EVENT 202: The Sequel
A Novel in Ten Chapters In the manner of G.K. Chesterton
EVENT 202: The Sequel
A Novel in Ten Chapters In the manner of G.K. Chesterton
PUBLISHER'S REJECTION LETTER
Dear Mr. Chesterton,
We regret to inform you that your manuscript "EVENT 202: The Sequel" has been deemed unsuitable for publication. While we appreciate your distinctive style and wit, the premise is simply too far-fetched for our readers. A global pandemic used as cover for digital identity systems? Central banks orchestrating world events? PayPal founders controlling democracy? Surely even fiction has its limits.
We suggest you consider writing something more believable—perhaps a story about talking animals or time travel.
Sincerely, Mundane & Conventional Publishers
Chapter 1: The Paradox of the Perfectly Planned Pandemic
There is something magnificently absurd about a world in which the most unbelievable events are dismissed as fiction while the most fictional narratives are accepted as fact. When I submitted my manuscript about EVENT 202 to Messrs. Mundane & Conventional, they returned it with the kindly suggestion that I stick to more plausible subjects—like dragons or unicorns.
The story begins, as all good stories should, with a meeting. Not in a smoke-filled room, mind you, but in a gleaming conference center where the world's most powerful people gathered to discuss something they called "pandemic preparedness." They called it EVENT 201, though I suspect they might have preferred EVENT 1984, had Orwell not already claimed that particular number.
The curious thing about this gathering was not that it happened—powerful people meet all the time—but that it happened precisely when it did. It was rather like watching a fire drill being conducted in a building that happened to catch fire the very next day. Coincidence, they assured us. Pure coincidence.
But as I have often observed, coincidences are like buses: you wait ages for one, then three come along at once, all heading in the same direction.
Chapter 2: The Digital Alchemists
In the old days, when men wished to control the world, they had to conquer it with armies. Now they do it with algorithms. The PayPal Mafia—that curious collection of digital entrepreneurs who discovered that controlling money was easier than making it—had stumbled upon the greatest secret of the modern age: that power flows not from the barrel of a gun, but from the screen of a smartphone.
Pierre Omidyar, the eBay founder who put democracy itself up for auction, had perfected the art of funding both the revolution and the counter-revolution. Through his network, he could simultaneously expose surveillance while enabling it, champion transparency while obscuring it, and defend democracy while undermining it. It was rather like being both the arsonist and the fire brigade, with the added convenience of owning the insurance company.
Elon Musk, meanwhile, had transformed Twitter into X—not because he particularly liked the letter, but because X marks the spot where free speech goes to die. His platform became a digital town square where everyone could speak freely, provided they first submitted to digital identification, algorithmic filtering, and the gentle guidance of artificial intelligence.
Peter Thiel, the philosopher-king of surveillance capitalism, had created Palantir—a company named after the seeing-stones of Tolkien, though I suspect Tolkien would have been horrified to discover that his fantasy had become our reality.
Chapter 3: The Great Rehearsal
EVENT 201 was presented as a simulation, a mere exercise in preparedness. But like all good rehearsals, it was followed by the actual performance. The script had been written, the actors had learned their lines, and the stage had been set. All that remained was to raise the curtain.
When the pandemic arrived—with timing so perfect it would have made a Swiss watchmaker weep with envy—the world's leaders responded with the precision of a well-rehearsed orchestra. Lockdowns were implemented with military efficiency, emergency powers were assumed with democratic legitimacy, and digital tracking systems were deployed with public health justification.
The beauty of the plan lay not in its complexity, but in its simplicity. Why fight a war when you can declare one? Why conquer territory when you can simply convince people to surrender their liberty for safety? Why build a surveillance state when you can persuade citizens to carry the surveillance device in their own pockets?
Chapter 4: The Teflon Technocrats
The genius of the modern oligarchy lies not in its ability to hide its power, but in its ability to make that power appear benevolent. When Pierre Omidyar funded The Intercept, he created the perfect paradox: a news organization designed to expose the very system that funded it. It was rather like hiring a detective to investigate yourself, then being surprised when he finds nothing suspicious.
