or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 08, 2008
New From TomDispatch
Portrait of an Oil-Addicted Former Superpower
How Rising Oil Prices Are Obliterating America's Superpower Status
By Michael T. KlareNineteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall effectively eliminated the Soviet Union as the world's other superpower. Yes, the USSR as a political entity stumbled on for another two years, but it was clearly an ex-superpower from the moment it lost control over its satellites in Eastern Europe.
Less than a month ago, the United States similarly lost its claim to superpower status when a barrel crude oil roared past $110 on the international market, gasoline prices crossed the $3.50 threshold at American pumps, and diesel fuel topped $4.00. As was true of the USSR following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the USA will no doubt continue to stumble on like the superpower it once was; but as the nation's economy continues to be eviscerated to pay for its daily oil fix, it, too, will be seen by increasing numbers of savvy observers as an ex-superpower-in-the-making.
That the fall of the Berlin Wall spelled the erasure of the Soviet Union's superpower status was obvious to international observers at the time. After all, the USSR visibly ceased to exercise dominion over an empire (and an associated military-industrial complex) encompassing nearly half of Europe and much of Central Asia. The relationship between rising oil prices and the obliteration of America's superpower status is, however, hardly as self-evident. So let's consider the connection.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at May 8, 2008 12:29 PMMaybe this is a stretch, but the experience of our former Cold War adversary might be a warning for us progressives who desperately want the US to get out of the Empire business.
In some versions of this (at least, in my wishes), the US gives up the emptier aspects of individualistic consumerism and learns to get by with less (call it the "live simply so that others may simply live" fantasy of a re-worked America). But the Russian experience shows that the "live simply" types never have enough power to keep the greedy bastards at bay.
Except maybe in Scandanavia, where they did manage to replace marauding Viking hordes with bureaucrats focused on human rights and welfare states. But we can't seem to replicate that even in Minnesota, no matter how many Governors with Swedish names we elect.
Posted by: Whistler Blue at May 8, 2008 02:58 PM
