In the waning days of the American Empire the US administration finds itself mired in political crisis; foreign policy has come under sharp criticism; and the economy is in steep decline. These trends mirror the experience of the Soviet Union in the early 1980's. Reinventing Collapse examines the circumstances of the demise of the Soviet superpower and offers clear insights into how we might prepare for coming events. 
 Rather than focusing on doom and gloom, Reinventing Collapse suggests that there is room for optimism if we focus our efforts on personal and cultural transformation. With characteristic dry humor, Orlov identifies three progressive stages of response to the looming crisis: 
<ul>
<li> Mitigation - alleviating the impact of the coming upheaval </li>
<li> Adaptation - adjusting to the reality of changed conditions </li>
<li> Opportunity - flourishing after the collapse </li>
</ul> He argues that by examining maladaptive parts of our common cultural baggage we can survive and thrive and discover more meaningful and fulfilling lives, in spite of steadily deteriorating circumstances. This challenging yet inspiring work is a must-read for anyone concerned about energy, geopolitics, international relations and life in a post-Peak Oil world.

Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects

Business & Money

Orlov, Dmitry

Economics

New Society Publishers

The United States is in steep decline. Plagued by runaway debt, a shrinking economy, and environmental catastrophes to rival Chernobyl, the United States has been retracing the trajectory of the Soviet Union in the early 1980s toward national bankruptcy and political dissolution. By comparing a collapse that has run its course to one that is now unfolding, Dmitry Orlov holds a unique lens up to America's present and future.
As Orlov's predictions continue to come true, his writing continues to gain mainstream acceptance. This revised and updated edition of Reinventing Collapse examines the circumstances of the demise of the Soviet superpower and offers clear insights into how we might prepare for the events that are unfolding here.
Orlov gives no quarter to prophets of doom and gloom, finding plenty of room for optimism, if only we focus our efforts on personal and cultural transformation instead of trying to perpetuate an impossible status quo. This challenging yet inspiring and surprisingly upbeat work is a must-read for anyone concerned about peak oil, the environment, geopolitics, international relations, and life in a resource-constrained world.
Dmitry Orlov is an American engineer who was an eyewitness to the Soviet collapse and has written extensively on the subject of the impending collapse of the United States.

Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects-Revised & Updated

A user’s guide to economic, political, social and cultural collapse. 
 In the face of political impotence, resource depletion, and catastrophic climate change, many of us have become reconciled to an uncertain future. However, popular perception of how this future might actually unfold varies wildly from "a severe and prolonged recession," to James Howard Kunstler's "long emergency," to the complete breakdown of civilization. In The Five Stages of Collapse , Dmitry Orlov posits a taxonomy of collapse, offering a surprisingly optimistic perspective on surviving the sweeping changes of the day with health and sanity intact. 
 Arguing that it is during periods of disruption and extreme uncertainty that broad cultural change becomes possible, Orlov steers the reader through the challenges of financial, commercial, and political collapse. He suggests that if the first three stages are met with the appropriate responses, further breakdown may be arrested before the extremes of social and cultural collapse are reached. 
 Drawing on a detailed examination of post-collapse societies, including the Somali people of Africa, the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe, and even the Russian mafia, The Five Stages of Collapse describes successful adaptations in areas such as finance, self-governance, and social and cultural organization. These fascinating case studies provide a unique perspective on the characteristics that determine highly resilient communities. Shot through with Orlov's trademark dark humor, this is an invaluable toolkit for creating workable post-collapse solutions. 
 Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad, Russia, and immigrated to the United States. He is the author of Reinventing Collapse and maintains the phenomenally popular blog Club Orlov.

