US breakup: Myth or reality?

[Nica_In_Love 98]

The US might collapse into six pieces, according to a theory proposed by Russian political scientist Igor Panarin. And the current economic crisis in the country, amplified by mass protests, might be the beginning.

In the article below, Panarin explains his view.

The enormous foreign debt ($15 trillion), the huge budget deficit ($1.5 trillion), and the growing number of social protests indicate that my assumption of the US breaking up into six parts is still relevant.

On September 9, 1998, I first voiced my hypothesis of the possible disintegration of the US into six parts in 2010, at a conference named “Information War” in the Austrian city of Linz. The primary reason, as I said then, would be financial and economic problems.

2010 is of course long gone, but the US is still alive and kicking. Is it time to dismiss my 2010 hypothesis as irrelevant? Apparently, no. Time has shown that the US still cannot solve the problem of its foreign debt. When I addressed the Linz conference, it was $2 trillion; now it’s $15 trillion, which means that it soared more than 7 times within 13 years. It’s a road to nowhere because the country will never be able to pay it off. Here’s an example: During the 6 years of Gorbachev’s rule, the Soviet Union’s foreign debt grew fivefold, and earlier, during World War I, the foreign debt of the Russian empire grew 5.5 times. This, among other reasons, was enough to prompt a collapse of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

Barack Obama was elected president amid public discontent with the policies of George W. Bush and the outbreak of the global financial meltdown. The decisive thing behind his victory in the election (he beat John McCain by just 7.5 per cent of the vote) was Americans’ hopes for positive changes. These expectations were aptly exploited in Obama’s campaign as the slogans of “Hope” and “Change.” That is why grassroots Americans viewed Obama as a man who could lead the nation out of the crisis.

Several years have since passed, bringing little to no change. Many of the Obama administration’s moves to speed up economic recovery after the 2008 crisis have failed. Thirty-eight US states had a budget deficit when Obama started his term in office, and the number has grown since. Forty-nine US states are now suffering from a budget deficit. Five times the number of banks that went bankrupt in 2008 threw up the white flag in 2010.

My forecasts seem to be coming true. The number of people forced to use food stamps in the US keeps growing: it grew by 74 per cent over the past three years. Unemployment is growing, too. All of this is fuelling protest moods among the people (a case in point being the Occupy Wall Street protests that have spread to almost all US states).

Mass protests in the US began on September 17, with a crowd attempting to picket the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, the movement against social injustice and corporate greed called Occupy Wall Street has spread to dozens of US cities and even to other countries. Up until quite recently, the protests across the United States were relatively peaceful, but October 25 saw mass clashes with the police in Oakland, California, where riot police moved in to tear down the protesters’ tent city. The police used tear gas and were altogether tough in handling the protesters. The Oakland scuffle was followed by a similar crackdown in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, where the police ripped down over 75 tents and arrested some 100 activists.

Among other things, the protests in the US have highlighted the ever-deepening split within America’s ruling elite, which was made explicit during the US debt-ceiling crisis that preceded the signing of the Budget Control Act on August 2. Many of the OWS activists are also Democrat supporters who backed Barack Obama during the last presidential election. As for the president himself, Obama unleashed stark criticism of Wall Street and the Republican-dominated Congress during an appearance at the University of Colorado, Denver, on October 26.

The overlapping financial, economic and social challenges may eventually cause the world’s strongest superpower of the 20th century to collapse.

Remarkably, a number of analysts in the United States share this opinion. Gerald Celente predicts a disintegration of the US in 2012, while Stephen Cohen projects a similar outcome for 2013. Military analyst and Vietnam War veteran Thomas Chittum warns that the United States could face Balkanization and a “second civil war” based on racial conflicts by 2020.

Source: http://rt.com/politics/panarin-usa-collapse-economy-905/

[Captain Oates 910]

It's a fascinating theory and not altogether out of the question.

I have always been into politics but in the UK one has to look for a program on telly that deals with it and people only mention politics in 'normal' life for about 3 weeks every 4 years - just before before the election. Here in the US its a national obsession all the time - every hour every day every week and all over the bumper stickers.

It might be worse just now because a black family are using the white's only toilets in the white house and many people can't stand that

Nevertheless it's the case that Seattle is Chinese/Korean/Japanese and the rest of the West coast is Mexican and the population trends are set and the cultures are diverging fast.

I live on the East side of the cascades and it might as well be Idaho - they hate the people on the West who are non-white and liberal and they have nothing in common with them. There are separate tribes in the US who are different as African bush men to Eskimos in their culture

Perry was talking about Texan secession and the splits aren't even at breaking point yet. Far from it.

