As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.I've always loved the WSJ stipple portraits.A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.
'There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur,' he says. 'One could rejoice in that process,' he adds, poker-faced. 'But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia.' Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.
Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.
The coolest thing about this map is how closely it resembles the divisions as outlined in one of the great science-fiction author Robert Heinlein's books. I believe it was Friday, but I might be mistaken.
For those who say the United States of America can't split up as quickly as less than two years, anyone remember how quickly the Soviet Union fell and divided? It was lightening fast and with (relatively) little bloodshed. Perhaps citizens of the different geographic locales of the United States are ready for such a split. I'd shed no tears over seeing the Texas Republic break away. The Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin seem natural partners for Canada. As for the states west of the Rockies becoming the California Republic, I'd suggest the more appropriate name change of New Sodom. We'll have black jack and hookers and once we break away from the draconian ways of the old guard, it would be almost certain that we'd have the best weed, too.
My campaign is lean and agile enough that I should have no problems switching to a run for el Presidente del Nuevo Sodom!
6 comments:
I certainly can see the Nation disintegrating into various parts, but the map is pretty preposterous.
Not just because it groups Idaho and Utah with California or that with a combined population and GDP much larger than Canada's, the Midwest would be the more dominant partner, but because the political divisions in the US are much less between regions or states than between rural and urban areas.
If the Union were to dissolve in the near future I suspect the map would consist of a lot of corridors and enclaves. I can picture the next Kurt Russel movie: "Escape from Austin".
Oh, and I don't think this guy realizes how fucking nuts Alaskans are. Palin is considered a moderate up there. The only way that the US government kept them from going completely apeshit over the last 40 years is by using the same tactic that they've started using with the Shiite and Sunni militias in Iraq. That is: pay them billions of dollars to keep a lid on things, and try to ignore their corrupt farce of a political system.
Very much agreed on the rural vs. urban divide. In fact it has been an observable worldwide phenomenon. In English speaking nations across the globe there has been a softening and gradual homogenization of the language while accents continue to get thicker and more localized in rural areas. But it makes for a lousy political map.
I can come to terms with a West of the Rockies divide established by trade relations. I still can't see states like the Carolinas, Virginias, Tennessee, and Kentucky wanting a continued offiliation with New England if they have an opportunity to hook up with the other NASCAR states. Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri would probably join them. As for the Midwest falling under Canadian control, that could easily be flipped. If it were mine to give away, I'd let the Native American tribes split up Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Alaska's corrupt political system with government payoffs would be a natural fit for Russian politics.
Just posting to second (or third) the notion of "that map is nuts". If the proverbial shit hits the oft-prophecied fan, things won't break in accordance with that map.
No offense to X, but there's no way we're letting Idaho join New Sodom.
That little fact puts the rest of Panarin's theory on shaky ground, since he obviously doesn't actually understand the cultural, political, and idealogical forces at work in the US. He's just another nutjob doomsayer - not unlike me.
The Russians like to be on the receiving side of corruption. They're not going to want to pay for it.
I am opposed to any map that puts the sovereign state of North Idaho lumped together with South Idaho.
It ain't happening.
SHIt! As evidence of the ONGOING and DESTRUCTIVE South Idaho plot to destroy us, my computer was accidently signed in to X's ID when I posted that last comment.
For the record, I'm the one opposed to the map that puts North and South together. I happen to know X agrees with me, but that IN NO WAY excuses the Evil Fuckers who caused this mix-up.
You know who you are.
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