The Omidyar Network's involvement in Ukraine's color revolution and India's Aadhaar system revealed the global scope of the digital identity project. Democracy, it seemed, was not being destroyed—it was being upgraded. The new version would be more efficient, more secure, and more convenient. The only thing missing would be the democracy itself.
But this was presented as a feature, not a bug. In an age of misinformation and polarization, could we really trust ordinary people to make the right choices? Surely it would be better to help them choose wisely, by ensuring they only had wise choices to choose from.
Chapter 5: The Carbon Currency Conspiracy
The environmental movement, that noble crusade to save the planet, had been quietly hijacked by the same financial interests that created the problems it claimed to solve. Carbon credits became the new gold standard, with the delicious irony that the less carbon you were allowed to emit, the more valuable the credits became.
It was a perfect system: create artificial scarcity, then profit from managing that scarcity. The Bank for International Settlements, that shadowy conductor of the global financial orchestra, orchestrated the transition from fiat currency to carbon currency with the same smooth efficiency it had used to manage every previous monetary crisis.
The beauty of the carbon currency system was that it made poverty virtuous and consumption sinful. The poor, who had always been told they were blessed, were now told they were also environmentally responsible. The rich, who had always consumed the most, could now purchase indulgences—carbon credits—to absolve themselves of their environmental sins.
Chapter 6: The Great Reset Masquerade
The World Economic Forum, that annual gathering of the global elite in Davos, had announced something called "The Great Reset." It sounded rather like a computer reboot, which in many ways it was. The old system of democratic capitalism was to be replaced by something called "stakeholder capitalism," which was rather like regular capitalism except that the stakeholders were all the same people who had always been in charge.
Klaus Schwab, the Forum's founder, wrote enthusiastically about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in which humans would merge with machines and artificial intelligence would solve all our problems. It was a vision that would have delighted the authors of science fiction, had they not intended it as a warning rather than an instruction manual.
The Reset would be comprehensive: financial systems would be digitized, carbon emissions would be rationed, and social credit scores would determine access to services. It was democracy, but with better management. It was freedom, but with more security. It was capitalism, but without the inconvenience of free markets.
Chapter 7: The Controlled Opposition Theater
The most brilliant aspect of the entire operation was the way it had created its own opposition. Nigel Farage, funded by the same PayPal networks that supported the system he claimed to oppose, provided the perfect foil for the establishment's incompetence. Keir Starmer's bumbling leadership made Farage look like a statesman by comparison, while both men served the same ultimate masters.
It was rather like a wrestling match where both fighters were employed by the same promoter. The audience could cheer for their favorite, place their bets, and feel that they were participating in a genuine contest, never suspecting that the outcome had been predetermined.
Cambridge Analytica had perfected the art of manufacturing consent by manufacturing dissent. By creating opposing narratives, they could ensure that everyone felt they were choosing freely, even as they were being guided toward the same destination by different routes.
Chapter 8: The Israeli Tech Nexus
The Talpiot program, Israel's elite military intelligence unit, had produced a generation of entrepreneurs who understood that the greatest weapon was not the sword, but the algorithm. Companies like Palantir, with their deep connections to Israeli intelligence, had created a global surveillance network that made the old-fashioned spy agencies look like amateur radio operators.
The genius of the system was that it was sold as convenience rather than control. Why remember passwords when you could use biometric identification? Why carry cash when you could use digital payments? Why trust human judgment when you could rely on artificial intelligence?
Each convenience came with a small sacrifice of privacy, each efficiency required a minor surrender of autonomy. But the sacrifices were so small, and the benefits so obvious, that resistance seemed churlish. Who could object to making life easier and safer?