But the culture gap between the educated enlightened North and the ignorant, under educated, religious South are huge and plain to see. Add the left over resentments from the civil war and the country no longer functions politically.

If a country no longer functions politically because the people are too diverse in their cultures, then yes we have Northern Ireland/Kurdistan/Kosovo etc etc and separation is not a choice but a natural and unstoppable consequence

The only way the US can function again is by adopting a parliamentary system where the election winner gets to run the country for 4 years. That's not going to happen and so yes it will split - in 50 or a hundred years time - a very short time from now

Edited October 29, 2011 by Austin Devon

[dalegg 143]

The US might collapse into six pieces, according to a theory proposed by Russian political scientist Igor Panarin. And the current economic crisis in the country, amplified by mass protests, might be the beginning.

In the article below, Panarin explains his view.

The enormous foreign debt ($15 trillion), the huge budget deficit ($1.5 trillion), and the growing number of social protests indicate that my assumption of the US breaking up into six parts is still relevant.

What? The U.S is suffering from a huge budget deficit/debt and there is a growing number of social protests so the European Union is going to be able to take over part of us (not to mention Mexico and Canada)? I guess once they solve Greece's problems they'll just move on to helping out the U.S.

Edited October 29, 2011 by dalegg

[skiptex 225]

he left out part where TEXAS would just secede..

[Danno 1,228]

The theory where the European union assumes the South East is just silly as is his premise on a whole.

For any type break up to occur we would need a huge amount of demographic relocation to consolidate various groups.

While the Hispanic dominance in the South West and California is a certainty the rest of the country is much more a jumble of creeds, races, and political out looks.

A clean 4-6 part break-up would be a best case situation.... if any such break up comes.

I suspect we will slide into a bankrupt 3rd worldish existence with everyone blaming each other how it happened (Complete with translations).

[Misha & Ira 113]

I suspect we will slide into a bankrupt 3rd worldish existence with everyone blaming each other how it happened (Complete with translations).

Agreed...

[mawilson 2,133]

What? The U.S is suffering from a huge budget deficit/debt and there is a growing number of social protests so the European Union is going to be able to take over part of us (not to mention Mexico and Canada)? I guess once they solve Greece's problems they'll just move on to helping out the U.S.

More likely, we'll take over the EU

[Ban Hammer 12,829]

on the bright side, i'll be in canada and can get timbits easier then.

[Misha & Ira 113]

on the bright side, i'll be in canada and can get timbits easier then.

Take off, eh?

[Ban Hammer 12,829]

Take off, eh?

i sing that song while shoveling snow.

[Misha & Ira 113]

What I like about SC...is I don't have to shovel the rain

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

Who would have guessed that the Berlin Wall would fall? Who would have guessed that the USSR would break into pieces? Who would have guessed that Yugoslavia would have a civil war that would break it up? Who would have guessed that the Middle East would see such an uproar?

My honest take on this? It's possible, just possible, that the Occupy Wall Street movement will gain momentum, so much momentum that even the President cannot afford to be silent about this, and that We The People will demand that corporations are not people and that their money will not run this country. It's possible that we will eventually see publicly funded elections, and that we will have a government by the people, for the people. It will not cause a breakup of the United States, but it will be a revolution nonetheless. If that happens, the U.S of tomorrow will be much different from the U-ess-ay it is today.

God save the Queen, and power to The People!

[Danno 1,228]

Who would have guessed that the Berlin Wall would fall? Who would have guessed that the USSR would break into pieces? Who would have guessed that Yugoslavia would have a civil war that would break it up? Who would have guessed that the Middle East would see such an uproar?

My honest take on this? It's possible, just possible, that the Occupy Wall Street movement will gain momentum, so much momentum that even the President cannot afford to be silent about this, and that We The People will demand that corporations are not people and that their money will not run this country. It's possible that we will eventually see publicly funded elections, and that we will have a government by the people, for the people. It will not cause a breakup of the United States, but it will be a revolution nonetheless. If that happens, the U.S of tomorrow will be much different from the U-ess-ay it is today.

God save the Queen, and power to The People!

Just a little perspective, The Occupy crowd is like 4000 strong, the Boy Scout Jamboree had 40,000.

Edited October 30, 2011 by Danno

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

We should unload The Peoples Republic of California for starters.

[james&olya 1,121]

I can see how the current government structure of the US could fail and where there could be a resultant fragmenting of the country much like what happened to the USSR. Possible but unlikely. But doesn't it occur to this author that in the USSR breakup the resulting national entities gained, rather than lost, political independence! How does he imagine it would be different here, that Canada, Mexico, and the EU would absorb parts of the US? And even though China might own much of our debt, that still would not result in it being able to absorb the west coast!