Please read this essay from John Derbyshire, orginally published in January, 2007.It begins:
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“It is said of all great matters under Heaven: What has been long divided must unite, what has been long united must divide.”
—Opening words of The Three Kingdoms Romance, a classic Chinese historical novel by Luo Guanzhong.
The beginning of a new year naturally turns one’s thoughts in a numerical direction. Furthermore, as we look forward to 2007, our imagination is liable to overshoot and find itself contemplating the more distant future: the next fifteen years for example.
Why fifteen?
Permit me to explain...
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Read the rest.
Why all of the doom?
I need to remind myself of the critical distinction between:
Movement with no actual effect on reality
versus
Movement that improves my ability to play and win the game
If I am not working on some way of improving the odds of personal victory in the upcoming North American social justice fracas and clambake, I am moving away from my goal.
Trying to recreate the halcyon days of 1906, 1946, or even 1986 falls into which category?
Tempus fugit.
It is possible the U.S. may become fractured at some time in the future. The Russian professors map, however, is utter nonsense.
ReplyDeleteHis breakdown shows a total lack of understanding of the people of the U.S.
If a breakup were to occur, a much more logical grouping would entail more urban and liberal areas grouped together and more rural, conservative areas grouped together, probably not along existing stste borders.
I could see a small enclave on the south central coast of California, and a small enclave on the new england coast down to Washington DC. the majority of the remaining states with the possible exception of Minn. would probably stick together.
I see zero influence from Mexico or Canada, and Alaska would definately remain with the majority of ststes.
Paul in Texas
Paul:
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments.
I needed a divided USA maqp to illustrate the piece, and although the Turkish ones I found were better, they had some elements that I would not post.
The perils of a hurried part-time blogger.
What did you think of Derbyshire's essay?
It will be vast tracts of rural areas against a lot of military bases and metropolises in a net of road and rail connections that will eventually be severed. The more isolated metropoles and bases will be taken over due to isolation-captured or otherwise beseiged. Eventually it will be the major cities and the bases of strategic value that will remain but barring any timely inventiveness through suppressed technology the only way those are going to fall are through nuclear strikes...
ReplyDelete