As if Things Weren’t Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. – WSJ.com — I’m thinking this guy is merely thinking that the fractal dissolution of the CCCP would be reflected in the USA. Yeah, right.
For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument — that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. — very seriously. Now he’s found an eager audience: Russian state media.
In recent weeks, he’s been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. “It’s a record,” says Prof. Panarin. “But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger.”
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it’s his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin’s views also fit neatly with the Kremlin’s narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.
Found by Pierre Bourgeois.
the funniest thing on that map: Alaska-will go to Russia. HAHAHAHA…yeah right. are they still pissed over losing alaska for, what, 6 bucks and a horse way back when? yeah, we will just hand over one of the largest places in the US for resources to the CCCP. i also dont envision kentucky, tennessee, virginia, W. virginia and the carolinas just lumped in with NYC and philly and Boston. sorry nor’easterners, but those hillbillys won’t want any part of that, AND THEY GOT GUNS!!! remember those??? and the midwest under CANADIAN control?? and if the sheep in california aren’t careful, they just may end up under chinese or japanese control. or would the really care?? i say let them secede to whoever will take them. and they can have the debt that you guys have run up over the years too. how many google-ites does it take to run a sweatshop anyway?? anyone?? anyone???
I doubt he forecasted the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years before hand and still kept his job. Some strange drunken shit comes out of Russia. Last week the Rossiya tv station released a “study” that found Stalin was Russia’s Greatest Leader.
Hey, we could be looking at the start of the Canadian car industry, if they get Detroit. But how does the Prof. imagine that the EU would want anything south of the Mason-Dixon line? They already have Italy and Romania, they don’t need any more economic basket cases.
How come Australia doesn’t get any? or do we just get all your criminals? 😉
What’s funniest is the automatic assumption that things would ‘break up’ by state lines. If the country is falling apart why the hell would we break up everything according to old state divisions?
Most likely it would break according to the largest population centers, so we’d have a DC/nova/md/DE block, a NYC/NE block, a Chicago/MW block, Florida, SE/Atlantic, Seattle/NW, SFO, LA, and then Texites would try to take over Mexico since they still can’t get over the Alamo.
I’m amused that the guy would think we’d fall apart before the EU would.
We’ve been hearing this same flippin’ thing since Khrushchev’s “We will bury you!”
Yea, someone got buried, but it wasn’t us.
I’m wondering if this is part of Putin’s reviving of the USSR. It all starts with propaganda, after all.
I first heard Igor Panarin’s prediction over a month ago and have been listening to the the “Talking Heads” and watching for commentary on the Web. The fact of the matter is, most have ignored it and those few that have actually addressed it have stated that as bad as the economy is here in the US it is far worse in most other places, and, with the fall in world oil prices, it is particularly bad in Russia.
I first heard of Igor Panarin’s prediction over a month ago and have been listening to the the “Talking Heads” and watching for commentary on the Web. The fact of the matter is, most have ignored it and those few that have actually addressed it have stated that as bad as the economy is here in the US it is far worse in most other places, and, with the fall in world oil prices, it is particularly bad in Russia.
Go ahead, make fun of him. I bet you morons were making fun of experts that were predicting the economic collapse of the US a couple of years ago too.
We’ll see who’s laughing in a year or two.
You IDIOTS have no idea what’s in store for us all… do you?
That’s just retarded. You will notice I don’t grace this “theory” with a thoughtful response – it doesn’t deserve it. Just because some kook can come up with a pretty illustration for his kookery doesn’t mean it’s worth discussing.
The US will no more break up than Spain did after its heyday, nor the UK nor France.
It will continue as is, quietly slipping into mediocrity and obscurity. Some old ranting former superpower wishing to relive its glory days. Desperate to believe it is still relevant.
A shark with no teeth.
We have already taken those first few steps. Russia is already way ahead of us down the path.
China and India are the new powers on the rise. And look for Dubai to become the Zurich of this new era.
Every empire has its day, then it either collapses or sinks into the dusk of history. Happened to Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome.
Cursor_
Alaska still would have been worth only 6 bucks and a horse with an additional jackass had the US not bought it. This kind of crap always comes up when “things are bad”. They always turn around. People who understand the process know that “it’s all on paper”.
I think Canada would be more inclined to grab Alaska, setup Palin as the defacto leader of the Vichy interim government (to keep the Alaskans focused away from them) and exploit its resources, hence diverting the oil to its nefarious plans….
