encouraging improper research practices (Horton, 2015; Ioannidis, 2022). Science should be the ultimate arbitrator in distinguishing between true and false information. Its presumed scientific objectivity (Reiss & Sprenger, 2020), upon which trust is built, cannot be achieved through censorship. Since the beginning of the pandemic, governments have repressed free expression and access to information (Shahbaz & Funk, 2020). Many scientists have been intimidated when sharing controversial opinions (Schoonen, 2021).

Hence, the preceding observations clearly illustrate how the mechanisms of internalizing external authorities, market demands, and concepts as frames of reference have generated authoritarian paradigms and negatively affected human development and dignity. Research supports the claim that frames of reference affect paradigms and that the dynamic coalitions of neural networks that produce cognitive-emotional behaviors cannot be conceptualized as specifically cognitive or affective. Therefore, the cognition-affect distinction is more of a phenomenological issue than an ontological one (Duncan & Barret, 2007; Pessoa, 2008).

7. Ramifications: a passive, divisive, and submissive majority

This multitude of ethical and human rights violations, as well as their condonation in intermestic affairs, can continue, as the periodic political pledges made by institutions unjustly inspire hope for change and international authorities such as the World Bank and the UN Millennium Campaign publish false facts and figures. UN agencies have regularly expressed similar hopes for progress, suggesting that progress is being made while masking the dehumanization process of intermestic dynamics. For example, in 1919, the ILO was inspired by a statement enshrined in its preamble: ‘The failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations, which desire to improve the conditions in their own countries’ (International Labour Organization, n.d.). The concept of ‘decent work’, which signals a commitment to the umbrella term ‘humane conditions of labor’, was coined 25 years ago in response to the prevailing inequalities and lack of collective social responsibility (Ghai, 2003). Ironically, economic inequality was the primary motive for creating the UNCTAD in 1964, 45 years after the establishment of the ILO (Toye, 2014). In 2007, former ILO Director-General Juan Somavia asserted that decent work was essential for sustainable development and peace. He also stated that it is a principal factor in eradicating poverty and advancing fair globalization. Somavia emphasized that the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was responsible for every challenge related to decent work (UNESCO, 2007). Nevertheless, equality has not been achieved despite studies indicating that work stress is rising and that a growing number of workers suffer from severe mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety (Debnam, 2017; Racco, 2018). Worldwide, employees are experiencing stress at an all-time high, while anger, worry, and sadness remain above pre-pandemic levels, according to new Gallup data on the global workforce (Pendell, 2022).

The ILO, national, regional, and local governing authorities, and the UN and its affiliated organizations have succeeded in periodically proclaiming disingenuous beliefs designed to regulate the global increase in the poor majority. Owing to internalized external authorities, the failure to question individual paradigms and concepts has led to stagnation and a feeling of disconnection from the community and society. Overdependence on paradigms and concepts breeds stifled thinking and predisposes people to rely on authority, rallying cries, and prejudice (authoritarian ethics). Prejudice may explain why many people resist change and feel emotionally safe in their comfort zones, which can lead to stereotyping. Problems can occur when people are captivated by authoritarian paradigms and concepts such as irrational preferences regarding political, corporate, or religious leaders, governments, and institutions. Such people justify their wrongdoings in the same manner as leaders and institutions do, even when acts of injustice occur. Conversely, if such people dislike certain leaders and institutions, they will find fault with almost everything they do, even when acts of justice occur (Craine, 2007; Honolulu Community College, 1998; Lundquist, n.d.; Oddenino, 2010). Both attitudes are undergirded by the follow-the-leader mentality and psychological captivity; these attitudes personify different emotional preferences, which are cognitive states that determine behaviors.

Changing one’s paradigms and (self) concepts presumes a sense of inner freedom that people with authoritarian paradigms lack; therefore, they cannot reflect on their thoughts, feelings, or activities. Owing to their diminished cognitive-affective functioning and distorted self-concept, the globally increasing poor majority does not benefit from human development and has a limited capacity to exercise free will, making them prone to believe false claims and empty promises. People with authoritarian paradigms seem unable to challenge conventional thinking and hence have difficulty imagining scenarios or using such thinking for good practice because of a lack of empathy (Assagioli, 1975; Fromm, 1947). These phenomena satisfy the mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE) principle (Minto, 2009), whereby intellectual capacities are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive in authoritarian paradigms. In this mode, periodic political pledges by institutions that generate false hopes have ramifications by encouraging divisive, passive, and submissive behavior among the poor majority, preventing social cohesion and dividing nations internationally and domestically via corresponding negative herd behavior. Imprisoned by authoritarian paradigms, misleading concepts, and a false sense of self, the poor majority misidentifies mistreatment and places faith in misleading political pledges. Consequently, they fail to engage in inner dialogue and may fall victim to conspiracy theories because of their psychological captivity.

In this context, institutions and organizations have been at fault for the negative consequences of their actions over the past 105 years, and the UN system can be deemed the culprit in intermestic dynamics and affairs. Indeed, instead of resolving the structural weaknesses of its system and correcting the manipulation of facts and figures, twisted moral standards, non-essential values, and unfair political pledges, the UN has fueled authoritarian paradigms and misleading concepts by treating only the symptoms rather than the causes of its structural weaknesses, manipulations, and wrongdoings. As personality reveals learned behaviors and entails continuous interactions among perceptions, expectations (some unconscious), goals, goal values, and reinforcement (Rotter, 1954, 1966, 1975), the UN can control these factors in intermestic affairs. In other words, the cultural policy of the UN system, and consequently of the other affiliated political systems and organizations, addresses all these factors to mold people’s frames of reference and regulate their authoritarian paradigms and negative herd behavior. In this process, reference points are generated that serve as mental yardsticks through which people can judge their thoughts and intended actions (Kautilya Society, n.d.).

