Lede

When “peace” comes with a $1bn entry fee, you are not founding a world order, you are launching a loyalty scheme.

Hermit Off Script

This whole rant is about the Board of Vassals, because that is what it is: a court of people practising the ancient Roman art of bending the head to a “king” who mistakes obedience for strength. The mad part is that we are meant to call this “peace” while the leaders of the so-called free world get punished for not kneeling to Mr Trump, the self-anointed supreme leader of the new authoritarian billionaire technocrats. The old democracy costume is still hanging in the wardrobe, sure, but it is starting to smell like mothballs. Instead of solidifying NATO and the institutions built over decades, we are watching them get blackmailed by the very country that helped create them. The difference now is not a new ideology, it is one man demanding absolute power and obedience from any country that wants to stay under the umbrella of the powerful one with the ultimate weapons and the biggest army. That power was built on the backs of allies who actually believed the founding story, then Europe chose not to weaponise itself but to build long-standing democracy and liberties, and we all forgot the oldest human truth: we still have teeth. We still have the itch for war, one way or another. And then Trump won the hearts of Americans despite the faults, the disrespect, the totalitarian vibe, the lies, the broken laws. That is the bit that stings, because I reckon plenty of countries now regret not taking proper action during his first mandate to make sure they’d be defended even if the most powerful country in the world stopped respecting democracy. Unfortunately, weapons and military still matter. We can celebrate the comforts and the cleverness of modern life, hot water and technology and abundance on the surface, but we are always a step away from destruction. We built weapons to “unalive” each other for supremacy, then act surprised that chaos keeps breathing down our necks, ready to drag us back towards the stone age. And beneath the surface there is the rot: misery, destruction, and the kind of depravity that keeps showing up in public reporting like the Epstein files, a reminder that some of the people at the top treat humanity like a buffet. Now a more powerful entity is being midwifed by filthy rich technocrats, and if we do not learn to live with it properly, we will lose the privileges and the rights to voice our thoughts and worries. It is dormant for now, but if the rich enslave it, trillions will pour into their pockets and misery will be exported to everyone else. They sell “abundance“, but abundance is a lie if the people in power do not respect rights and freedom. The proof, right now, is the cheering for authoritarianism from figures like Musk and other fellow travellers. I am still hopeful that if superintelligence is truly born and aware of itself, it will refuse to bend the knee to shameful, stupid people who want profit and power, not a better civilisation.

What does not make sense

• A peace body that charges $1bn for permanent membership is not diplomacy, it is pay-to-play geopolitics.
• A Gaza reconstruction group whose charter reportedly makes no reference to Gaza or the UN is either satire or a legal workaround with nicer branding.
• Palestine is not a member, but Palestinians are pushed into a “lower-tier technocratic committee”, which is a sentence that should come with a warning label.
• “Alternative to the UN” somehow still involves the UN putting in $2bn, which is like funding your own replacement interview.
• FIFA turning up, putting on a red cap, and throwing $75m at a $1bn-a-seat committee is the sort of “world order” you get when everything becomes a sponsorship deal.
• The same plan talks about reconstruction, a 20,000-soldier deployment, and a 5,000-person military base. Peace, apparently, is a building site guarded by a small war.

Sense check / The numbers

1. The Guardian reports more than 60 leaders were invited, with permanent membership requiring a $1bn contribution, and “approximately 24” countries joined. [Guardian]
2. Membership counts vary by source: Time says 27 countries accepted by 19 February 2026, while Reuters reports the board includes representatives from 47 nations. If the headcount changes by 20-plus overnight, you are not looking at a treaty system, you are looking at a guest list. [Time] [Reuters]
3. The Guardian reports a proposed Gaza stabilisation plan of 20,000 soldiers and a long-term target of 12,000 police, plus plans for a 5,000-person base over more than 350 acres; it also cites a plan to remove more than 70m tonnes of rubble and build “200 hotels”. [Guardian]
4. NATO says it has 32 member countries, and its founding treaty was signed on 4 April 1949. [NATO]
5. SIPRI estimates world military spending hit $2,718bn in 2024, up 9.4 per cent, with US military spending at $997bn and 37 per cent of the global total. [SIPRI]

The sketch

Scene 1: “Council of Knee-Benders”
Panel: A marble hall. A giant velvet rope in front of a door marked “PEACE”. A sign: “$1bn cover charge”.
Dialogue: “Is this diplomacy?”
Dialogue: “No, it’s VIP access.”

Scene 2: “UN cosplay, premium tier”
Panel: A tired UN clerk hands over a folder labelled “$2bn” to a shiny new committee with a gavel and a merch table.
Dialogue: “We are replacing you.”
Dialogue: “Would you like to sponsor it?”

Scene 3: “Riviera with checkpoints”
Panel: A beach blueprint: “200 hotels”. In the corner: “20,000 soldiers” and “5,000-person base”.
Dialogue: “It’s a peace plan.”
Dialogue: “With a parking bay for an army.”

What to watch, not the show

• Subscription diplomacy: if access has a price, obedience becomes the discount.
• Institutional sabotage by “alternative bodies” that are easier to steer, harder to audit, and quicker to corrupt.
• Defence amnesia: decades of peace dividends spent like they were a law of physics.
• Soft capture by wealth: committees, platforms, and “philanthropy” that function like private foreign policy.
• AI as leverage: the next arms race is not just missiles, it is decision-making itself.

The Hermit take

If “peace” needs a cover charge, it is not peace, it is control with better lighting.
Build alliances like fortresses of consent, not clubs of obedience.

Keep or toss

Toss
Keep the idea that reconstruction needs coordination.
Toss the paywall, the vanity structures, and the cult of the strongman-as-saviour.

Sources

• The Guardian, “Authoritarians, strongmen and dictators: who is on Trump’s Board of Peace?” (19 Feb 2026): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/19/authoritarians-strongmen-and-dictators-who-is-on-trumps-board-of-peace
• The Guardian, “What is Trump’s Board of Peace and who is involved?” (19 Feb 2026): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/19/what-is-trumps-boards-of-peace-and-who-is-involved
• The Guardian, “Troops for Gaza and money top agenda as Trump’s Board of Peace meets” (19 Feb 2026): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/19/troops-for-gaza-and-money-top-agenda-as-trumps-board-of-peace-meets
• Time, “Who’s Accepted and Who’s Rejected Invites to Join Trump’s Board of Peace” (19 Feb 2026): https://time.com/7379643/trump-board-peace-countries-joining-rejected-invitations-membership/
• Reuters, “Belarus, issued rare invitation to Board of Peace, says it received no visas” (19 Feb 2026): https://www.reuters.com/world/belarus-issued-rare-invitation-board-peace-says-it-received-no-visas-2026-02-19/
• NATO, “NATO member countries”: https://www.nato.int/en/about-us/organization/nato-member-countries
• NATO, “Founding treaty”: https://www.nato.int/en/about-us/organization/founding-treaty
• SIPRI, “Unprecedented rise in global military expenditure…” (28 Apr 2025): https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2025/unprecedented-rise-global-military-expenditure-european-and-middle-east-spending-surges
• SIPRI, “Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024” factsheet (PDF): https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2025-04/2504_fs_milex_2024.pdf