Alex did as he was told and, because so, it took him more than a month to wade through the thirteen hundred pages of Tragedy and Hope. He printed maps, looked up locations, gathered additional information on important events and, of course, wrote pages and pages of notes. Each notation included the topics covered and the pages where the information could be found for future reference. By the end, he had a list of more than three hundred individual entries. From cover to cover, Tragedy and Hope was the story of power.

Banking dynasties engaged in secrecy and deceit, controlling business and government, Rockefeller and Morgan control, pages 51-72.

Use money to manipulate both sides in politics, pages 73-74.

Central banks dominate the government, central bank "leaders" are nothing more than "agents of the dominant bankers who raised them up and can throw them back down," page 327.

US Education system "has been, consciously or unconsciously, organized as a mechanism for indoctrination. . .more concerned with instilling attitudes and behavior than intellectual training," page 1249.

Adolf Hitler's blood purge, page 442.

Joseph Stalin's purges, page 1005.

Landlord purge in China, millions executed, page 1159.

Citizens must be armed to prevent slaughter and authoritarian rule, pages 34-37, 187, and 1200.

Alex's notes seemed to go on forever, and he now understood why Howard wanted him to write a short book on the topic of power. He could easily fill three hundred pages on the single subject of banking dynasties using their money and influence to control government, industry, and society.

Though Alex didn't like the author's writing style (too dry and heavy on minor details), the extent of the professor's knowledge truly amazed him. After reading about the countless world-changing events covered in the book, Alex felt like he'd finally been given a seat at the adult table. Far from the ridiculous version of "how the world works" taught in school, this book described a never-ending struggle for domination. Each tragedy had been planned, funded, and set in motion by only a handful of very powerful men. Those men, in pursuit of their desires, altered the world forever.

Tragedy and Hope, along with the additional research it led to, broadened Alex's perspective immeasurably. The day after completing it, he had no choice but to conclude that Howard was right. There was a mental gap that separated the dominant class from the so-called inferior class. However, he suspected that Howard was wrong about the nature of that separation. It was not, as Howard contended, an issue of genetic intelligence. Rather, it was simply an issue of knowledge and maturity, like the mental gap that separates a parent from a child. It seemed like a reasonable analogy.

In everyday life, the parent takes care of adult things while the children are provided amusements and menial tasks to keep themselves busy. The parent knows and deals with the harsh realities of the world, while the children are told fairy tales. The parent lays down rules that he or she will freely ignore, while the children will be forced to obey. But little does the parent know that they, too, are being managed in a similar way—immersed in amusements, menial tasks, and fairy tales. Bound by rules that do not apply to the adults who handle the real business of the real world. Alex summarized the thought in his journal:

We believe we're "grown-ups" based on nothing more than our age and some extra privileges that come with it. We can smoke and drink, stay out late, eat all the junk food we want, and watch dirty movies. It's a very low bar, and it lines up perfectly with what Russell wrote in The Scientific Outlook:

"As for the manual workers, they will be discouraged from serious thought. As soon as working hours are over, amusements will be provided to prevent thoughts of discontent. . .One may assume that the rulers will be successful in making the manual workers foolish and frivolous."

There is just no way the average "foolish and frivolous" adult can compete with what they're up against. Their minds lack the necessary experience and information. They've been raised on fairy tales that were designed to keep them childish. Others will do their reasoning for them. Others will defend their rights for them. Others will make sure their retirement is secure and their kids will be properly educated. The only thing they're expected to do is amuse themselves after completing their daily chores. Russell said that the "ordinary men and women" would be made "docile, industrious, punctual, thoughtless, and contented." Well, that about sums it up. I'm ashamed at how ordinary I've been all of these years.

Alex shook his head, wondering how he could have possibly lived so long without noticing the real world that was all around him. He carefully searched his mind and, after a great deal of thought, he wrote:

How could I have noticed it? I never knew where to look. Hell, I had no idea I was supposed to be looking! And isn't that the whole point? Their scam only works because you don't know that you're being scammed. The illusion isn't meant to be discovered.

A brief pause, then he continued:

So, now that I know the scam, what's to stop me from showing it to other people? And once they know the scam, what's to stop them from showing it to even more people? If the dominant class depends on the illusion, what will happen to their power when the illusion is destroyed?

Immediately, Howard's voice rang out in Alex's head: "Run into the field of cows, Alex. Tell them all about the danger as they're happily grazing away. Hand them a book while you're out there. See how much good it does." As if answering Howard directly, Alex wrote:

I'm not naive. Obviously, some people won't listen. They'll happily continue "grazing" and ignoring reality; I get it. But I do NOT believe that they make up the majority of the population. Most people aren't going to be happy when they discover how they've been abused and manipulated. And they're definitely not going to approve of what the dominant class has planned for them and their children.