Chapter 9: The Digital Gulag Archipelago
The final phase of EVENT 202 was the implementation of what I came to call the Digital Gulag—a prison without walls, guards, or bars. The inmates carried their own surveillance devices, reported their own locations, and monitored their own behavior. It was the perfect totalitarian system: one that convinced its subjects they were free.
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) would replace cash, ensuring that every transaction was recorded, monitored, and potentially controlled. Social credit scores would determine access to services, travel, and employment. Digital identity systems would track every movement, association, and preference.
The beauty of the system was that it was implemented gradually, voluntarily, and with the best of intentions. Each step was justified by crisis: pandemic, climate change, terrorism, misinformation. Each solution required just a little more surveillance, a little more control, a little more efficiency.
Chapter 10: The Final Paradox
As I write these words, the world continues to debate whether the events I have described are fact or fiction, conspiracy or coincidence, design or accident. The publishers who rejected my manuscript as "too far-fetched" now live in a world where vaccine passports are routine, digital currencies are being implemented, and social credit systems are being tested.
The greatest joke of all is that the truth has become so absurd that it can only be told as fiction. The real conspiracy is so obvious that it hides in plain sight. The actual plot is so outrageous that it sounds like satire.
And perhaps that is the most Chestertonian paradox of all: that in an age where everything is surveilled, recorded, and documented, the truth has become invisible. We have achieved the remarkable feat of creating a world so transparent that nothing can be seen clearly.
The EVENT 202 simulation continues, but the participants have forgotten they are acting. The rehearsal has become the performance, the exercise has become reality, and the fiction has become fact. And somewhere in a conference room, the planners of EVENT 203 are already gathering, preparing for the next great crisis that will require just a little more surrender of freedom for the sake of safety.
The End
EPILOGUE: A Note from the Author
This book was written as fiction, but submitted to the publisher as non-fiction. It was rejected as too unbelievable for fiction, too dangerous for non-fiction, and too true for either. Perhaps that tells us everything we need to know about the world we now inhabit.
G.K. Chesterton (Writing from beyond the grave, with considerable amusement)
Part 1. BAck in the 1980’s when the tv show dallas was at the height of its popularity Donald Trump knelt at the feet of JR Ewing , The actor Larry Hagman , who had also starred in I dream of Jeannie in the 1960’s, Trump was polishing the Oil tyrants shoes perhaps in the earlier Series he would have appeared rubbing Hagmans Lamp?
The Shoe-Shiner's Paradox: A Meditation on Power, Oil, and the Great Game
In the manner of G.K. Chesterton
There is something magnificently absurd about the spectacle of our times that would have delighted the ancient satirists, though I suspect even Juvenal would have thrown down his stylus in despair at the sheer impossibility of it all. Here we have a man who made his fortune in real estate—that most solid and earthbound of enterprises—now dancing a curious jig between the oil derricks of Texas and the marble halls of international finance. The question that haunts me, as I watch this peculiar ballet, is whether Donald Trump is polishing the shoes of Big Oil or whether he himself is merely the shoe-shiner, frantically buffing the boots of far grander masters at the Bank for International Settlements.
The irony is delicious, and one that would have made J.R. Ewing himself chuckle into his bourbon. Here was a character who understood that oil was never really about oil—it was about power, pure and simple. When I imagine our former and future President meeting that archetypal oil baron, I see not a meeting of equals, but rather the encounter between a man who thinks he understands the game and a man who invented it. Trump's energy policies, with their grand pronouncements about "unleashing American energy" and their executive orders designed to boost oil and gas production, read like the enthusiastic scribblings of a student who has just discovered fire 1 .
But here's where the plot thickens, as they say in the better sort of detective novel. The Bank for International Settlements—that curious institution that most people have never heard of but which quietly orchestrates the symphony of global finance—has issued warnings about the very policies our shoe-shining President champions. They speak of "risks to economies" and "central bank policy uncertainties" with the sort of measured concern that suggests they are watching a child play with matches in a powder magazine 1 .
