The article "On the Criminal MO," written for the Ghost in the Shell episode "Not
Equal," is something of a monument with which to describe the series. It ties together facets
of both the stand alone and complex episodes of the series, and continues to grow
as more episodes are written about. In a sense, it is the true party piece of
the WLIA blog.
The seventeenth episode of
Stand Alone Complex is a continuation of the sixteenth, giving a rundown of
what happened to the Major and section chief Aramaki on their trip to an anti-terrorism summit in London. Aramaki breaks off from Major Kusanagi to
visit an old friend who manages a wine brokerage firm. While the two are
discussing a suspected money laundering scheme, a pair of armed criminals break
in to steal the very set of wines involved in the scheme. The firm's security
company gets involved, it turns out they were the ones orchestrating the money
laundering; so begins a cat and mouse game to expose the truth.
There are actually two
facets which I'd like to discuss here in this post; the first, of course, is
about the nature of money laundering. As we all know, it is the transfer of money
between parties without said money being traced or accounted for by official
channels. This serves two purposes. The first is to prevent governmental
agencies from taxing it, ensuring the full amount of a large sum is transferred.
The second is the financing of third parties who will commit illegal acts on
the behalf of the lender, all without the lender coming under suspicion.
Now, in the Criminal MO
article, the point that was alluded to was that illicit entities were waging a
war on humanity and that the resulting Military-Industrial Complex would be
beneficial to humanity. From that perspective, there really is no priority in
preventing money laundering from occurring. Rather, it is better to simply sit
back, collect data, and extrapolate trends with which to keep the situation
under relative state of control. This episode is evidence and affirmation of
that fact.
The other facet actually has
to do with this blog's article on investments ("Full Auto Capitalism"). Remember, the purpose of the wine brokerage firm is to
invest money and then collect when the wines that have been invested in
appreciate in value. It is considered a good investment because of the nature
of wine as a collector's item. It's value can only increase, and in the long
term, will multiply exponentially.
I personally like the
concept because it is very similar to dividend-paying stock in that it can
generate large wealth the course of years or decades, with relatively little
risk. Furthermore, it ensures a sense of loyalty to the product, ensuring that
the product is protected over the long term. I cannot emphasize how important
that is.
This episode happens to be
one of my favorite in the series because there's so much to gather from it.
Perhaps you, the reader, may have found further perspectives beyond the ones
mentioned in this article. If you'd like to bring such points to light, or
simply expand on what has already been said, feel free to do so in the
comments.
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