It may be mostly schadenfreude, but Russian economist Igor Panarin is convinced that the current economic crisis has a political component which will eventually break the United States apart into as many as six separate nations. He's not alone in this belief. It has long been a staple belief of racist extremist groups and is now being predicted by some on the religious right who are ready withplans for how to rearrange the nation in the face of the Obama presidency. Conspiracy monger Alex Jones even got in on the act on his radio show this weekend, suggesting that there is an active globalist plot to weaken America by breaking it into several smaller nations. On Russia Today Panarin predicted the outbreak of a civil war in the United States by 2010. Panarin has developed some following as a trends forecaster, and while his predictions may seem outlandish, he is not alone in subscribing to the idea that a breakup of the US in a civil war might be the outcome of the current economic crisis. Panarin blames the impending crisis on poor monetary policy and the US abandonment of the gold standard, a concern which he shares with many on the extreme right in America. He sees a collapse in America equivalent to the Russian collapse of the 1980s as the economic crisis leads to infrastructure failures and a backlash from outraged citizens. Panarin is not alone in his beliefs. Trends forecaster Gerald Celente from the Trends Research Institute is also predicting tax rebellions, food riots, and the potential for civil war by 2012, largely as a result of the Obama administration's policies which he believes will accelerate economic collapse. Celente has made some successful trend predictions in the past, though his predictions seem to be directed largely by a far-right political ideology which includes the now-standard hatred for the Federal Reserve system which is common among Ron Paul supporters. The scenario for the collapse of the United States usually starts with food shortages and food riots, mirroring international food distribution problems which we saw emerging last year with the food shortages in Haiti and the problems with the rice crop in the far east. Couple that with sudden fuel shortages which cause the breakdown of the interstate trucking system, and you have a formula for regional failures in the supply of food. This might even be compounded by the collapse of the dollar leading to the inability of the US to buy food on international markets. I didn't get into it in the article, but I don't think the country breaking into autonomous regions or at least the reduction in the power of our current federal system would necessarily be a bad thing. Our founding fathers certainly didn't intend for the federal government to be nearly as strong or play as large a role in government as it does today. Taking power away from the central government and returning it to the states might be the solution to a lot of the problems we currently face, many of which stem from the role the federal government has played in mismanaging financial policy on a national level. My question is, if the country does break up into north, south, west regions, etc., will there be a playoff? Baritone, How silly.
Published December 02, 2008
Dave Nalle has been a magazine editor, freelance writer, capitol hill staffer, game designer and taught college history for many years. He is Vice Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus, working to promote liberty in the GOP. He designs fonts for a living and lives with his family just outside Austin. You can find his writings on politics and culture at Republic of Dave, on conspiracy theories at IdiotWars and on design and fonts at The Scriptorium.
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if the country does break up into north, south, west regions, etc., will there be a playoff?
The question is not if there will be a playoff, but what will the game be? One senses, if all this does come to pass, that it will not be football.
This howler is flagrant: "...while the Blue States have come out on top politically, the Red States are much more self-sufficient in resources and infrastructure."
The biggest state in the Union, California, defies this notion. Without the Blue state of California the union couldn't survive.
Sunday 4 January 2009
Written by Dave Nalle
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Nearly twenty years ago, I read a book, The Nine Nations of North America, by Joel Garreau.
Your discussion here reminds me a lot of it, but with a very different perspective, in that his "Nine Nations" were postulated on "clusters" (my word) of culturally related groups splitting off from all three North American countries to form smaller, more culturally cohesive nations than the existing three.
It was an interesting book, especially back in 1989.
As is this article.