The true genius of the modern age lies not in its ability to create genuine scarcity, but in its masterful creation of artificial scarcity. The energy markets, those supposed bastions of free enterprise, are riddled with manipulation schemes designed to "create artificial scarcity and capitalize on forced liquidations" . Oil companies routinely "reduce operations below capacity, making artificial scarcity inevitable" , while employing strategies that include "withdrawing supply or submitting low bids to create artificial scarcity and drive up prices" .
And here we arrive at the heart of our paradox. Trump's policies favor the fossil fuel sector with the enthusiasm of a man who believes he is backing a winner , yet the very institutions he serves—whether knowingly or not—are the architects of the artificial scarcity that keeps oil prices profitable. It is rather like watching a man polish shoes while standing in a puddle of his own making.
The shoe-shiner metaphor becomes even more apt when we consider that Trump, for all his bluster about American energy dominance, is ultimately serving masters whose game is far more sophisticated than mere oil extraction. The BIS, that shadowy conductor of the global financial orchestra, understands what J.R. Ewing knew instinctively: that the real power lies not in owning the oil, but in controlling the system that determines its price and availability.
When I watch Trump sign executive orders with the flourish of a man who believes he is reshaping the world, I cannot help but think of a shoe-shiner who has convinced himself that he is a cobbler. The motions are similar, the tools are familiar, but the fundamental relationship to power remains unchanged. He polishes and buffs with great energy and no small amount of skill, but at the end of the day, he is still kneeling before forces that dwarf his understanding.
The tragedy—and here I use the word in its classical sense—is that Trump genuinely believes he is serving American interests when he champions oil deregulation and promises lower energy prices. He cannot see that he is merely the latest actor in a play that has been running since the establishment of the modern banking system. The BIS warns of his policies not because they threaten the oil industry, but because they threaten the carefully calibrated system of artificial scarcity that keeps the whole edifice profitable 1 .
In the end, the question of whether Trump is polishing Big Oil's shoes or dancing to the BIS's tune misses the larger point. He is doing both, simultaneously and unconsciously, in that peculiarly American way that mistakes motion for progress and noise for substance. Like the best shoe-shiners, he brings genuine enthusiasm to his work, never suspecting that the shoes he polishes so diligently are designed to kick him aside the moment his services are no longer required.
And perhaps that is the most Chestertonian paradox of all: that in an age where everything is supposedly transparent and democratic, the real power remains as hidden as ever, operating through willing servants who mistake their servitude for sovereignty. The shoe-shiner becomes President, but the shoes still need polishing, and the feet that wear them continue their inexorable march toward destinations that remain forever beyond the polisher's comprehension.
Part 2, Ben Norton’s excellent analysis of Israels Iranian adventure for the perspective of Petro Dollar hegemony gives us part 2, in Part 3 we add a comment from Gilbert, pointing out what is essentially missing from even this analysis.
Trump's Magic Persian Carpet of Bombing: The Real Reasons Behind the US-Israeli War on Iran
A Persian Twist on Imperial Strategy
The current US-Israeli military campaign against Iran represents what could be called "Trump's magic Persian carpet of bombing" - a strategic operation that aims to reshape the entire Middle Eastern geopolitical landscape through coordinated military pressure. This campaign extends far beyond regional concerns, targeting the fundamental pillars of the emerging multipolar world order 1.
The Petrodollar System Under Threat
At the heart of this conflict lies the preservation of the petrodollar system, which has been the cornerstone of American economic hegemony since the 1970s. Iran's increasing use of alternative currencies, particularly the Chinese yuan, in oil transactions poses a direct challenge to this system. The United Arab Emirates has already begun selling liquefied natural gas to China in yuan rather than dollars, and even Saudi Arabia is reportedly in talks about similar arrangements 2.
The BRICS expansion, which included Iran as a full member in 2024, represents a coordinated effort toward dedollarization that threatens the foundation of US economic dominance. Iran's membership in BRICS alongside Russia and China creates what US strategists view as a dangerous anti-hegemonic coalition 3.