7.1 Suriname as a typical intermestic product

It is unfortunate that the abuse of functions, bad governance, mismanagement, a lack of decent work, and the trampling of laws by politicians who seek to directly or indirectly benefit themselves and related business leaders are tormenting Suriname, as a former colony of the Netherlands. This situation has developed into a mafia-like culture of power, corruption, and impunity over the decades, squandering billions of US dollars in development aid emanating from the Netherlands since Suriname became independent in 1975. On December 16, 2022, I wrote an open letter to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands holding the Dutch government accountable for squandering billions of US dollars in development aid because their required treaty-based professional guidance was neglected. Due to this deficiency, local politicians took over the roles of the ex-slave master and ex-colonizer and internalized the conditioned servile and colonial mindset, the so-called ‘fixation’. Moreover, this fixation among politicians caused the Surinamese people to internalize a master–slave attitude or follow-the-leader mentality, reflected in the poor functioning of our constitutional democracy and the separation of powers, resulting in systemic failure. Partly because of these unfavorable psychological, political, and financial circumstances, two military coups followed five years after the country’s independence. This letter was covered extensively in the local newspaper Dagblad Suriname (Dagblad Suriname, 2022).

In addition, my country has been exploited by two bauxite-mining multinational corporations that have polluted its environment with impunity. In the online news medium Suriname Herald, two corporations, Suralco and BHP Billiton, have been implicated in this environmental damage (Suriname Herald, 2016). This negligence of the Suriname government also applies to the gold sector. The newspaper De Ware Tijd of Suriname reported that the level of mercury pollution in Suriname was alarming (De Ware Tijd, 2022). The most recent data suggest that Suralco began rectifying the environmental damage caused by both Suralco and BHP Billiton, which would take approximately 25 years.

Against this background of systemic failure, the government’s refusal to recognize the union rights of soldiers and frustration with the political situation led to two military coups d’états, in 1980 and 1990. During the 1980s, when there was no constitution, several people were tortured and murders committed under the command of various political leaders went unpunished. Nevertheless, a few of these guilty political leaders have since been elected and reelected as members of parliament. Subsequently, they advanced to the highest positions in the executive branch. The glamor of these political leaders and their false promises of hope prevailed in this culture of power. Moreover, these political leaders and their loyal supporters convinced voters that the accusations against them were politically motivated. Regardless of the truth of this notion, the impunity they enjoyed indicated the lack of sovereignty of justice and the judicial system. Many senior citizens who experienced this criminal history firsthand have passed away. A substantial number of new voters were not yet born during these times and are unaware of what to believe. In addition, at least two politicians convicted of sexual harassment, robbery, and drug trafficking have occupied the highest positions in the executive branch. This has led to moral degeneration and intensified corruption, inequality, poverty, unemployment, and dependency. The party in power keeps the economically dependent and poor majority in line through empty promises, food parcels, cash, and other forms of compensation used to elicit votes in presumably free, fair, and secret political elections. This is how corruption, human rights violations, and impunity are hidden from the people. Indeed, as the saying goes, ‘Whoever’s bread one eats is whose language one speaks’, illustrating the current saying in Suriname that ‘when money talks, BS (bull shit) walks’ (Dagblad De West, 2024). Despite the above facts, 41 years after the aforementioned murders in the 1980s were committed, the guilty persons were convicted by the court of justice (GFC nieuws, 2023).

Adopting authoritarian paradigms among poor citizens inculcates false concepts, reduces cognitive-affective functioning, and restrains human development, rendering them vulnerable to political leaders’ charms, lies, and deceit. Under these circumstances, many people require multiple jobs to survive, and teenage prostitution has increased significantly (UMA Suriname, 2021). Understandably, large prayer ceremonies have been organized to improve people’s well-being and economic growth (see, for example, Starnieuws, 2024). However, this approach neglects individuals’ freedom to make practical decisions and assume responsibility for their lives. This shows how naïve internalized value standards and the expectations of others regarding the government and its institutions can manifest and elicit responses among people with authoritarian paradigms and antiquated concepts, imprisoning them through their irrational or emotional preferences. This follow-the-leader mentality resembles tribe-like thinking, with tribal chiefs competing for dominance, in which most people, regardless of whether they have received higher education, remain submissive against their better judgment—the conditioned servile and colonial mindset or master–slave attitude. No one is allowed to be or act smarter than the tribal chiefs, otherwise they cannot sustain themselves. In an interview with a local newspaper, Suriname Herald, which was taken over by a Guyanese newspaper, Kaieteur News, I accused the President of the Republic of Suriname of tribal thinking after he granted and authorized an official seal for the First Lady. The seal contains the coat of arms of the Republic of Suriname in the middle and bears the name of the First Lady. According to the President, the seal would help him perform his constitutional duties. Kaieteur News quoted me as follows: ‘Roy Bhikharie, political expert and chairman of the political party, Progressive Uplifting Party, says in conversation with Suriname Herald that the first lady was not elected by the people, but by her husband … This course of action typifies tribal thinking. This should not be allowed. It’s illegal. That is why the people must rise up against this’ (Kaieteur News, 2021).

