Re:"Collapse will not be televised... you will only know tha...
by varjag on Friday April 03, 2009 @05:26AM
(#544693)
OK, I used to refrain from commenting on that guy on few occasions, but allow me to chime in now.
He is not a "USSR survivor", he moved to the States in the age of 12 in 1980s, before shit really hit the fan. Wikipedia says he's been "on extended trips to Russia" in early 1990's. I reckon this sort of safari in late teen age is all of his acutal post-USSR experience and is the basis for all of his reasoning.
To many of his audience, his prose and predictions come off as something cool, sort of like Fallout, Escape from New York or a Gibson novel come live. Well, as someone who actually lived there at the time, I can assure you it wasn't nearly as cool or exciting. You couldn't "hire a couple of soldiers with AKs to follow you around", there were no barrels burning as improptu street lights, and one couldn't get a slice of Pu239 at a grocery market. There was, on the other hand, massive amount of financial and humanitarian aid coming from the USA and Western Europe, and a huge improvement in standards of living (it was that low to begin with).
I would say his factual parts are not entirely factual, he wasn't enough of insider to convey how it was for insider there, his vision is skewed and he has a fair anti-US bias. When I read him I visualize that excited, giggly expat teenager on a trip to former homeland, that's who he still is.
He is not a "USSR survivor", he moved to the States in the age of 12 in 1980s, before shit really hit the fan. Wikipedia says he's been "on extended trips to Russia" in early 1990's. I reckon this sort of safari in late teen age is all of his acutal post-USSR experience and is the basis for all of his reasoning.
To many of his audience, his prose and predictions come off as something cool, sort of like Fallout, Escape from New York or a Gibson novel come live. Well, as someone who actually lived there at the time, I can assure you it wasn't nearly as cool or exciting. You couldn't "hire a couple of soldiers with AKs to follow you around", there were no barrels burning as improptu street lights, and one couldn't get a slice of Pu239 at a grocery market. There was, on the other hand, massive amount of financial and humanitarian aid coming from the USA and Western Europe, and a huge improvement in standards of living (it was that low to begin with).
I would say his factual parts are not entirely factual, he wasn't enough of insider to convey how it was for insider there, his vision is skewed and he has a fair anti-US bias. When I read him I visualize that excited, giggly expat teenager on a trip to former homeland, that's who he still is.