The Peter McCormack Show #158

Guest: Simon Dixon
Title: Why the World Feels Chaotic (And Who Profits)
Date: March 19, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Peter McCormack sits down with returning guest Simon Dixon to dissect why the world feels increasingly chaotic, who actually benefits from global unrest, and what the so-called "multipolar world" means for ordinary people. The conversation traverses geopolitical power plays, modern financial systems, the manufactured nature of wars, psychological trauma in modern society, and the rediscovery of spirituality. Throughout, Dixon delivers a sweeping, sometimes controversial, but deeply considered narrative about the structures governing global events—and how individuals can respond.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Real Rulers: Beyond the Surface

• Dixon asserts those who rule the world remain hidden—not listed in infamous files (like the Epstein files), but rather controlling and strategically using such files to maintain advantage and control during geopolitical transitions.
  • Quote: “The people that rule the world are not in the Epstein files. The people that rule the world are the people that control the Epstein files…” (00:00, 26:00)
• The current state of world affairs is a "transitional theater," where outcomes are largely pre-scripted by power factions. The chaos, casualties, and wars are real, but human welfare is not a central consideration.
  • Quote: “We are in a transitional theater. And by theater, I mean the bombs are real, the deaths are real, the casualties are real. But the outcome has been scripted…” (00:04, 36:23)

2. Modern Geopolitics as a Game of Risk

• Both Peter and Simon compare current global events to the game "Risk," where it appears as though nation-states are merely pawns manipulated by unseen hands.
  • Quote: “It just feels like Risk.” (00:45, 74:45)

3. Financial System Breakdown & Consolidation

• Simon argues the financial system is not collapsing, but rather consolidating power in transnational hands. Key events (wars, economic crises) usually result in the privatization of gains and socialization of losses.
  • “We're definitely not witnessing the end. We're seeing a consolidation of financial power and it is transnational in nature…” (03:03)
  • Asset holders (those owning capital, not labor) continue to benefit while the majority suffer.

4. Who Really Backed Trump, and Why?

• Dixon deconstructs the power behind Trump’s presidency:
  • Tech Industrial Complex (Elon Musk, PayPal Mafia): Building the control grid via AI, surveillance, programmable money (e.g., Palantir, digital IDs).
  • Financial Industrial Complex (Mellon family): Global distribution and securitization of capital; restructuring world order to benefit capital markets.
  • Military Industrial Complex (Adelson investments): Agitating strategic wars as profit mechanisms, especially in the Middle East.
    • “…Trump is the most transactional president. It’s so transparent...” (06:39)
    • “Tech had the most influence, banking second and military third…” (06:39)
• Trump’s administration actively weakened the dollar and restructured power, using chaos as a means to consolidate and redistribute global control.
• Wars in Venezuela and Iran described as “brochure” operations—Hollywood-style showcases of strength masking more complex, consent-driven asset realignments. (15:35, 21:33)

5. Engineered Conflicts and Resource Grabs

• Venezuela, Iran, and the Middle East wars are “engineered” to facilitate asset stripping and resource relocation, not organic conflicts or righteous interventions.
  • “So Venezuela was part of this multipolar world. So you know what, what the big finance and the financial industrial complex want...” (16:16)
  • Coordinated moves by world powers create the illusion of state-based conflicts, but deals are worked out behind the scenes for resource flows and regime arrangements.
• The true purpose: America and allied militaries act on behalf of private capital, securing resources, creating market crises to force asset sales, and leveraging chaos for profitable resets.

6. Multipolar World Order & The Mechanics of War

• Dixon details how new financial and geopolitical alignments (notably China’s manufacturing base and the Western move toward financialization) underpin the shift to a "multipolar" order.
• The “Iran war” is presented as a scripted transition to this new order, not as a spontaneous outbreak or clash of civilizations. Strategic closure of the Strait of Hormuz, sabotage, and insurance premiums are all mechanisms in a broader financial reset.
  • Summary Quote: “Yes. You have the military industrial complex... aligned with hardliners in the IRGC in Iran, the Zionist hardliners in Israel, and they profit from the forever war model. Okay, then you have the financial industrial complex... that wants regional stability…” (58:16)
• Outcome is choreographed: The winners are American and Russian oil interests, global capital allocators—while the cost is paid by ordinary people in the region and in the West.