Although bribes and corruption are strictly forbidden by law, illegal practices have been openly conducted and condoned for decades. In addition, there is no legislation regulating the financing of political parties or election campaigns; therefore, illicit capital is legally allowed to decide whether elections and sponsors can recoup their invested capital through illicit business deals with the government. Le Monde, an authoritative daily newspaper in France, qualified ‘Suriname as a narco-state’ (Dagblad De West, 2023; Starnieuws, 2023). Thus, the political and business world and the criminal underbelly remain structurally interwoven (Dagblad De West, 2024). Our electoral system is not grounded in the principle of one person, one vote, and one value; rather, it is based on the number of seats per district in the parliament. For this reason, political parties that receive far fewer votes can obtain many more seats in Parliament. This has not encouraged any previous government to sanction or promulgate anti-bribery or anti-corruption legislation, or to democratize the electoral system. Instead, political parties use knowledge and information about the number of voters and seats per district to analyze and calculate the number of persons to bribe. This modus operandi arises from a systemic failure characterized by a lack of separation of powers, inadequate checks and balances, and a deficit in transparency and equality within governmental institutions. These institutions are rife with conflicts of interest that manifest as nepotism, oligarchy, and other forms of favoritism. For example, it is frustrating that favoring immediate family members and engaging in other kinds of nepotism are justified by referring to the individual’s expertise while ignoring the need for a built-in mechanism that can ensure objectivity and impartiality. Even the two organs of government, the executive and legislative branches, are partially entwined. Rather than controlling the government, the coalition in parliament traditionally acts as an extension of those in power, while both the coalition and the opposition are legally obliged to control and discipline the government on behalf of the people. However, under the surface of our constitutional democracy, decision-making processes and procedures are decided dictatorially owing to a lack of oversight by the parliament and other accountability mechanisms. These structural weaknesses and wrongdoings in the legal system have allowed every president of Suriname to act as they please (see, for example, Abdul, 2024) and deliver similar inaugural addresses that use different words to convey the same empty promises. Last year, the Constitutional Court of Suriname ruled that our electoral system was undemocratic and contrary to our Constitution, the principle of equality, and international treaties (Bhikharie, 2023b).

Furthermore, members of Parliament may legally have other jobs. This structural weakness has legalized corruption and raised suspicions among the private sector, making it less likely to invest and encouraging lobbying. Those in power have the first choice of opportunities to benefit themselves. In the political, economic, social, intellectual, and psychological senses, this situation is comparable to a civilized form of slavery that features old colonial structures in political decision-making processes and procedures. Suriname currently has a large amount of foreign debt (due to corruption and government final consumption expenditure without adequate production), and the government’s grand theft of cash reserves from private banks constitutes a violation of human rights, as it harms social security. When freedom fighters act, the police force is deployed to suppress them.

In principle, if voters continue to judge political leaders exclusively based on their appeals and empty promises and do not consider whether these leaders have been honest in the past or whether they agree with political decision-making processes and procedures, accountability mechanisms, judicial independence, ideologies, and certain visions, there will be no fundamental change, either in Suriname or the rest of the world. Humans, after all, all have inherent shortcomings. Over the past 49 years in Suriname, the glorification of political leaders, empty promises, twisted moral standards, nonessential values, and improper relationships between statutory controlling organs and corporations have allowed the same political parties to alternate turns in power, facilitating the execution of divide-and-conquer politics. With a population of approximately 600,000 people, Suriname has more than 20 political parties that are responsible for tearing society apart and preventing social cohesion.

Consider the following fact: To fulfill their legal and moral obligations to ameliorate living conditions, including providing affordable access to basic human needs and personal development and guaranteeing order, peace, and security, governments decide, without the people’s consent, which part of their wages a wage earner or pensioner can keep for themselves. They also decide how much government officials will receive and how to divide it among themselves. This is how governments handle taxes, payroll deductions, and debts. Can there be a more appalling situation or a more submissive attitude among the people? True democracy is not a handful of rich people with power (oligarchy) or a majority with power over the minority; rather, democracy is when power is given to the majority to promote the interests of everyone. It appears that democracy has become a mafia-like culture in which money speaks, eroding statutory controlling organs, democracy, transparency, accountability, equality (cf. corporate tax avoidance and oligarchs’ lobbying activities), and public trust in politics while distorting the truth. This allows institutional crime to proceed with impunity, enabling political leaders to act as if they owned the country. By its nature, this undesirable status quo fosters authoritarian paradigms, restricts human development, and promotes irrational preferences and negative herd behavior. This divide-and-conquer politics has resulted in a divisive, passive, and submissive nation with a crab mentality (i.e. pulling other people down who get ahead for whatever reason) that often escalates into suspicion and mutual hostility (Bhikharie, 2023c).

