Re: Re: The United States in Full Thrust

I predicted that the US will collapse as an empire within 20-75
years--

Dave Griffin replied:
> Well, here's hoping you're wrong, and it it
> does happen, I may have to live through it
> in real life, but I don't have to do so in my
> leisure time activity.

   Well, "collapse" doesn't necessarily mean "complete chaos".	Parts
of the British Empire seceded quite gracefully; other parts were a bit
less successful but could have done better if they'd had a tradition
of decent native government (rather than "my tribe is bigger than your
tribe") to begin with.	 Of course, that was a sea based empire and it
wasn't too hard to determine which bits were attached and which bits
weren't.  I can't recall an example of a land-based empire collapsing
without having at the same time a serious threat on the border--it'll
be interesting to see what happens.  I suspect the US will break up
into smaller nations, de facto independent although perhaps nominally
under the suzerainty of the Federal government.  I can easily
visualize the Lone Star Republic and the CSA and the Republic of
California (and maybe the Peoples Democratic Socialist Republic of New
England), and they might well have some, um, disagreements over
whether details like who gets Louisiana or Maryland.
  Or, of course, we may be on the receiving end of PRC bio or nuclear
weapons, which would rather speed things up.  Given that I work in
Norfolk (primo target, as I've mentioned), this train of thought