10:18:11 Reinventing Collapse, a book review

Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects by Dmitry Orlov is a welcome addition to "doomer" literature about societal collapse. Imagine NPR's Andrei Codrescu introducing a dystopian future and working the laughs. That's some sense of what's in store when you read Orlov's upbeat narrative with its engaging black humor. But beyond the humorous take on a grave topic, Orlov shares a valuable perspective. He grew up in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and immigrated to the USA in the 70s. He witnessed firsthand the collapse of the Soviet Union during return trips. With bicultural eyes, he astutely essays why America could suffer a similar superpower fate.

[reinventing collapse]Unlike other "doomer" books, Orlov doesn't pin his thesis to one factor going south. Currently, worldwide debt crises are in play. Everyone talks about credit market collapse. Earlier, the Peak-Oil theorists pointed out a really different post-petroleum future. Orlov, in this second edition of Reinventing Collapse, avoids singular dependencies, instead offering the whole gestalt for why the Russian experience probably applies to us.

Sure, every American knows why America differs from Russia: democracy and capitalism versus socialism and central planning. And concludes Communism earned its way into history's dustbin. But wait, what of the similarities? Why for three decades were these two superpowers either #1 or #2 in "the space race, the arms race, the jails race, the hated evil empire race, the squandering of natural resources and the bankruptcy race," as Orlov puts it. None of these "races" is sustainable and eventually the piper must be paid. Or, as Orlov puts it, the nation has a poof moment like his Motherland Russia.

Perhaps Orlov's most valuable contribution is he knows pre-collapse conditions in the Former Soviet Union and how those conditions changed post-collapse. Russians adapted and made the transition. With tell-it-like-it-is dark humor, Orlov projects the Soviet collapse experience onto what might happen in America. Not quite the same. Russia had a relatively "soft landing" post-collapse, given subsidized housing, cheap mass transit, free universal health care--among other missing ingredients if America reinvents collapse. Orlov doesn't know if America is in for the Mad Max-type hard landing. But his analysis of why America might no longer be Earth's favorite child-nation and how we might adapt and prepare for "interesting times,"--told with signature humor--makes for great reading.

Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects, Second Edition by Dmitry Orlov, New Society Publishers, 2011, 196 pp., ISBN: 978-0-86571-685-8


Read more ...

(click to enlarge image)

The Cat at Light's End

Read the story collection, The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:

.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)



more posts

7:25:13 Le Havre by Kaurismaki
7:20:13 This Ain't California
6:27:13 The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, a book review
5.29.13 My Linux (Mis)Adventures
5.25.13 Southern Cross the Dog, a book review
5.5.13 Russian Tumbleweed
4:16:13 "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster
3.26.13 Camera-rama
3.25.13 Moore's Law
3:13:13 Grocery Shopping 
2:28:13 Razor Blade in Moonlight
1:27:13 Made in Russia: Unsung Icons of Soviet Design, a book review
1:6:13 Alleys
12:9:12 White Bread, a book review
12:4:12 Update on Old-School Shaving
11:12:12 Ten Great Buys at Dollar Tree
11:6:12 My New Russian Camera
10:29:12 Leaf Day
10:2:12 The Russian Navy in New York?
9:21:12 The Righteous Mind, a book review
9:14:12 Revolution, 1989, a book review
8:23:12 Train Whistles in the Night
8:2:12 Why I've Stockpiled Light Bulbs
7:22:12 Old-School Shaving
7:16:12 Злектроника МК-52, computer de minimus
7:4:12 Ivan's Childhood by Tarkovsky
6:21:12 The Unabomber, a modern Thoreau?
6:12:12 Do the gods exist?
6:7:12 My "Retail Therapy"
5:28:12 On Taxes, We Should Go Green
5:17:12 Portland's Trash
5:6:12 The Toaster Project, a book review
4:24:12 No Seconds
4:12:12 Portland's Runaway Utility Bill
4:8:12 The Repossession, a book review
3:30:12 How I Got Published in Mississippi Review
3:18:12 Rothko
3:9:12 The End of Money, a book review
3:1:12 gutenberg.org
2:18:12 Beauty Plus Pity, a book review
2:5:12 Kirk's Castile Soap
1:29:12 Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer, a book review
1:22:12 Thirst, a book review
1:17:12 My IBM ThinkPad 1999-2012
1:11:12 String Beans
12:22:11 Spiritual TMJ
12:16:11 1Q84, a book review
12:11:11 How Portland Became Portlandia
12:1:11 The Fixie
11:20:11 Camus' Insight
11:13:11 Old & Worthy
11:7:11 Life Is Tragic
10:31:11 A Matter of Death and Life, a book review
10:25:11 Dead Letter, Email Fatigue
10:18:11 Reinventing Collapse, a book review
10:11:11 Rereading Pirsig
10:1:11 The Sisters Brothers, a book review
9:26:11 The Great Stagnation, a book review
9:16:11 Coffee, The Affordable Luxury
9:12:11 The Genius of Value
9:5:11 Death and the Penguin, a book review

home