I wonder about the number of countries that will (partially) recognize my brief account as the stories of their own countries. For intermestic dynamics to be as distorted as they are, similar entanglements among statutory controlling organs, other checks and balances, corporations, and other structural system weaknesses must govern the UN system and the systems of all its corrupt member states. Is the devil dressed in greed? Corruption, including bribery, conflicts of interest, censorship, and other forms of institutional crime, flourishes from greed. BS and a mafia-like culture of power with impunity rule the divide-and-conquer game, empathy diminishes, the system fails, and inequality intensifies. Meanwhile, introjection and abandonment of the true self morph into self-alienation, glorifying or fearing (political) leaders and leading to psychological captivity and authoritarian paradigms. This status quo divides nations internationally and domestically and prevents them from attaining a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order. Is this course of events a civilized continuation of the historically conditioned servile and colonial mindset or a master–slave attitude reflected in a follow-the-leader mentality and psychological captivity of the vast majority of the world population (cf. Steinberg, 2020)?

8. A Humanistic paradigm shift: all lives matter

In addition to people with disturbed self-concepts, authoritarian paradigms, follow-the-leader mentalities, master–slave attitudes, and psychological captivity, people who adhere to sound and humanistic paradigms also exist, along with postmodern concepts of their own making. Humanistic ethics provide the freedom to develop one’s full potential, and humanistic conscience consists of self-imposed prescriptions that enhance one’s inner growth, authentic self-worth, true self-esteem, freedom, spontaneity, trust, and empathy, thus constituting the voice of the true self. People who embody humanistic paradigms have a natural inclination to reflect upon their own thoughts, feelings, activities, and concepts and are also inclined to indulge in inner dialogues, project into the future, perceive injustices that confront them with difficulties, and challenge themselves to find meaning in their lives. They relate to others, use their abilities to create worlds, discover new concepts, and forge meaningful ties. Unlike proactive individuals, they enjoy psychological freedom and are not confined to an external orientation. Epistemologically, people with humanistic paradigms experience themselves as separate from their acquired knowledge or knowledge they wish to achieve, meaning they self-consciously form their own meanings and do not mindlessly adopt the meanings of others (Fromm, 1947, 1955). They see themselves as observers of the object of observation and, as a result, see themselves, other people, and institutions realistically without applying biased concepts or judgments. A modern term for this way of being may be ‘self-appropriation’ (Lonergan, 1997, p. 19). Rogers’ humanistic perspective (Rogers, 1961) reinforces this conception by declaring that integrating inner and outer experiences (or all elements of unconsciousness and consciousness) from a true self-perspective fosters a fully functioning person by allowing them to experience a sense of self-determination and inner freedom, gain self-control, and establish the authentic self in all roles. According to the transpersonal psychologist Assagioli (1975), a seamless relationship between the unconscious and conscious from an authentic self-perspective is fostered by authentic self-worth, inner freedom, empathy, trust, and creativity, developing psychosynthesis, and enabling the capacity for humanistic paradigms. Jung (2003, pp. 115–116) referred to this process as ‘individuation’.

To promote sound paradigm shifts, acquiring self-accountability and self-directed behaviors and changing one’s working and living conditions can help overcome biases in awareness, perception, and interpretation, even if they are caused by dispositional traits (Geller & Wiegand, 2005). Implementing the concept of decent work can lead to a state of psychosynthesis by implicating workers’ aspirations (a combination of unconscious and conscious signals and processes that express the authentic self) to balance the demands of work and home life while still finding opportunities for growth and advancement. By stimulating such an unconscious–conscious relationship, decent work promotes psychosynthesis and fulfills growth needs. Furthermore, decent work offers opportunities to access productive work, earn a fair income, enjoy security in the workplace, and receive social protection for one’s family. This will lead to better prospects for personal development and social integration. It guarantees people the freedom to express their concerns, organize, and participate in the decisions that guide their lives. In addition, it entails equal opportunities and treatment for all. These attributes include freedom, equity (fairness), security, and human dignity (Deseyn, 2014; ILO, 2021). As decent work addresses employees’ authentic emotional and physical needs, it boosts productivity and increases employee satisfaction, which is a valid indicator of employee well-being and psychological health (Likert, 1967; Rowden, 2002). One meta-analysis identified positive and substantive correlations between employee satisfaction and the business outcomes of productivity, profitability, decreased turnover, and customer satisfaction (Harter et al., 2002), thus constituting a win–win situation for employers, employees, and society, while substantiating that independence and self-reliance are preconditions for employees to realize their full potential. In this manner, decent work fulfills basic human and growth needs, facilitating workers’ ability to engage in humanistic ethical practices and positively affecting their frames of reference, (self) concepts, reference points, intentions, expectations, goals, goal values, and norms. It also cultivates their capacity to create humanistic paradigms with postmodern concepts that internalize scenario-thinking, enabling them to adopt good practices and perform adequately. Conversely, a lack of decent work robs people of their fundamental human rights of freedom, equality, autonomy, and the ability to grow, and thus of their dignity, inducing distrust and injustice in the workplace. Therefore, a lack of decent work opposes sustainable development (Werhane, 1999; cf. UNESCO, 2007) and creates obstacles to achieving the needs and aspirations of humanity, improving human conditions and the quality of life, and enhancing the well-being and abilities of future generations (Butlin, 1989).

