A guide to the decline of the American empire for individuals, families and communities The United States is in steep decline. Plagued by runaway debt, a shrinking economy, and environmental catastrophes to rival Chernobyl, the United States has been retracing the trajectory of the Soviet Union in the early 1980s toward national bankruptcy and political dissolution. By comparing a collapse that has run its course to one that is now unfolding, Dmitry Orlov holds a unique lens up to America's present and future. As Orlov's predictions continue to come true, his writing continues to gain mainstream acceptance. This revised and updated edition of Reinventing Collapse examines the circumstances of the demise of the Soviet superpower and offers clear insights into how we might prepare for the events that are unfolding here. Orlov gives no quarter to prophets of doom and gloom, finding plenty of room for optimism, if only we focus our efforts on personal and cultural transformation instead of trying to perpetuate an impossible status quo. This challenging yet inspiring and surprisingly upbeat work is a must-read for anyone concerned about peak oil, the environment, geopolitics, international relations, and life in a resource-constrained world. Dmitry Orlov is an American engineer who was an eyewitness to the Soviet collapse and has written extensively on the subject of the impending collapse of the United States.

A guide to the decline of the American empire for individuals, families and communities

A user’s guide to economic, political, social and cultural collapse. In the face of political impotence, resource depletion, and catastrophic climate change, many of us have become reconciled to an uncertain future. However, popular perception of how this future might actually unfold varies wildly from "a severe and prolonged recession," to James Howard Kunstler's "long emergency," to the complete breakdown of civilization. In The Five Stages of Collapse , Dmitry Orlov posits a taxonomy of collapse, offering a surprisingly optimistic perspective on surviving the sweeping changes of the day with health and sanity intact. Arguing that it is during periods of disruption and extreme uncertainty that broad cultural change becomes possible, Orlov steers the reader through the challenges of financial, commercial, and political collapse. He suggests that if the first three stages are met with the appropriate responses, further breakdown may be arrested before the extremes of social and cultural collapse are reached. Drawing on a detailed examination of post-collapse societies, including the Somali people of Africa, the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe, and even the Russian mafia, The Five Stages of Collapse describes successful adaptations in areas such as finance, self-governance, and social and cultural organization. These fascinating case studies provide a unique perspective on the characteristics that determine highly resilient communities. Shot through with Orlov's trademark dark humor, this is an invaluable toolkit for creating workable post-collapse solutions. Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad, Russia, and immigrated to the United States. He is the author of Reinventing Collapse and maintains the phenomenally popular blog Club Orlov.

Rohan Nation tells how survivors of biological warfare and electro-magnetic pulse fight to defend and reinvent America. The disasters that lead to the collapse of the U.S. in 2020 and billions of deaths worldwide are based on sound research and analysis, the predictable results of on-going mistakes. ACE, the teenage daughter of a family that prepared for the worst, and Justin, the young refugee she captures who becomes her cavalry scout apprentice, struggle to survive in a post-collapse economy where horses are key to survival. Despite the dismal future forecast, Rohan Nation: Reinventing America after the 2020 Collapse provides an uplifting story of love and hope as ACE and Justin pursue their youthful romance while defending their community and rebuilding a responsible society. Readers share in their odyssey into life's fundamental questions, moral and political issues, receiving powerful, moving insights into how we can live better now. The extraordinary story of survivors reinventing America will hopefully change the way people think and feel about not just politics, but how to lead their lives. ACE's wartime romance with Justin ultimately proves fertile ground for love's enduring miracle. While set as an action adventure, Rohan Nation is also a Libertarian political philosophy book, an "Atlas Shrugged" call for a new "responsibility political philosophy" to break the nation's addiction to socialist entitlements and return to Constitutional, strictly limited government, focused on security. The rebirth of America, realistically forecast, told as a future combat thriller, action adventure, romance novel. About the Author: Dr. Drew Miller researches and writes professionally for a Department of Defense think tank and serves as a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. A USAF Academy and Harvard University graduate, Dr. Miller served as an intelligence officer in the Air Force, a business and Pentagon program manager, and an elected official.

Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today’s fractured America. Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called “a very important book” and Putnam, “the de Tocqueville of our generation.” Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans’ changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it’s with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the “social capital” that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection—as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation. At the time of its publication, Putnam’s then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.

''Human beings are not meant to live alone, or in isolated nuclear family arrangements. We do best in community. But in a few short generations, we've lost many of the social skills necessary for successful community living. The folks ... in Reinventing Community are the vanguard for the future - they're learning today ... what it takes to go beyond the solitary and aliented survival tactics of modern urban life to the full flowering of the human spirit of tomorrow.'' --- Eric Utne, founder of Utne magazine and editor of Cosmo Doogood's Urban Almanac.....Cohousing began in Scandinavia in the 1960s as a response to a feeling of isolation within typical suburban communities, where you don't know your neighbor, nor can you rely on their assistance - not even for a cup of sugar. Cohousing spread to the United States in the 1980s, and there are now several hundred such communities throughout the country in more than thirty states. Reinventing Community is the first cohousing anthology that tells real-world stories from the perspectives of the unique people who live in these communities, whether they be in urban, suburban, or rural settings. Unlike the few ''how-to'' guides in the marketplace today, this book details the lives of these close-knit groups of caring and active neighbors who enjoy their own privacy, yet also share a wonderful sense of camaraderie and connection. Exploring everything from planning a cohousing community to moving in to the joys and challenges of daily life, Reinventing Community shares with its readers a sense of what it takes to build a true community in our often detached and disengaged modern world.

A Nobel-winning physicist argues that fundamental physical laws are found not in the world of atoms, but in the macroscopic world around us In this age of superstring theories and Big Bang cosmology, we're used to thinking of the unknown as impossibly distant from our everyday lives. But in A Different Universe, Nobel Laureate Robert Laughlin argues that the scientific frontier is right under our fingers. Instead of looking for ultimate theories, Laughlin considers the world of emergent properties-meaning the properties, such as the hardness and shape of a crystal, that result from the organization of large numbers of atoms. Laughlin shows us how the most fundamental laws of physics are in fact emergent. A Different Universe is a truly mind-bending book that shows us why everything we think about fundamental physical laws needs to change.