Dimitry Orlov On The Symmetry Of Systems Failure; USSR vs. US - Energy Bulletin

[hatrack]

EDIT

D: Dmitry, you were raised in Russia but came here in your youth, worked here but have been back and forth between Russia and the United States for some decades. Dmitry is the author of a book called Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects. I think a lot Americans think the Soviet Union collapsed, we're the superpower, we control the world, and nothing like that could happen to us. You've also got a new book out called "Hold Your Applause." So start us out with your unique perspective. What happened in Russia that you think might be happening here, or is happening here. Tell us.

DO: Russia was really symmetrical, or the Soviet Union was really symmetrical, with the United States, as a post-World War II superpower. And the fact that it collapsed first is reflective of the fact that a command-and-control economy is marginally less efficient at chewing through and destroying natural resources than a market economy. But it just collapsed first. It's not reflective of anything beyond some subtle differences. And the United States will collapse second. I had that realization after going back to the Soviet Union and Russia before, during and after the collapse. As a result of that, I came to the realization that exactly the same thing is happening in the US, just somewhat more slowly. I've gone public with that message about seven years ago, and it was fairly well received even back then. But at this point, it's almost accepted that the United States is no longer a superpower.

JD: I think seven years ago — your Reinventing Collapse was published in 2008, so it probably was published before the big financial collapse that exposes a lot of fragility, skeletons in the American, well the world, economy. What I understand from you is that although maybe the ideologies and the practices between the Soviet Union and the United States are different, but the economic reality that both had been living under, that we are still living under, is exactly the same thing. Tell us about that.

DO: It's exactly the same. It's reliance on science and technology, and technological progress, which allows you to eat through natural resources faster and more efficiently. But it doesn't really change the picture. The Soviet Union ate through its mother lode of natural resources somewhat faster than the United States. Now, once the expansion of growth and the use of natural resources comes to a stop or peaks, the only thing that can happen after that, in an exponentially expanding economy, is the taking on of debt, faster and faster. So the Soviet Union went bankrupt and collapsed, and the United States is going bankrupt and collapsing. So that's kind of similar.

EDIT

http://www.energybulletin.net/media/2011-09-23/peak-moment-202-collapse-titans

[Nihil]

1. Interesting stuff at the beginning ...

... but that faded out when he went off about his sailboat ... leaving me
with the impression that he's mainly saying "I'm alright Jack, FU!".

:shrug: