The fall of the United States

December 29, 9:26 PMBoston Young Democrats ExaminerDan McDowell

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And I thought a recession was bad. I've heard many times this country will fall into civil war,but more often than not I hear it from people on the far Right citing divisions over abortion and likening it to the travesty of slavery. However, now a Russian professor is predicting the U.S. will dissolve in a similar manner by the summer of 2010.

Now, at first blush, I thought this may have been the funniest thing I had ever read. Not because of America's military dominance, but the general apathy and complacency of us citizens. Just who is going to rise up and start a second civil war that ends with the division of this country into competitive factions. But then some friends of mine and I got to talking, and though it may be far fetched, it is more possible then one may think.

It doesn't take many to start any sort of movement, as our founding fathers demonstrated, along with famous leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. All it would take is for tension or overreactions to lead a few people to start a movement or conflict that could lead to a federal government response. The response, innocent enough or not, could then fairly easily lead to a national backlash and a feeling of patriotism newly based in the states, rather than the nation. In these tough economic times, the spark could be anything, from the federal government taking action against a state for misusing federal funds, to any of the big three going under. These could easily spark feelings of resentment and bring tensions to a breaking point. All it takes is a group of dedicated, angry people to galvanize an otherwise apathetic and complacent population to war. It has been done once before in this country, and it could certainly happen again, as bad as it would be.

The scenario is unlikely, I certainly agree, but I can see where the professor may have drawn his conclusions from. All this can fairly easily be avoided. Most likely the government's attempts at revitalizing this economy, along with the apathy of a large portion of the American people will be more than enough.

I don't think this scenario is very likely at all, but it certainly led to some interesting thoughts and conversation about how the political, economic, and social landscape would change not just here, but around the world if the U.S. were to dissolve. Go ahead and discuss. I still think, overall, that it's an incredibly far fetched scenario, but perhaps not so much as I originally thought

Hat tip to reader Andrew Withrow for pointing me to the story.

See the Boston Independent Examiner's view as to what may spark the initial set of riots.

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