If decent work is included in good governance, it may form a solid foundation for humanistic ethical practices, stimulating positive herd behavior that benefits humankind (Li & Zeng, 2017). In a good governance system, the authorities and their institutions follow the rule of law and are transparent, responsive, equitable, inclusive, accountable, effective, efficient, and participatory (Municipal Association of Victoria, Victorian Local Governance Association, Local Government Victoria, and Local Government Professionals, 2012). In this context, SDGs 16 and 17 are relevant. These two goals strive to ‘[p]romote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels’ and ‘strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development’. Gradually, if implemented correctly in a good governance environment, these goals may encourage a humanistic paradigm shift with coherently shared missions, visions, ideologies, perspectives, and equal opportunities. Subsequently, repairing and repositioning the UN system to unite nations, both internationally and domestically, will structurally eliminate the foundational causes of the system’s weaknesses and the weaknesses of other checks and balances while eliminating conflicts of interest, all of which pertain to intermestic dynamics and affairs. If such systemic global changes also incorporate democratic procedures that guarantee fair income distribution and freedom from corrupt public officials and private actors, norms of trustworthiness will develop, enhancing social trust (You, 2005). Trust is closely related to empathy and constitutes the foundation for social order within and beyond organizations. It is an integrative force in society, particularly in the increasingly complex and fast-paced global environment (Ickes et al., 1990; Simmel, 1908; Thoms et al., 2002). Therefore, all the above-mentioned elements of good governance and the SDGs will help achieve ‘social justice’ by affording everyone equal access to wealth, health, well-being, justice, privileges, and opportunities (Mollenkamp, 2022). As behavioral changes depend on interactions among intrapersonal development; interpersonal transactions; interactive functioning of organizational, social, and political systems; role models; and past experiences, a good governance environment will gradually establish and reinforce humanistic paradigm shifts, causing chain reactions. A good governance environment embodies the new cultural policy of the UN, its institutions, and other affiliated political systems and organizations, which demonstrates concern for the well-being of others and dignifies differences in perception, culture, knowledge, beliefs, and values (Hannigan, 1990), thereby spreading prosperity.

However, good governance is unattainable when bribery, corruption, ethical and human rights violations, conflicts of interest, other forms of institutional crime, class justice (i.e. the systematic preferential treatment of persons subject to jurisdiction; Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Good Governance, n.d.; Rovers, 1999), and impunity are embedded in the separation of powers and other checks and balances. In October 2020, the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge reported research findings from a combination of data on the democratic experiences of approximately 5 million respondents collected from 43 sources in more than 160 countries between 1973 and 2020. The citizens were asked about their degree of satisfaction with democracy. The report concluded that globally, younger generations are steadily becoming more disillusioned with democracy in absolute terms than older cohorts at comparable stages of life. Younger people feel this way because existing structures have failed them, as evidenced by emerging state weaknesses, authoritarian rule, corruption, and rising wealth and income inequalities. These undesirable trends must be reversed structurally to repair and develop democratic connections. Indeed, this result cannot be achieved through the cosmetic rebranding of old politics (Foa et al., 2020, pp. 1, 6, 36).

There is not a single country in the world that currently provides its people with a decent and sustainable life; therefore, humanity will have to change and make better fundamental choices, according to researchers from the Sustainability Research Institute at the University of Leeds in England and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin. The researchers considered 11 crucial components of a well-lived existence, such as access to electricity and sufficient food, as well as social goals, such as equality and having dependable friends (Kaplan, 2018). Since 2020, global inequality has exploded and has systemically continued to cause conflict and corruption, erode democracies, widen the gap between races and genders, and cause climate change. The top-privileged 1% seized nearly two-thirds of all new wealth, which was approximately twice as much as the remaining 99% earned during this period (Bartels, 2023; Oxfam International, 2023). Even worse, many people worldwide are murdered because they take a stand against crime, injustice, or corruption (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2023). Over the past 20 years, productivity has slowed in many countries, and wage growth has declined compared to the growth in labor productivity. Collective bargaining—people’s freedom to express their concerns, organize, and participate in decisions that guide their lives—can contribute to a more equitable distribution of productivity gains, which is mandatory for decent work (ILO, 2021). Decent work conditions can reduce inequalities and poverty and are essential to sustainable development as they promote sound paradigm shifts (UNESCO, 2007; European Commission, 2022).

In the mid-twentieth century, the German philosophers and critical theorists Horkheimer and Adorno warned that animism was breathing life into businesses (matter), whereas industrialism was commercializing the soul (mind; Van den Braembussche, 1996, p. 227). Today, nearly every organization has a mission statement that asserts its values and principles. Ironically, workers who desire greater meaning and personal development in their jobs are not supported or assisted in discovering or realizing their abilities or vocations. In a way, matter must have conquered the mind. Otherwise, the inhumane state of the world would not have come into existence. However, the emergence of COVID-19, the risks of infection and transmission, its treatment and management, and its financial, economic, physical, social, and psychological implications compel us to realize that we cannot exist without coexisting. Nevertheless, during the pandemic, 650 billionaires in the US became approximately $1.2 trillion richer, 20 million Americans became jobless, and every 17 hours between March 2020 and March 2021, approximately one new billionaire was created, together with 98 billionaire newcomers from the US (Peterson-Withorn, 2021). We hope that this situation will not contribute to an impending global collapse. Given the global situation, the pandemic seems more of a syndemic, which is defined as the interaction among different political, economic, biological, and social factors, such as COVID-19, poverty, undernourishment, entwinement between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the pharmaceutical industry, low-quality healthcare systems, inequality, and climate and environmental changes (Gopakumar, 2015; Hardwicke, 2002; Horton, 2020; International Universities Climate Alliance, 2020; Kruk et al., 2018). The use of genetically modified organisms, pesticides, and food additives in food production, all of which affect human health (Ajmera, 2018; Hsaio, 2015), has also been implicated in this phenomenon. If there were no poverty or undernourished people, and if there were improved quality control in food production, high-quality healthcare, environmental sustainability, and equality, such pandemics would be non-existent. Moreover, syndemics would have realized sustainable development and promoted the attainment of healthy people with strong immune systems. Most people develop robust and broad humoral and cellular immune responses following natural SARS-CoV-2 infection. Globally, the infection fatality rate (in this case, the risk of death when infected with COVID-19) could be even less than 0.23% (Ioannidis, 2021; Nielsen et al., 2021; WHO, 2021). In this context, the South African humanistic philosophical concept of ubuntu, which can be loosely translated as ‘I am because we are’, applies here, as it refers to the interdependence and interconnectedness of humanity (Gade, 2013), which are unfortunately lacking in the present-day society.

