RSS FeedUS Dissolves. Russian Hope or American Lesson?
This is a posting about a Russian analyst who believes the United States will not exist by 2010 and will be broken up into various parts owned by other countries. Sure, it’s silly stuff. But let’s look at the underlying reasons for such a prediction – while looking at ourselves.
LAS VEGAS, NV (January 3, 2009) – According to Igor Panarin, in two years I’ll be living here in Las Vegas under the government of the Peoples Republic of China.
Panarin is a Russian academic who has predicted that the United States would dissolve into four different countries and be run by other countries.
For example, the Northeast and parts of the Midwest would be part of the European Union. (Would that mean easier access to Amsterdam?)
The northern plains would be Canadian. (Think of how much better the NHL would be with fewer teams. And Canada almost certainly wins the gold medal in the winter Olympics.)
The Republic of Texas would be part of Mexico. (And this will bring one of the bloodiest civil wars of all time. Bush and Cheney would be the new el Presidentes, getting what they’ve wanted all along: controlling all oil reserves and declaring war on a group of people who are clearly evil — the drug traffickers.)
And folks like me in the Far West would be under China. (I can see us Las Vegans thinking that the gaming industry will prosper greatly. But I doubt our comrades in Idaho are going to be passive when it comes to the Chinese.)
And, here’s the best: Russia would get Alaska back. (Wouldn’t that be justice for Sarah Palin? If she’s still governor, she would be taking orders from Vlad Putin.)
Surely, this is silly stuff. Panarin is trained by the Kremlin so there is plenty of Russian wishful thinking. It makes me realize that Russian intelligence is as out of whack as ours was before 9/11.
I emailed the article to my friend, John Alexander, a PhD who consults for U.S. Special Forces. He wrote back: “While we have some significant problems, I suspect he (Panarin) is pretty far off base.”
Panarin really doesn’t appear (notice I said “doesn’t appear”) to “get” Americans. And I’d bet he never saw Casablanca. Remember the Nazi, Major Strasser. He asks Rick about German forces marching into New York City. Rick replies, “Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.” The same holds true today whether it’s Baltimore, Miami, LA, or Boise.
Apparently Panarin thinks Americans and Russians are alike. A Washington Post article offers some good counter-balance to Panarin. The article quotes Thomas Baerwald, an investigator in a project called “Beyond Borders” and past president of the Association of American Geographers. He compares Americans to the citizens who were living under the former Soviet Union.
“We constantly were corrected when we tried to use the term ‘Soviets’ as a catch-all phrase for residents of the U.S.S.R.,” Baerwald says. “People firmly told us that they were Russians or Lithuanians or Estonians or Ukrainians or other terms that identified a region or subregion that described their own geographical identity. In contrast, if you ask U.S. residents what term describes who they are, an enormous majority will reply ‘I am an American.’ Even in those places where regional loyalties are especially strong, such as Texas, loyalties to the U.S. are far greater than they are to states or regions.
Still, Panarin’s predictions resonate. He hits home in a slightly unsettling way. No one in America would have heard of Panarin if the Wall Street Journal didn’t publish a front-page story on his findings and the Russian media frenzy following him. Ironically, it is still the most read article on the Wall Street Journal online. Don’t negate this.
So, someone is obviously giving Panarin an ounce of “what if?”
And it’s for good reason, too. We are in a financial mess that most of us can’t figure out. We see our leaders – namely the supposedly smarts ones like Paulson and Bernanke – scratching their heads. President Obama has to put together a team that is non-partisan; in other words, they really have to work since going to Washington isn’t a perk anymore but a responsibility as a citizen of this country. He’s really serious and that scares us.
I’ve written about a possible Armageddon here. I still say you need to keep cash on reserve for 2009 and be prepared to protect yourself and your loved ones. Too often, I hear from friends – wealthy friends – who don’t sleep at night wondering if their fortunes are going to be wiped out.
We also hear from pundits, sure they seem extreme, who say we’re printing so much money that we will have devalued the dollar to nothing, leading us to a regional currency called the Amero that will include Mexico and Canada. Others say our debt is owned by China, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai: if we default, then they own us. Hey we trashed the analysts a few years ago who said we are headed for a housing collapse. Who wouldn’t at least listen to these new theories?
However, before you run for the hills with shot-guns and survivalist supplies or you start trying to speak a foreign language to get acquainted with your new oppressors or lawmakers, let me assure you I’m only making a point here. We’re not going to disintegrate.
However, Panarin’s theory is partially right. And this is the lesson we need to take from the theories of this Russian.
We have disintegrated as a country. We have strayed from our ideals. Am I condemning America? No, we suffered through 9/11 and its effects are far deeper than we imagined. As a result, we have, at times, stopped being the America we once were.
When President Bush and VP Cheney point to their enduring achievement, it’s that we were not attacked again on American soil after 9/11. They’re right. But they’re wrong, too. As a result of that goal, which we all clung to, we became a different country. We invaded Iraq. We told the rest of the world, “You’re either with us or against us.” We became a black and white country; we never saw the gray. Our leaders sounded like Fascists. We acted like Fascists, torturing to allegedly stop torture.
Am I condemning this out-going Administration? Not totally. I was not in their shoes. I don’t know what they faced. However in hindsight, they responded like frightened old men. They headed to the bunkers and failed to lead.
There’s a good book. It’s called, The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith With Our Values In A Dangerous World. It’s written by Anne-Marie Slaughter.
She points out that America is currently in a state of trying to seek power as an end in itself and as a result the world looks at us as ignorant, immoral, and incompetent imperialists.