7. Psychological & Societal Trauma

• Both speakers discuss the “pandemic” of psychological trauma afflicting Western societies as a byproduct of systemic disruption, disenchantment, and surveillance capitalism.
  • “The real pandemic is the psychological trauma that we’re all being put through.” (00:48, 74:46)
  • Dixon and McCormack reflect on increased levels of depression, societal division, loss of motivation, and general malaise—framed as deliberate outcomes of a system aiming to weaken and atomize populations.

8. Personal Response — Exit, Sovereignty, and Spirituality

• Dixon advocates personal sovereignty: accumulating hard assets (bitcoin, gold), self-custody, and building a 10-year personal plan to withstand financial and social upheaval.
  • “You need a ten-year plan to figure out how to beat inflation and survive in a multipolar world…Fixed assets is the way to solve that…” (00:55, 79:28)
• Both acknowledge extreme privilege in being able to prepare and withdraw, but urge listeners to begin planning immediately.
• Dixon and Peter share their own steps towards more analog, connected, human living: analog routines, spiritual practice, withdrawing from financialized investments, focusing on local community, and reevaluating relationships with technology.
  • “I've got to separate. I'm an ideological investor… Now every private equity investment I have steals my time… When you have counterparty risk, you have a theft of your time...” (83:16)

9. Religion and Rediscovering Guidance

• McCormack and Dixon engage in a candid, philosophical discussion about their personal searches for meaning. Dixon, unprompted, shares his conversion to Islam (rooted in independent study of the Quran), drawing a distinction between preserved scripture and corrupted institutional forms.
  • “The Quran is preserved scripture. Islam has thousands of scriptures… I personally recommend everyone read it from the perspective of thinking about everything that's happening today…” (90:33)
• Both lament a widespread loss of shared moral compass and the damage wrought by chasing material gain, advocating a more principle-based, spiritually aware approach to life and society.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Who Profits:
  • Simon Dixon: “Humans aren’t really a part of the equation. Like if they could have no humans and just AI and robotics, they'll take it.” (33:11)
• On Financial Systems:
  • Simon Dixon: “Unless you can do that, then you're on the wrong side of financialization, securitization and even our tokenization.” (03:03)
• On Psychological Fallout:
  • Peter McCormack: “I think there's a deep psychological trauma in this country that is coming to fruition now. And I think the country itself is depressed.” (76:13)
• On Exit Strategies:
  • Simon Dixon: “I just stopped trusting people. Every investment, you know, as a…I was a shareholder in about 100 different Bitcoin companies. Every single one of them let me down.” (81:49)
• On Spiritual Search:
  • Simon Dixon: “I do today. …I follow the Quran. …it gives you the outline. There's also mistranslations of the Quran…when you go into the Arabic to English, you realize all the games that were played as well.” (93:57, 94:07)
• On Happiness & Simplicity:
  • Peter McCormack: “…happiness is quite simple once you stop chasing that false God of money.” (103:14)
• On the Gameboard of Power:
  • Chamath Palihapitiya video: “The men that run the world, period…There are 150 other fucking guys with their worldview, and they don’t give a shit what you think…” (23:23)

Important Timestamps

• 00:00 – Opening insight: real rulers behind the Epstein files
• 03:03 – Financial system consolidation and "K-shaped" economy
• 06:39 – Who controls US politics: breakdown of backers
• 15:35 – Venezuela operation as a resource grab "brochure"
• 21:33 – How conflict is staged for public consumption
• 26:00 – The permanence of power networks and money laundering
• 33:11 – Human irrelevance to global power networks
• 36:23 – The Iran war as a transitional, scripted event
• 49:34 – China’s role, petrodollar collapse, and shifting alliances
• 58:16 – Summary of the new world order factions
• 74:45 – The psychological impact of living in “Risk”
• 79:28 – Personal strategies for sovereignty
• 90:33 – On reading the Quran and spiritual guidance
• 103:14 – Simple happiness after shedding material pursuits

Conclusion: Flow and Tone

The conversation is searching, passionate, at times despairing but ultimately focused on adaptation and self-determination. Dixon’s tone is conspiratorial but data-driven, earnest in his desire to alert and empower listeners. Peter is candid, reflective, and purposefully skeptical, acting as a foil and collaborator in the exploration. The episode is both a warning and a call for personal reinvention—advocating hard assets, community, spiritual reassessment, and pragmatic withdrawal from systems that no longer serve the average person.

Final takeaway: The chaos of the world is neither random nor unexplainable; it’s the product of deliberate strategies by deeply entrenched, interconnected networks. The best way forward is personal sovereignty, clarity of values, and a commitment to real-world, tangible relationships and assets. Start making your own ten-year plan—now.