Jung went one step further by arguing that because mind and matter interact synchronously without any causal connection, it is plausible that they are different aspects of the same thing (which could be the edge of the same coin if the two sides symbolize mind and matter; Jung, 2003, pp. 58–59). For the past three centuries, mind–matter dualism has dominated Western thinking. This dualism posits reality as external, absolute, and independent of the observer. However, almost a century ago, the wave-particle complementarity principle in quantum physics refuted mind–matter dualism. This complementarity principle was derived from observations conducted in the double-slit experiment, which demonstrated that by choosing what to look for, the observer (i.e. consciousness) substantially affects the resulting observation. American physicist John Wheeler coined the term ‘participatory universe’ to describe this phenomenon. This implies that reality involves both the observer and the observed (Ball, 2017; Capra, 1982, pp. 153–154; McFarlane, 2000; Meier, 2014; cf. postmodernism: cognition covering both epistemology and ontology), which, in an unknown way, manifests entanglement between mind and matter. As part of the universe, we experience it the way it is because we would not have existed if it had been any different; this is the anthropic principle (Hawking, 1998, pp. 128–129). Jung applied the wave-particle complementarity principle from quantum physics to the unconscious–conscious relationship in psychology. The quantum waveform is nonlocal, probable, and potential, and the observed particle has a definite localized position. The wave and particle concepts are mutually exclusive but essential for a complete description of quantum phenomena (cf. the MECE principle). Similar to the wave function, the unconscious consists of infinite potentialities, and similar to the particle function, personal consciousness consists of actualizations of potentialities (McFarlane, 2000; Meier, 2014).

Projected onto the macroscopic world, all lives matter, together with our living planet and the possible multiverse. Therefore, reality is a question of perception, which is socially constructed and multi-referential (Nicolescu, 2000), and perception is a state of consciousness. In essence, human consciousness differs only in degree and complexity from the consciousness that we can associate with elementary matter (Zohar, 1990, p. 110). If such an all-lives-matter paradigm (as opposed to an anthropocentric view in which humankind is the central element of existence) were internalized by every person, the need for this treatise would probably never have arisen.

Finally, life experiences and their effects cannot be measured using tools designed to measure matter. When exploring consciousness, we challenge the scientific view of the mechanical universe and cannot provide evidence consistent with that scientific view. Thus, a paradigm shift from the Euclidian void to the quantum field must be considered (cf. Gadamer, 2004; Palmer & Hubbard, 2009).

9. Discussion and conclusions

Worldwide, greed, corruption, the current IPL, the immoral and unfair tax system, and the lack of decent work have caused systemic failure, economic and political instability, erosion of trust and social cohesion, destruction of natural resources, climate change, soaring poverty, work stress, and hindrance to sustainable development. This has exacerbated income inequality and wealth disparities; damaged people’s well-being, psychological health, and productivity; and violated human rights and dignity, all of which fundamentally counteract the principles of equality and the ICESCR.

No country provides its people with a decent and sustainable life. While inequality widens the gap between races and genders, the 2023 GSNI reports that nearly 9 out of 10 people hold fundamental biases against women, obstructing the realization of the SDGs. The global Human Development Index value has declined in the last two years, with six out of seven people worldwide experiencing feelings of insecurity. Employee stress levels have reached unprecedented heights, and emotions such as anger, worry, and sadness have persisted above pre-pandemic levels. Poverty is also worsening, with approximately 80% of the global population living in impoverished conditions, despite our current agricultural output being sufficient to feed the projected population of 10 billion by 2050. The wealth distribution remains skewed, with the top 1% amassing nearly two-thirds of all new wealth since 2020, doubling the earnings of the remaining 99% of the global population during the same period. Taxation systems also reflect this disparity, with wealth taxes contributing only four cents of every dollar of tax revenue. In addition, an estimated 25% of the global public spending, or approximately $13 trillion, is lost to corruption. The business model of organized crime syndicates, which mirrors the structure of legal multinational corporations, has gained global traction. Many men and women who stand against crime, injustice, or corruption are murdered. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of countries scored below 50 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), with 155 countries showing no significant progress against corruption or declining since 2012, according to the 2022 CPI. Despite the commitments outlined in the UNCAC, UNTOC, ICESCR, Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, and SDGs 16 and 17, systemic exploitation of the poor, especially in resource-rich countries led by corrupt leaders, has structured intermestic dynamics into a world situation involving (the condemnation of) systemic wrongdoings. The current IPL has shifted from $1.90 to $2.15 a day. However, as this amount only covers minimum nutritional, clothing, and shelter needs, neglecting other basic human needs such as sanitation, water, and electricity, not to mention growth needs, it effectively legalizes a form of modern slavery. Therefore, it is not surprising that over the past two decades, many countries have experienced a slowdown in productivity, with wage growth lagging behind labor productivity growth.