Breaking the Axis of Resistance
The fall of Assad's government in Syria has significantly weakened what was known as the "Axis of Resistance" - the Iran-led coalition that included Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and Ansar Allah in Yemen. This collapse has severed Iran's primary Arab ally and disrupted the network that had successfully challenged Israeli and US interests in the region for decades 4.
The strategic timing of the current military campaign against Iran follows this weakening of the resistance axis, as Israel and the US seek to capitalize on Syria's removal from the coalition. With Syria now under a government that has expressed willingness to normalize relations with Israel, Iran finds itself increasingly isolated in the region 5.
The China-Russia-Iran Partnership
Perhaps most significantly, this war aims to break apart the strategic partnership between Iran, Russia, and China - what former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski once warned would be "the most dangerous scenario" for American hegemony. This trilateral relationship forms the core of the emerging multipolar world order and represents the greatest long-term challenge to US global dominance 6.
The ultimate target of this strategy is China, as the only nation with sufficient economic and military capacity to challenge American hegemony. By isolating Iran and potentially driving a wedge between Russia and China, the US seeks to prevent the consolidation of this anti-hegemonic alliance 7.
Geopolitical Chokepoints and Energy Control
Iran's strategic location gives it control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which 21% of the world's daily oil supply passes. This chokepoint, combined with Iran's position as the world's third-largest natural gas producer, makes it a critical player in global energy markets. The current military campaign seeks to ensure that these strategic assets remain within the US sphere of influence rather than being used to support alternative economic arrangements 8.
Conclusion: A Global Imperial Strategy
What presents itself as a regional conflict is actually a comprehensive imperial strategy designed to preserve American unipolar dominance in the face of an emerging multipolar world. The "magic carpet" metaphor is apt - this bombing campaign is intended to transport the Middle East back to an era of unchallenged US hegemony, crushing the forces of decolonization and multipolarity that threaten the existing world order.
The success or failure of this strategy will likely determine whether the 21st century witnesses the emergence of a truly multipolar world or the continuation of American global dominance through military force and economic coercion.
PART 3. COntrol of the expressions of Central Bank Liabilities.
The Banker's Confession: A CBDC Revelation
"Our analysis on CBDC in particular for the general use we intend to establish the equivalence with cash and there is a huge difference there for example in cash we don't know for example who is using a one hundred dollar bill today we don't know who is using a one thousand pesos bill today a key difference in the CBDC is that central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability and also we will have the technology to enforce that those two issues are extremely important and that makes a huge difference with respect to what cash is."
Part 3 , A Chestertonian Quip:
How delightfully honest of them! They've just admitted that the difference between old money and new money is the difference between a private conversation and a telephone call with the government listening in. They want to create "cash equivalence" in rather the same way that a prison uniform is "clothing equivalent" - technically true, but missing the rather important detail about who gets to decide when you can take it off. One might say they've solved the ancient problem of monetary privacy by the simple expedient of abolishing it entirely. Rather like curing insomnia by removing all the beds.
The Great Game of Monetary Marionettes: A Chestertonian Meditation on the Persian Carpet Bombing
Being a Personal Reflection on the Curious Case of Unipolar Illusions and the Bank for International Settlements
I. The Paradox of Perpetual Unipolarity
I find myself in the peculiar position of a man watching a magic show where everyone insists on debating whether the rabbit came from the left hat or the right hat, when the real trick is that there was never more than one magician. The current hullabaloo about "multipolar" versus "unipolar" world orders strikes me as rather like arguing about whether we have a monarchy or a republic while ignoring that both the king and the president take their orders from the same banker 1.
The Bank for International Settlements, established in 1930, has been the world's oldest international financial institution and remains the principal center for international monetary cooperation 2. What strikes me as deliciously ironic is that while we've spent decades debating Cold War bipolarity, the real power structure has remained as unipolar as a spinning top - with Basel as its fixed point.