Alex went to bed with that thought firmly stuck in his mind. He was certain that others would be just as outraged as he was. They wouldn't simply roll over and allow themselves to be dominated by a tiny group of powerful criminals. He believed this with all of his heart. He had to believe it because the alternative was intolerable.

When Alex woke the following day, he seriously considered taking a break. He'd covered so much ground in so little time, his mind could use a rest. "Maybe rent a DVD, order a pizza, and have a few drinks to loosen up," he thought. It was then that he realized he'd been sober for more than a month. Could that be right? The idea hadn't even crossed his mind. "I've been too damn busy. I haven't been bored once," he mumbled to himself. "Haven't been bored. . ."

Alex hung on that thought for a minute. What if his binge drinking had been directly related to sheer boredom and self-doubt? Feeling like a loser for being a grown man living in his mother's basement, a grown man dreaming of writing a book but making zero progress. It seemed like a reasonable theory. But his new sense of resolve and purpose erased those negative feelings completely. The self-destructive impulse to get hammered and spend hours the next day fighting vertigo and the urge to vomit? That was gone too. It was a nice bonus.

Alex eventually settled on a pizza, a DVD, and a light day's work. Instead of trying to get through as many pages as possible over the next twelve to fourteen hours, he'd accept anything over twenty-five pages as enough. With that in mind, he walked over to his desk and picked up Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger.

Browsing the table of contents, the name of the first chapter jumped out at him. He read it out loud: "The New World Order." Alex turned his head slightly. "New World Order; I've heard that term before."

Just as he was about to go online and look it up, the phone rang. He quickly set the book down, ran upstairs, and caught it before the end of the third ring. Once again, for some reason, he thought it might be Howard calling.

"Hello?"

Alex heard nothing.

"Hel-low?" Alex repeated.

"Hello. This is a very important message. You have been selected to receive a discount on your auto insurance. Please hold for the next available representative."

Alex hung up and walked back downstairs into the basement. He grabbed Diplomacy off the desk and began going over the table of contents again:

1. The New World Order — page 17
2. The Hinge: Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson — page 29
3. From Universality to Equilibrium: Richelieu, William of Orange, and Pitt — page 56
4. The Concert of Europe: Great Britain, Austria, and Russia —page 78
5. Two Revolutionaries: Napoleon and Bismarck — page 103
6. Realpolitik Turns on Itself — page 137

By the time he read the title of the final chapter—Chapter 31: The New World Order Reconsidered, page 804—he realized that he just wasn't up to the task. Taking it easy for the day or not, the idea of diving into another book that weighed in at over eight hundred pages was too much. Howard's promise that Kissinger demonstrated the necessary "genius and unemotional honesty" to function at the apex of power didn't provide any incentive either. Alex was pretty much tired of hearing from the so-called rational minds. He was ready to mix things up with a little "hopeless irrationality."

Expecting to join the ranks of the "irrational authors who waste their time trying to warn the herd," Alex figured now was a perfect time to read what one of those authors had to say. So, he tossed Diplomacy back onto the desk with a heavy thud and, with much more enthusiasm, picked up A Century of War by William Engdahl.

At just over 270 pages, Alex was sure he could get through Engdahl's book quickly and then get through at least some of Diplomacy before the next meeting with Howard. It didn't work out that way. Alex's light day turned into a full day, then another full day, and another and another. . .

A Century of War amounted to a history lesson that, on a smaller scale, rivaled Carroll Quigley's Tragedy and Hope. The book contained an enormous amount of really interesting information about historical events that Alex had never heard of. He discovered one glaring difference between the two books: as Engdahl described the crimes of powerful men, he made little effort to hide his contempt.

Quigley's intimate dealings with the dominant class had undoubtedly softened his account of their activities. Engdahl, on the other hand, pulled no punches. He not only explained how the dominant class buried nations in debt to gain control of them, stoked the fires of war, financed tyrants, engaged in assassinations, and betrayed their allies, he also stated the obvious: people who do such things should not be permitted to hold power.

A Century of War told the story of domination, with all its tragedy, the way it ought to be told. It named names and made no apologies. As Alex delved further and further into the book, he was pleasantly surprised to see the author single out Howard's favorite person, Henry Kissinger, on more than one occasion.