Slaughter also points out that these values are the foundation of our country: liberty, democracy, equality, justice, tolerance, humility and faith. She points out how we have failed to live up to them.
What we show the rest of the world too often is Madison Avenue, rich and loud American entertainers, sports figures, and business executives who are the extremist minority of America. For instance, we never questioned Bernie Madoff because he was exceedingly wealthy, but that was the reason we should have questioned him.
The world sees the lavish Super Bowl half-time show but is never taught the intricacies or beauties of the football game. I don’t know about you, but I have barely seen any Super Bowl half-time show.
One of the consequences of losing our real values is this economic downturn. This is my take, not necessarily Slaughter’s. We offered plenty of liberty to certain interest groups who had money and pull with our elected leaders while failing to create equality – especially in business. Our founding fathers were worried about “human fallacies” so they gave us a system of checks and balances. This Bush Administration and some Democrats in power discarded those values – especially the checks on greed in business.
The two values we need to concentrate on are humility and faith. As powerful and as smart as we Americans are, we don’t have all the answers. We need input from other countries. We also need to say every now and then to the world, “We screwed the pooch.” The War in Iraq and the economic downturn would be two good places to start.
Subconsciously, we Americans know this. That’s why we voted the way we did in November. That’s why some forward thinking people like Newt Gingrich, now in the minority, are telling the GOP to start being a party of ideas, not whining obstructionists.
I think Obama will at least give us a humble face to the rest of the world. We’ll see how long that lasts when he faces the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Surely, we need to stand with Israel, but we also need to make sure that the power of the Israeli military doesn’t create more conflict among the down-trodden Palestinians. It’s in our interest – and Israel’s – to have a prosperous Palestine.
And our faith. We’ve lost a lot of faith – thanks to religion. Slaughter points out that many of our religious institutions divide us rather than including some of the good secular themes such as tolerance. And the secularists are just as much to blame (maybe me too) by automatically dismissing all of the overly religious as stupid or intolerant.
So, don’t read Panarin — and his theories of Russian wishful thinking — with disdain. No, read it with some humility and faith, and then take away something to make America stronger.
One Response to “US Dissolves. Russian Hope or American Lesson?”
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January 4th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Well John, there you go again.
“There’s a good book…” Author Ann-Marie Slaughter points out, “…, America is currently in a state of trying to seek power as an end in itself…”
I think we’ve been down this road before. Anyone remember, William Lederer? Wrote a book in 1958, which caused much more of a stir than our boy Igor Panarin could ever hope for! It was called, “The Ugly American.” Now there’s a title that gives you a lot of “bang for the buck!”
I’m sure old Bill never dreamed that over the next fifty years a slew of, “authors,” would plagiarize his work, each flogging himself/herself and all Americans, for, “…, the rest of the world look(ing) at us as ignorant, immoral, and incompetent imperialists.”
And, YES, even I will admit that we sometimes get carried away with ourselves. Forget the, “Stupid Bowl!” Look at, “Capital One Bowl Week.” An entire week devoted to college football games. Why, those, “swave, blaze and dubonette,” Europeans would never stoop to that leve…
“What’s that? The World Cup? Nope, never heard of it.” “How many?” “Over one hundred killed in riots?” “One of the Columbian National team members was shot and killed by a fan because he accidentally scored on his own team?” Jeez, when are we going to learn to act like that?
Yup, the ‘ol USofA is thought of so badly around the rest of the world that; people have stopped drinking Coke, eating Big Mac’s, using Apple products, Windows soft ware, and Caterpillar construction equipment. Nobody wants to come here to attend our universities, (and partake in Capital One Bowl Week) be treated in our hospitals, or visit our National Parks.
People around the world think we’re so arrogant that they DEMAND that we stop sending them aid, be it humanitarian or financial.
“YANKEE GO HOME,” isn’t just a slogan plastered on the walls of every home in South Boston! Why, just look around whenever you visit an airport or a seaport anywhere in the world.
Hell, things are so bad here that our citizens are fleeing by the tens of thousands! I’ll bet that Ann-Marie Slaughter is living with Igor Panarin right now, waiting for 2010, when they can move into the Governor’s mansion in Anchorage.
Just to show you how bad things have gotten; Governor Patrick, here in Massachusetts, sent an e-mail to President-elect Obama the other day, telling him, “Yo, Barak, no need to send any of that, “Bail-Out,” money. All those immigrants that have been using our public services, driving the costs of those services up so high that our tax paying citizens can’t afford them. You remember, we invited them to come and live and vote here. Well, we’ve become so ignorant. So immoral. Such incompetant imperialists, that they’re all getting on the buses that brought them here and going home to a better life.
I’ll finish now, got to go out into the backyard and find some fire wood. (Like the Chinese, I’m doing my part to reduce my, “Carbon Footprint.”)
But, before I finish, I’d like to tell Igor and Ann-Marie that I’m not going to apologise for being an AMERICAN!
And, you know what, before anyone breaks up the USA, a hero will emerge, maybe an ordinary citizen or maybe a citizen/soldier, and take up the mantle of General Curtis LeMay and General Jack D. Ripper.* Maybe someone right out there at Nellis, who will have the testicular fortitude to say to all of the naysayers around the world,
“Nah,Nah,Nah,Nah. Nah,Nah,Nah,Nah. Hey,Hey,Hey. Goodbye!”
And then drop a bunch of those Neutron Bombs that having been laying around for the last 40 years!
Problems solved!
Thank you for your time.
*You know who he is! If not, ask Sal.