Last week an individual by the name of Gerald Celente made a number of bold claims, including that America will become an undeveloped nation by 2012, people will be rioting in the streets and a number of giant corporations will crumble to their deaths.
I called bullshit on his predictions simply because he tends to be very general and ignores his past failings and trumpets his successes. Some of what he is predicting happens every day. It seems there are always protests in the US at one point or another and large corporations fail all the time, but let’s assume for a moment that he is right. Let’s take the worst case and say modern society simply falls apart… simply fails. What kind of world would the United States face?
Looking at statistics and other scenarios where civilizations fall, a good comparison is to that of a country that was on the ass end of an ass kicking (a war torn country). What better example to look to than Germany after World War Two. Understand this is not a perfect “fit” as Germany was propped up and governed by the American, British, French and Soviet governments, but it gives us a good starting point.
So, if our systems simply fell apart we could face:
- Hyperinflation – our money would be virtually worthless. Society would turn to either precious metals (Gold, Silver) as means of payment and the bartering for services would be another means of obtaining the items one needs.
- People who wished to keep positions of responsibility would have to prove to the masses, or the individuals who held the most power, they were trustworthy and not a threat to society or those in power.
- Public infrastructure (roads, railways, water works) could fall into decay, creating an environment that would virtually prohibit travel and commerce. A 35 minute commute may turn into a 4 hour excursion. Energy (Oil, gas) would be limited or non-existent meaning people would turn to wood and coal.
- Good bye internet! Telecommunications would fall apart leaving a very select few groups (remaining federal government and educational institutions) with the means of communication, and they would be limited. No cell phones, no wireless…
- Law enforcement would become a highly localized issue, kind of a “group rule” scenario. As this is the worse case scenario, local government will have collapsed meaning local police departments will have disbanded leaving people fight for themselves OR put the burden on the remaining military, allowing them to police the nation.
- Crime would be out of control – need we say anything more?
- Healthcare would be virtually non existent and all health / science advancements of recent years would be absorbed by other governments or lost until rediscovered by future generations. We would be back to a state where the common cold could simply wipe out a large segment of society every year.
- Food… We would all suddenly be hunters and gathers. Large farms would no longer be realistic and your favorite places to eat would be long gone…
I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other things that would take place but these are the first things that come to mind by looking at post-war / post-revolution countries (and thinking about every movie I’ve ever seen about Armageddon).
Will this happen… I highly doubt it. HIGHLY doubt it. The World economy is in recession, and a very bad one, that is expected to last for almost another year. It happens, it’s the normal course of business even thought it was caused by extreme events.
If I’m wrong, I’ll flat out admit it… but if I am, it won’t be on the site as I won’t have access to the internet!