As goes the USSR...

A very witty Russian-American named Dmitry Orlov gave a presentation some years back in which he argued that the USSR was better prepared for its collapse than the US is for its own demise. Collapse, as Orlov sees it, is the inevitable denouement of any Empire -- "no exceptions."

Although his message is grim, Orlov is both funny and empathetic, although to an average American his assessment of "the greatest nation on Earth" may seem harsh. (This reminds me of a David Sedaris line from when he visited Europe, which went something like: "It began to dawn on me that other countries had slogans, too, and none of them was "We're Number Two!")

Anyway, if you like Orlov's take on things, try his book Reinventing Collapse, essentially a much-expanded version of the above presentation. I guarantee you some laughs.

He's also got a blog, and he's posted another more recent presentation titled Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalization. Take a gander... I thought it was a great talk.