This fatal course of events is real and cannot be ascribed to conspiracy theories. The UN, ILO, UNESCO, UNCTAD, World Bank, WTO, and other trading blocs such as the EU and ACP Group of States, as well as the IMF, NATO, WHO, and many national, regional, and local governing authorities, have not addressed the structural weaknesses and wrongdoings of their systems. Because of intermesticity, political activities performed at the top trickle down to lower levels. Instead of caring for, protecting, and aggrandizing the common good, facts and figures are falsified to romanticize the deteriorating political, economic, physical, social, psychological, and scientific reality of corrupt moneymaking in order to accommodate the global elite, constituting a vicious cycle of conspiracy. Lobbying, bribery, cover-up, censorship, and other forms of corruption, along with the politicization of science and the distortion of truth, threaten public health yet are openly condoned. Existing power structures are reinforced to maintain the status quo; hinder social cohesion; stimulate criminal thinking; and foster passivity, divisiveness, and submissiveness internationally and domestically. Moreover, the government’s oversight power is weakened, and institutions periodically offer empty promises, unjustly inspiring hope. Through these false claims and pledges, supported by big media corporations of the global elite, distorted moral standards and non-essential values are disseminated as frames of reference, generating authoritarian paradigms with misleading concepts. This, in turn, feeds on self-alienation, the follow-the-leader mentality, psychological captivity, and the internalization of irrational preferences. Such trends restrain human development, diminish cognitive abilities, injure human dignity, and lead to misinformed people desensitized toward the wrongdoings of systems and the lies and deceits of political leaders. In this undesired process, marketing and commercialization, as well as the media and entertainment industries, violate and warp moral standards and ethics taught through upbringing and formal education. Political leaders and the global elite utilize this strategy to control the system and human experience while promoting negative herd behavior, thereby exhibiting the indirectness and diversity of intermestic operations. Violations committed by international agencies continue to shift power from governments to corporations, which comprise two-thirds of the world’s largest economies.

Given its overarching role in intermesticity, the UN is responsible for exacerbating the global situation by continuously addressing only the symptoms and not the causes of this decline. Other global governance institutions and their corrupt member states are also responsible for this downturn. In these member states, many of the systems’ weaknesses and wrongdoings, which are listed below, are purposely overlooked to legally allow for institutional crimes and ethical and human rights violations.

• entanglements between the separation of powers, statutory controlling organs, other checks and balances, and corporations;

• undemocratic decision-making processes and procedures;

• conflicts of interest, such as nepotism, oligarchy, and other forms of favoritism;

• divide-and-conquer politics;

• oppression, class justice, and impunity; and

• electoral fraud.

This inhumane status quo would not have emerged if most of the world’s population had confronted such injustice. Instead, humanity consented to this self-inflicted psychological captivity, consequently limiting its psychological freedom and capacity to empathize and thus impairing its judgment. Everyone should independently decide whether they are an accomplice. The right to dissent or protest is an essential human right that promotes social justice. Regardless, humanity urgently needs a paradigm shift to transform old (self) concepts, frames of reference, reference points, intentions, expectations, goals, values, norms, behaviors, and reinforcement. This will allow individuals to leave their unhealthy comfort zones with their irrational preferences, overcome resistance to change, and fully realize and uphold constitutional democracy in all its facets.

Therefore, priority must be given to systemically remedying the structural weaknesses of the governing systems of the UN and its agencies and those of all its corrupt member states. In this context, reevaluating the membership of each corrupt state is mandatory. Furthermore, sanctioning the execution of good governance, including determining equality in taxation, creating decent work, and defining a value-fixed IPL to cover the conditions for basic human and growth needs, is indispensable. People’s aspirations must play a central role in their upbringing; aspirations must also guide education and employment policies, and governments must seek to nurture people’s independence and self-reliance to realize their full potential. When reinforced socially and by enforcement authorities, this new purpose-driven cultural policy will cultivate authentic self-worth, inner freedom, and trust, while facilitating a frictionless unconscious–conscious relationship from an authentic self-perspective or psychosynthesis. This also affects humanistic paradigms. Humanistic paradigms value self-control and do not accommodate the slavish thinking, influence, or ways of acting inculcated by institutions of global governance in intermestic affairs, rich countries, corrupt leaders, multinational corporations, or the global elite. If these recommendations are enacted, they will systemically and intermestically modify cognitive processes, thereby facilitating a global humanistic paradigm shift toward postmodern concepts. This, in turn, will boost the capacity of individuals to participate in inner dialogue, internalize scenario thinking for good practice, and improve their productivity as workers.