The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivors' Toolkit

History

Over the past two centuries we have witnessed a wholesale replacement of most of the previous methods of conducting both business and daily life with new, technologically advanced, more efficient methods.
What exactly is progressive or efficient about this new arrangement is hardly ever examined in depth: if the new ways of doing things are so much better, then we must all be leading relaxed, stress-free, enjoyable lives with plenty of free time to devote to art and leisure activities. But a more careful look at these changes shows us that many of these advances are not weighing favourably in a harm/benefit comparison. The harm to the environment, society, and even to our own personalities, on an individual level, is plain to see, but is brushed off with hollow claims about efficiency and progress.
Shrinking the Technosphere guides readers through the process of bringing technology down to a manageable number of carefully chosen, essential, well-understood and controllable elements. It is about regaining the freedom to use technology for our own benefit, and is critical reading for all who seek to get back to a point where technologies assist us rather than control us.
Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad, USSR, and emigrated to the United States in the mid-1970s. He holds degrees in Computer Engineering and Linguistics, and has worked in a variety of fields, including high-energy physics, Internet commerce, network security and advertising. He is the author of several previous books, including Reinventing Collapse and The Five Stages of Collapse.

Shrinking the Technosphere: Getting a Grip on Technologies that Limit our Autonomy, Self-sufficiency and Freedom

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

A collection of articles devoted to multigenerational communities that have stood the test of time, focusing on the commonalities that are behind their success.

Communities that Abide

Kropotkin, Peter

Jason, Ray

Bates, Albert

Truong, James

Heppenstall, Jason

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

A collection of essays on society, environment, politics and economics written between 2012 and 2014.

Societies that Collapse

Management & Leadership

UNSPELL offers a phased approach to learning to read English. During the first phase, the student learns a simple, largely phonetic rendition of spoken English—sufficiently simple to be absorbed by even the youngest learners, and designed to work around dyslexia and other learning impediments. It makes learning to read English almost as automatic and effortless as learning to speak it. UNSPELL can provide the base level of literacy that should be the birthright of every English-speaking person, regardless of ability, motivation, access to education, or any number of mental or physical handicaps. The first phase requires very little formal instruction beyond what is contained in this booklet. There is even less need for carefully graded texts, since the student is immediately able to pronounce any arbitrary text with good diction. Learning to read is de-emphasized in favor of actually reading, and achieving literacy becomes a largely self-directed and self-motivated activity. During the second phase, the student, already having breezed through a stack of age-appropriate popular titles, is introduced to conventional English orthography. This should begin only when the student is developmentally ready—typically between the ages of eight and ten—to handle the flood of idiosyncratic, ambiguous and obsolete spellings. For this formidable task, UNSPELL provides a solid foundation: the student has already achieved full phonological awareness of the abstract forms that underlie spoken English (which English orthography tends to obscure) and has internalized the alphabetic principle of direct grapheme-phoneme correspondence (which English orthography largely ignores). It has been known to science for over a decade that these are the two key prerequisites for becoming a proficient reader. UNSPELL takes the next logical step—of teaching them directly. English orthography is broken, but students need not be broken by it. Think of written English as a dead language—or rather, a mix of several dead languages: Norman French, Vulgate Latin, a tiny bit of Greek and, last but not least, Middle English. A basic introduction to their contributions to today's written English can go a long way toward reducing the student's inevitable stress and confusion. But this will be the subject of another book—to be written in UNSPELL, of course. Home-schoolers, Special Education teachers, English as a Second Language teachers and Adult Literacy teachers are all encouraged to give UNSPELL careful consideration.

Unspeller

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Unspelled edition of the children's classic.

The Wind in The Willows

Children's Books

grahame,kenneth

Classics

Treasure Island

Stevenson, Robert Lewis

The old world order, to which we became accustomed over the course of the 1990s and the 2000s, its crises and its problems analyzed in numerous authoritative publications on both sides of the Atlantic—it is no more. It is not out sick and it is not on vacation. It is deceased. It has passed on, gone to meet its maker, bought the farm, kicked the bucket and joined the choir invisible. It is an ex- world order. Not too many people in the West have caught on to that yet, because to do that they first need to wash the sleep out of their eyes and gaze through the information blockade imposed on them by Western corporate-controlled media. This book contains a collection of essays on the hot topics of the day written with the aim of helping you do just that.

Emergency Eyewash

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Books by Orlov, Dmitry