By Engdahl's account, Kissinger appeared to be everything you'd expect from an unemotional genius capable of functioning at the apex of power. After reading about a particularly disturbing event in 1973—a Bilderberg Group meeting where Kissinger and his buddies decided to sabotage industrial growth in other nations—Alex had to stop, not just to take notes but to vent:

I'm not sure that I'll ever get used to the way these people operate. I mean, it's so unbelievably criminal that it's hard to get your mind around it. In a rational world, somebody like this Kissinger guy would be put in prison—or worse. Instead, he's put in a position where he can abuse billions of people without suffering any consequences whatsoever. On pages 129–141, Engdahl writes that Kissinger was in charge of writing and implementing US policy toward developing nations. In other words, US policy was Kissinger's policy, and that policy was:

"to control, not develop, economies throughout the world. . .Population reduction in developing nations became the dominating priority during the 1970s."

Engdahl writes about a meeting in May of 1973 where Kissinger and other members of the dominant class decided on their strategy:

"What the powerful men grouped around Bilderberg had evidently decided that May was to launch a colossal assault against industrial growth in the world. . .In order to do this, they determined to use their most prized weapon—control of the world's oil flows. Bilderberg policy was to trigger a global oil embargo, in order to force a dramatic increase in world oil prices."

He then explains how the 1973 war between Israel, Egypt, and Syria was carefully orchestrated by Kissinger, acting in his position as both secretary of state and head of the National Security Council. The war enabled them to "force a dramatic increase in world oil prices." Specifically, they discussed a 400 percent increase at their meeting in May of 1973, and by January of 1974, that's exactly what they had. According to Engdahl, the massive price increase had the desired effect:

"For the less developed economies of the world, the impact of an overnight price increase of 400 percent in their primary energy source was staggering."

He cites examples: India had a healthy economy and plenty of dollar reserves to purchase its oil in 1973. They had $600 million in dollar reserves to cover, from what I gathered, was an annual oil bill of just $300 million. By 1974, the annual oil bill had quadrupled to $1.2 billion. So, all of their reserves were wiped out and they were still $600 million short. But it wasn't just India:

"Sudan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and country after country throughout Africa and Latin America were faced with gaping deficits.
. . .Developing countries in 1974 incurred a total trade deficit of $35 billion, a colossal sum in that day."

Of course, not everybody lost out on the deal:

"While Kissinger's oil shock had a devastating impact on world industrial growth, it had an enormous benefit for certain established interests—the major New York and London banks, and the oil multinationals of the United States and Britain."

Then there is the population-control part of Kissinger's policy. This was so hard to believe that I looked it up immediately. Surprise, surprise, the official US government document that Engdahl references does actually exist. I found the 123-page PDF with no problem. "National Security Study Memorandum 200." Based on what I can tell, it looks like it was a thirty-year plan written under the direction of Kissinger.

"In the midst of the oil crisis, Henry Kissinger issued NSSM 200, on the subject of 'implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security and Overseas Interests'. . .NSSM 200 argued that population expansion in select developing countries, which also contain key strategic resources necessary to the US economy, posed potential US 'national security threats.' The study warned that, under pressure from expanding domestic populations, countries with essential raw materials will tend to demand higher prices and better terms of trade for their exports to the United States."

So, based on this "problem," they named over a dozen countries that they wanted to target for population reduction. I'll have to read over the whole document; so far, I've just scanned the first few pages. Based on what I read, no wonder the plan was classified. In the table of contents, one of the first things I saw was "Action to Create Conditions for Fertility Decline." Probably don't want people to know something like that is official US government policy.

The plan was sent to the US Secretary of Defense, The Secretary of Agriculture, and The Director of Central Intelligence and approved by the President himself. But it gets worse. After doing some more digging, I read about a company named Epicyte. The USDA apparently gave them money to create spermicidal GMO corn; yes, that's right, corn that will sterilize whoever they feed it to! I saw something about this earlier and thought it might just be a rumor. Nope, it's real. Epicyte successfully created it in 2001.

Because each topic led to additional research, it ended up taking Alex over a week to finish A Century of War. That left him only a couple of days before his next conversation with Howard, but that was fine. There was no need to read Diplomacy because he'd seen all he needed to see. Given a choice between joining the "rational" dominant class or the "irrational" men like Engdahl, Alex knew that there wasn't any choice. Regardless of what it cost him, he could never join the dominant class. He wrote a final note in his daily journal:

I was never more excited in my life than when I found out that Howard's offer was real. I felt like I'd won the lottery. But I'm honestly not depressed about rejecting it. Yes, I'd LOVE to write a book and earn half a million dollars. It would be a dream come true. But not if I have to kill who I am and everything I want to be in order to make it happen. No way. Howard can keep his money; I'll keep my soul.