Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects | 
| Author: Dmitry Orlov
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 13023
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0865716064
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780865716063
ASIN: 0865716064
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
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Product Description
In the waning days of the American empire, we find ourselves mired in political crisis, with our foreign policy coming under sharp criticism and our economy in steep decline. These trends mirror the experience of the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. Reinventing Collapse examines the circumstances of the demise of the Soviet superpower and offers clear insights into how we might prepare for coming events. Rather than focusing on doom and gloom, Reinventing Collapse suggests that there is room for optimism if we focus our efforts on personal and cultural transformation. With characteristic dry humor, Dmitry Orlov identifies three progressive stages of response to the looming crisis: - Mitigation-alleviating the impact of the coming upheaval
- Adaptation-adjusting to the reality of changed conditions
- Opportunity-flourishing after the collapse
He argues that by examining maladaptive parts of our common cultural baggage, we can survive, thrive, and discover more meaningful and fulfilling lives, in spite of steadily deteriorating circumstances. This challenging yet inspiring work is a must-read for anyone concerned about energy, geopolitics, international relations, and life in a post-Peak Oil world. Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad and immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve. He was an eyewitness to the Soviet collapse over several extended visits to his Russian homeland between the late eighties and mid-nineties. He is an engineer and a leading Peak Oil theorist whose writing is featured on such sites as www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net and www.powerswitch.org.uk.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Dmitry Orlov Gives Fresh Perspective on Dark Future for U.S. July 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
You need to read "Reinventing Collapse" by Dmitry Orlov, if only to get
an outsider's perspective on our American way of life. But Mr. Orlov is
not only an outsider who grew up in the former Soviet Union, he also happened to live through the FSU's collapse in the 1990's. You'll probably
be surprised to find out how many similarities there are between the world's most powerful capitalist democracy and the former world's most powerful
communist totalitarian state. Both spent a lot of resources in long
wars in the Middle East, both had large military budgets, both had mechanized, large-scale agricultural systems.
Orlov has a gift for turning things on their head: he points out that it
is the very failings of the Soviet Union that made it's eventual collapse
easier to bear. For instance, the centralized food distribution system was so bad that people had been raising a lot of their own food for years, so when the system fell apart, they were prepared. This leads to one of his frequent themes, that you are best prepared for collapse if you don't have that far to fall. If you are used to a highly luxurious lifestyle where your every need is met, you won't be ready when this is taken away. He again turns things upside down by suggesting that we shouldn't try to take action and head off this crisis; instead it is better to let the government and others blunder along making things worse
by their efforts to maintain the status quo. This will lead to further depletion of money and resources, and start us on our way down from our high perch - so we won't have so far to fall.
Jeremy Hickerson,
Salem, Oregon
 Few new ideas, strong anti-U.S. sentiment throughout July 13, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
The premise of this book, that an analysis of the collapse of the Soviet Union would offer some insights into America's coming challenges, is an intriguing idea. And, through the first chapter where the author outlines some of those challenges, the concept is encouraging.
Sadly, the idea is never developed. Instead, the author spends the vast majority of his time expounding on how weak Americans (abhorrent of the smell of a human body) didn't win the Cold War. They merely won a brief reprieve through the surprisingly good luck of firms such as Microsoft.
There are a *couple* interesting ideas in here, but you'll have to hold your own nose and dig through piles of KGB-era propaganda. Human beings are weeds. Western farmers have tiny sperm counts. Americans are chronically depressed. The abuse goes on and on.
Save your money. Buy Peter Schiff's book Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse (Lynn Sonberg Books), or maybe Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes, Revised and Updated Edition. All you'll find from Mr. Orlov are recommendations to be lazy (hard workers are "fools") and to make many new friends so they can support you.
Some very good points July 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is unique to all the other "gloom and doom" books now circulating. The author saw first hand what happened during the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he does a fine job of comparing that to what he sees as the coming collapse in the USA. It is at times a frightening book, and it is one that tells it like it is. If you do not want to hear any criticism of either the SU or the US, then don't buy this book.
He lists several post-collapse scenarios, which at first seem highly unlikely, but then he points out that these very things actually occurred during the Soviet collapse. Others are more predictable: The police force breaks down; salaries are not enough to live on (he recommends purchasing items to barter when the time comes); middle-aged bread-winners find themselves suddenly unemployed; food is scarce (the author tells of one summer when his family ate nothing but imported rice, zucchini and locally caught fish).