These systemic solutions are suitable, efficient, and effective for correcting today’s unjust, unfair, and unethical distribution of income and wealth by addressing both the effects and causes, thereby leading to behavioral changes that engender equality, equity, justice, and prosperity. Only after these systemic solutions are implemented through people-centered multilateralism in the spirit of global citizenship will the repair and repositioning of the UN system bring about a global humanistic paradigm shift in intermestic dynamics and affairs. I am aware that this systemic approach cannot be applied following a linear trajectory; rather, it must be a dynamic process that involves sharing similar missions, visions, ideologies, perspectives, and equal opportunities. However, by providing appropriate policy instruments, this model forms a solid basis for capacitating the ability to coherently and righteously influence, monitor, and steer socialization within this scope, gradually uniting nations both internationally and domestically. This can facilitate the development of a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order and enhance people’s physical, financial, intellectual, emotional, and mental well-being. As the central institution of global governance, the UN should lead by example by acting to discourage institutional crime, ethical violations, and human rights violations while systemically ending old international and domestic politics. This will create a virtuous cycle of sustainable development that upholds an all-lives-matter paradigm. It can also promote positive herd behavior, tackle the syndemic, and reverse impending global collapse, all of which fall within the domain of humanistic paradigms. The cosmetic rebranding of old politics is not a solution.

There is only one way to overcome the dichotomy between greed and being humanitarian and between authoritarian and humanistic paradigms and their inherent (self) concepts—that is, between internalized value standards and the expressed expectations of others and psychosynthesis; self-alienation and authenticity; psychological captivity and freedom; antipathy and empathy; antisocial and social attitudes and behaviors; irrational preferences and truth and rightness; and negative and positive herd behaviors. There is also only one way to overcome the dichotomy between a mafia-like culture of power, corruption, and impunity and constitutional democracy; between oppression and censorship and transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability; between class justice and conflicts of interest and the rule of law; between oligarchy and nepotism and equality; between the violation of ethical and human rights and the uplifting of human dignity and rights; between public distrust and social order; between social injustice and justice; between old politics and good governance; and between dividing and uniting nations, both internationally and domestically. Indeed, the only method to overcome these dichotomies is the manner described above. It is a matter of wisely using the mind over matter and correcting the phenomenon of the mind being defeated by matter. The common thread is to ‘mind your matters while having your mind matter equally’ to establish humanity’s lost interdependence and interconnectedness in an all-lives-matter environment. To achieve the aim and purpose of this study, epistemological and ontological perspectives were integrated and the collected data were unified, as described in the methodology section.

As a sobering reminder, I would like to restate that although old politics is still largely being practiced, no circumstance, purpose, or law should justify playing God in any way: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before Me’ (Exodus 20:3). Because of these wrongdoings and abuses, all poor and rich victims are deprived of their ability to be human and humane, which is their God-given birthright. People who allow others to put a price on what defines them are selling their souls to the devil, thus relinquishing self-control, while those who treat their fellow humans as brainless puppets blatantly disregard their dignity and worth. Is the devil dressed in greed? Why else does the world’s population passively, submissively, and apathetically allow governments, governing authorities, and people in power to act as they please while increasingly engaging in corruption, bad governance, and systemic failure, and still get away with making false claims and pledges? They even support and defend them, preventing the attainment of a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order while advocating ‘placing people first’, as in a mafia-like culture of power with impunity.

In summary, when good governance drives constitutional democracy, lies, deceit, corruption, the mafia culture, impunity, and the divide-and-conquer game become obsolete; criminal thinking is discouraged; the rule of law, transparency, inclusiveness, accountability, and equitability succeed; prosperity spreads; decent work, equality in taxation, and a value-fixed IPL for basic human and growth needs become regulated; integrity of (political) leadership predominates; authenticity, aspirations, and empathy emerge into psychosynthesis, causing psychological freedom and humanistic paradigms to lead the way in positive herd behavior, encouraging social cohesion, uniting nations both internationally and domestically, and attaining a peaceful, just, and sustainable world order while ‘placing people first’. Although national constitutions state that people must be prioritized—a goal to which human development should give substance and meaning—greed for money, power, and socioeconomic status overrules the intermestic considerations of social justice, renouncing the growing poor majority. Considering the above facts, how do the forms of address of political leaders, such as His Excellency, Her Majesty, and His Royal Highness, reflect their role as public servants? More importantly, do these titles not unjustly bestow authority and honor on people who are meant to abide by the rule of law and ensure that it is enforced without discrimination as the moral duty for which they have taken an oath? Why do you rise when they enter a room? Do these phenomena mirror historically conditioned servile and colonial mindsets?

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roy I. Bhikharie

Roy I. Bhikharie, as a native citizen of Suriname in South America, I was raised in an environment characterized by various beliefs, including atheism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and mysticism. I am an external thesis supervisor at Adek University of Suriname and the IBW University of Applied Sciences (Humanities and Social Sciences). I am also the Deputy President of the United Nations Association in Suriname and the Chairman of the Progressive Uplifting Party. Previously, I have worked as a psychologist (appointed), corporate executive, and management consultant. I have also served as the Chairman of the Manufacturers’ Association and President of the Association for Good Governance and Liberalization. I hold a BA in liberal arts, a social therapist certificate, an MA in counseling psychology, and a dual PhD in Business Research and Administration. As an independent researcher, my interests include leadership, good governance, political and economic development, the interactions between paradigms and psychological health, quantum physics, and mysticism. I am intrigued by how governments, governing authorities, and people in power worldwide can act as they please while increasingly involved in corruption and bad governance and still avoid repercussions of false claims and pledges, akin to a mafia-like culture of power with impunity. This led to the findings of the present study.