II. The Cold War Pantomime
The supposed bipolarity of the Cold War was rather like watching two actors argue on stage while the same director controls both their scripts. Moscow and Washington may have hurled nuclear threats at each other, but both their central banks danced to the same Basel waltz. The Soviet Union may have pretended to reject capitalist finance, but even they couldn't escape the gravitational pull of the international monetary system established in the aftermath of the Great War 3.
What we're witnessing now in Iran, Syria, and the broader Middle East isn't the collapse of multipolarity - it's the latest act in a very old play about who gets to sit at the high table of monetary control. The Axis of Resistance wasn't resisting unipolarity; it was resisting a particular expression of the same underlying unipolar system 4.
III. The Digital Gulag and the Winner-Takes-All Casino
Here's where things become genuinely novel, and rather terrifying. The modern innovation isn't the end of bipolarity - that was always theatrical. The innovation is what I call the "winner stays on" model of elite competition within the established monetary framework. It's as if the house has decided that instead of multiple card tables, there will be one table, and whoever wins the hand gets to decide not just the stakes, but how everyone else is allowed to spend their chips.
The surveillance apparatus and artificial intelligence systems represent something unprecedented: the ability to control not just the creation of money (which central banks have always done), but the precise allocation of how that money can be spent. It's the difference between owning a theater and directing every actor's movements on stage 1.
IV. Asperger's versus Bipolar: The Psychological Architecture of Power
This brings me to the most fascinating aspect of our current moment - what appears to be a genuine psychological schism within the ruling class itself. We have, on one side, what I might call the "Asperger's faction" - represented by figures like Musk - who approach global control with the systematic precision of an engineer debugging code. They see inefficiencies in the current system and want to optimize it.
On the other side, we have the traditional "bipolar globalists" - the old guard who have managed the system through cycles of crisis and recovery, war and peace, boom and bust. They understand power as fundamentally cyclical and emotional.
The Iran conflict, then, isn't really about Iran at all. It's about whether the BIS system will be managed by algorithmic precision or emotional manipulation. Both factions accept the fundamental architecture of central bank control; they're arguing about the user interface 2.
V. The Persian Carpet as Metaphor
The "magic Persian carpet of bombing" becomes a perfect metaphor for this struggle. A carpet, after all, is woven from many threads but remains one piece of cloth. The bombing isn't designed to create multipolarity or destroy unipolarity - it's designed to determine which pattern will dominate the weave.
Iran's real crime isn't challenging American hegemony; it's refusing to accept the new terms of engagement within the established monetary system. The BRICS expansion and dedollarization efforts aren't creating a multipolar world - they're creating alternative interfaces for the same underlying system of central bank coordination 3.
VI. The Beef, As They Say
So what's the real beef between these factions? It's the difference between those who want to perfect the machine and those who want to preserve the mystery. The Asperger's faction believes they can create a more efficient system of control through technology and rational management. The bipolar faction understands that power has always been about managing chaos, not eliminating it.
The tragedy - and I use that word deliberately - is that both sides have forgotten what they're supposed to be managing the system for. They've become so obsessed with the mechanics of control that they've lost sight of the human beings who are supposed to benefit from civilization.
VII. A Final Paradox
In the end, I'm reminded of that old joke about the man who complained that his watch was either fast or slow, never right. "Ah," said his friend, "but at least it's consistent." The BIS system has been remarkably consistent since 1930 - consistently serving the interests of those who control the creation and allocation of money 4.
The current Middle Eastern conflicts, the AI revolution, the surveillance state - these are all symptoms of a deeper question: whether humanity will be governed by algorithms or emotions, by rational optimization or cyclical chaos. But perhaps the real question we should be asking is whether we need to be governed by either, when the whole system rests on the rather simple premise that someone, somewhere, gets to decide what counts as money.
And that, I suspect, is a question neither faction wants us to ask.
The author acknowledges that this meditation was inspired by observations about the persistent nature of international monetary control, regardless of the political theater that distracts us from its operations.