He asserts that those in the Soviet Union survived because, unlike Americans, they tend to stay in one place most of their lives and thereby had family to lean on. They had housing, health care and education courtesy of their government. Many already had small gardens and could live without using much money. Typical Russian cities had subways, trams, buses and electric buses which continued to run even during the worst of times. Their housing was located near transportation lines. How will we, car-dependent and lacking in public transportation as we are in the USA, get around? Those in the Soviet Union did not for the most part enjoy the luxuries that we in the West have come to believe are our birthright. For example, eating in a restaurant was a rare event.
In other words, we in the US have further to fall. He urges us to prepare mentally as well as financially and to face things straight-on - because, as he puts it, "An economic collapse is the worst possible time to suffer a nervous breakdown". Yet this, he contends, is exactly what happens.
We don't know yet how severe the coming collapse will be. While at times, this book seems to go overboard, it nonetheless offers us a view of the collapse of another Super Power and asks us to learn from it. Don't think it can't happen here. I hope he is dead wrong on all counts, but I'm definitely getting my house in order.
trash July 2, 2008
2 out of 16 found this review helpful
I've never written a book review before but this collection of toilet paper is just awful. I'm open minded, not at all nationalistic but boy Dmitry sure is. He repeatedly goes off on tangents about how great the Soviet Union was compared to stupid ol' smelly America. By his logic capitalism is actually a bigger failure than communism because it has lasted longer. He's Delusional.
Yes, he observed his country's collapse but he hasn't a clue about America. I was hoping for insightful ideas backed up by facts I could use to help wake up all the American sheep. What I got instead was thinly veiled communist propaganda from a ignorant sore loser nobody.
On the other hand, the book gave me hope; for if this moron thinks our country is headed for collapse we just might be ok after all.
 Honest but one-sided June 29, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I always worry a bit when an author proclaims near the beginning of a book that he is not an expert or researcher on the topic he will cover. Orlov presents what he considers to be observations and parallels between the collapse of the Soviet Union and an impending collapse of the US. In spite of obvious differences, he finds a number of similarities between the two superpowers that he believes lead to the potential for economic collapse. Among these are things like inability to provide enough energy to sustain the industrial economy, excessive foreign debt, and military debacles.
It is obvious that Orlov is a disciple of the more extreme, doomsday-type scenarios envisioned by the worst-case peak oil crowd. He quotes James Kunstler, and appears to be acquainted with the work of a number of other writers that envision a severe and impending production shortfall in oil, natural gas, and even coal. In some ways, the collapse he imagines in the US is even more severe than Kunstler's Long Emergency. Additionally, the only differences he allows himself to see between the US and old Soviet Union are ones in which the Soviet Union was previously pre-disposed towards things that made it less susceptible to the worst parts of a collapse. However, he fails to see any attributes in American culture that could mitigate a crisis. It seems to me that it's possible any crash or collapse in the US could be offset somewhat by evolution in the way things are done and ingenuity. Orlov's imagined scenarios depend on a drastic collapse of many interconnected aspects of the American system that may or may not happen. For example, peak oil doesn't necessarily imply that oil will be outright unavailable in a short period of time. It may simply constantly increase in price leading to adaptations along the way.
On the other hand, Orlov presents a very unvarnished an honest appraisal of some very disturbing trends in the US, and uses some interesting examples from the Soviet experience to show that bad things can happen. He points out that the US is heavily in debt, makes use of an unsustainable energy habit that has very few backup options, is creeping towards a justice system that incarcerates increasingly more citizens, and is involved in unaffordable military operations around the world. It is definitely a thought-provoking book in this sense, and offers some areas in which we could definitely consider new ways of doing things.
The final part of the book is sort of a survivalist guide on how to get by in the coming rough times. This is all fine and good, but he imagines a scenario in which the US reverts to a sort of 19th century existence. An unavoidable aspect to this kind of argument is the obvious point that if things get as bad as he imagines, chaos will probably reign supreme to the point that survival won't be an option for many people.
This is an interesting book, and I tend to think that a number of the things he talks about will definitely be problems we will face. However, it seems to me that there is only an outside chance that things will get as bad as he imagines.
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