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Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century

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by rich 11 February, 2006 - 6:23 PM

The white flakey death (SNOW!!!! AHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!) being amongst most of you, I figure you need some reading material.

This is a really long read, but interesting. This essay would pretty much be a diametric opposite view of the future then the one PNAC has.

It reminds me of a bad Kevin Costner movie The Postman. Hrm, might put that in the Netflix que.

A decade and a half ago the world went from bipolar to unipolar, because one of the poles fell apart: The S.U. is no more. The other pole - symmetrically named the U.S. - has not fallen apart - yet, but there are ominous rumblings on the horizon. The collapse of the United States seems about as unlikely now as the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed in 1985. The experience of the first collapse may be instructive to those who wish to survive the second.

Full essay

Stepping back for a "micro" current event related to the "macro" mentioned above:

There is no superstition needed for the coming month, as too many converging forces are spiraling out of hand to tip the world into a precipice burning in peak oil.

History was created on Jan 1 when Russia abruptly cut off gas supplies to Europe for a day; a brutal reminder that the stakes in the current game can be raised dramatically at will. It caught the world by surprise, converted millions into news addicts and brought about the realization that we are living on borrowed time, in an era of strained energy resources.

Unless saner elements among the Bush administration prevail, the next neocon project might involve playing Alexander the Great vs. Persia. That ancient conquest took the Greeks right to the doors of India, and history is repeating itself, except that it may have run out of cycles by March, or culminate in a pact for a strategic future in New Delhi.

Beware The Ides Of March. Much shorter, I promiss.

2/13/2006 >> muhgcee
snow? wait, what?

2/14/2006 >> ben

well... give the earth another 300 million years... we'll have more oil then.

I'm not sure I get all this. Are we fearing what people will do when there's no more oil, and that the Americans will hop on their horses (and by horses I mean M1-A1 Abrams Tanks) and march through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Iran to take control of the desert? Or are we talking about taking over Canada, who apparently has more oil?

btw, when did it become unpopular to use target="_blank"? hehehe

2/14/2006 >> rich
I have always hated target blank. If I click on something I want to have it do the same thing at all times. This is why when I want a new window or new tab I right click and chose that option. Why is this so hard? I have acutualy discussed this several times with you on this site. I got really pissed when you added that to my links one time.

2/14/2006 >> muhgcee
Haha, ruh roh, we hit a sore point. I actually agree, but I usually try to conform since it is Ben's site. I don't tend to care as much in the comments.

2/14/2006 >> ralph
it drives me nuts when people link off-site and it doesn't pop into another tab... lots of times i won't even read whatever it is if there's no target="_blank" but that's just me.

2/14/2006 >> muhgcee
Wow, you must not read a bunch of stuff. Can't you change default behavior in firefox to open in a new tab every time?

2/15/2006 >> Dan

Yes,

Tools -> Options -> Tabs

But what about us folks that do not like tabbed browsing? What is worse?

Opening in our current page since some of use do not feel we should have to right click (Mac Ctrl-Click) and open in a new window/tab?

Or having a new window open?

target blank is your friend you should love it. It is also the accepted design to keep users from navigating away from your site. All external links should open in a new window (or tab).

If you preferred browser supports tabs then configure that action to open a new tab and then you can have it your way while allowing the rest of us to have it our way.

Yes, Firefox is great but I have to use IE still due to an over abundance of crappy sites that I have to use for work.

2/15/2006 >> muhgcee
Well, I think we all know what will be one of the major issues for the '06 Easily Amusing Board of Directors elections. Rich and I will see you at the debates, Dan. That is, if Rich can stand to have such a centrist such as myself on his "Freedom of Tabs" party ticket.

2/15/2006 >> ben
Stu wins "Best Comment" this post...

2/15/2006 >> muhgcee
Yay! I get a pwize.

2/15/2006 >> rich
this is the worst post hijacking ever

2/16/2006 >> muhgcee
Yeah, that is what I thought...pretty serious subject matter, and now we are busy talking about link behavior. Kind of like Ben's post about development...off-topic onto semantics. They're probably both my fault :-D

2/16/2006 >> ben
well, rich, actually, you were the one that responded about the linking with such fervor... i just flippantly made the joke about it. though stu, you did run with it, hehehe