The US may vary well split to pieces eventually, but the lines on this map seem very arbitrary. Would not the split follow more political lines? I hardly think that Texas is likely to become part of Mexico. If any part of the US is likely to join Canada it is probably New England or the west coast. And why on earth would any part of the US fall to China, Japan Russia or the EU?
Breaking up the United States into smaller components would do wonders for increasing the quality of life.
The federal government is too removed from the citizens and many states have very different ideas on how to run things.
It would be more efficient if the USA were a few different countries with populations of 50-80 million than 1 giant country where everyone gets “low quality service” by the governmental bureaucracies.
Texites would try to take over Mexico since they still can’t get over the Alamo.
So what’s your point 🙂
Anyway, we only want OK because we need OU to keep beating on.
The rest of the Blue can go to Hell.
I could much more easily believe internal stresses in a few states causing them to fracture, like California into north and south blocks, and maybe NYC breaking away from the leeches upstate. DC deserves to either become a state or join one, as the original philosophy of DC is moot today in face of the municipal reality.
California part of China, well I’ll bet China would close the border with Mexico and stop the mass immigration, this could be an improvement.
What you are saying is that yes Sally there is a rightwingnut contingency in Russia and they believe the same kind of crap the rightwingnuts believe in the USA.
Funny how nuts taste similar to one another–even if a few are legumes.
So when this happens, can I call my friends in Memphis “Yankees”?
I’m thinking that Igor Panarin has seen the old mini-series Amerika that was shown in 1987. It was about a Soviet takeover of the United States. Their plan was to breakup the US into smaller countries to stop any sense of American unity. The story centers on the midwest which was to become the country “Heartland” Although they were vague regarding exact borders, this map reminds me of the one that was used for that show.
New Mexico would never want to be allied with Texas, or the rest of the deep South. The state has more connections, culturally and financially, with Arizona and Colorado.
CCCP? Sorry, I don’t read Russian, and my keyboard doesn’t do the Cyrillic alphabet. What’s Союз Советских Социалистических Республик in English?
This map reminds me of the book “The Nine Nations of North America” by Joel Garreau, written back in the 80s. But his point was that there is a cultural divide among Americans. The map is similar, though.
I’m a gay listener to TWIT and reader of the blog. I can tell you from my own experience that there are people in the US who would go to civil war with a gun before they gave me my equal civil rights. There is that much hate in this country. Add the stress of economic collapse and the scenario is not unthinkable. It has happened all over the globe for millenia. Where the US fracture lines would fall is anyone’s guess. We’ve already had a war over equal rights for blacks and economics.
As a Canadian, I firmly refuse the offer of Central and North Central US. If we can’t have the West Coast or the Atlantic, you can keep it.
West Virginia in the European Union?????..??
WTF??….
#25
Well give you the red badge of courage for sticking things out. Thanks for not letting this topic get too silly!
Mister mustard товарищ?
@25: “there are people in the US who would go to civil war with a gun before they gave me my equal civil rights” – Depending what you consider equal civil rights. What I see is that in every state where equal civil rights were offered as such on ballots or as laws (NJ is perfect example) they have passed with large margins (75%+). That is unity. What is creating division are the extremist views. On the right that 25%- minority that actually opposes real civil rights struggle of the people who deserve them. On the left similar number of extremists who are not satisfied with the rights alone but want more. Again NJ example: every single legal right matching the married couples is given to the civil unions couples. What have happened at the law signing ceremony? Protests by the gay/lesbian community… Because, apparently all those rights were not what they were seeking. They wanted the name… Sitting in the middle I see this as intolerance of gay/lesbian community toward people who are different from them, equal to the extreme right intolerance toward gay/lesbian community.
Bad thing is that both extremist ends are the “militant” ones. And though the majority of the country is able to find proper balance, situation have reached the level where far left and right are able to slide country into breakdown with their intolerant views. Though the breakdown lines are way different than ones picked in the article…
#30 – dusanmal
>>Again NJ example: every single legal right
>>matching the married couples is given to the
>>civil unions couples.
Uh, not quite, Dus. If that were the case, they might as well call it marriage (duh!).
The fact is, NJ civil unions only confer STATE rights on the couple; they are still prohibited from receiving the same federal rights as heterosexual couples, including preferred immigration status, social security and medicare benefits, parental rights and veteran’s benefits, among others. Married same-sex couples in the US ARE afforded those rights.
Hench, second-class citizenship.
If it were only a question of nomenclature, then there would be no big deal. The whole point of creating a “civil union” is to deny those couples rights and benefits afforded to married couples.
Could it be any more self-evident?