8/7/09

How Is America Going To End?

Peacenik just came across this game and Peacenik is afraid Peacenik is going to spend all day playing it. It is fun. "Choose Your Own Apocalypse." How could it not be fun? Peacenik played a quick initial game, without looking at all the squares. In game one Peacenik turned out to be a "anthropocentric pragmatist". Play along with Peacenik and tell Peacenik what you were in the game in the comments. By the way, Peacenik choose "peak water", "peak oil", "dirty bombs", "obesity" and "internal guerilla warfare" in game one. Back to "choose your own apocalypse". Have a good weekend.

By Josh Levin

"Choose your own Apocalypse" lets you map out the death of the United States.

If and when America expires, we probably won't agree on the cause of death. For proof that autopsies of empires are inconclusive, consider the case of Alexander Demandt, the German historian who set out in the 1980s to collect every theory ever given for why Rome fell. The final tally: 210, including attacks by nomads on horseback, blood poisoning, decline of Nordic character, homosexuality, outflow of gold, and vaingloriousness.

In tribute to Demandt, I've gone looking for every possible reason why America could fall. I've paged through the work of scholars who have studied the characteristics of declining and failed societies. I also collected theories from futurists, doomsayers, separatists, economists, political scientists, national security experts, climatologists, geologists, astronomers, and a few miscellaneous crazy people. The result: a collection of 144 potential causes of America's future death.

Read on...

Update: Peacenik is addicted. Peacenik goes cold turkey. This is Peacenik's final game. Peacenik hopes. Peacenik doesn't even like online, electronic games. In this final game the result is: "You are a humanitarian internationalist. You're convinced mankind will terminate America—but at least we won't off ourselves in the process. You'll know you're right when: Everyone on Earth pledges allegiance to a world government; the feds default on the national debt." Peacenik chose: China unloads U.S. treasuries, default on debt, deficit spending, state bankruptcies, and FDIC fails. This game comes from Slate's website. The leading causes of Apocalypse on Slate's website are: Loose Nukes, peak oil, Israel-Arab war, China unloads U.S. treasuries, and obesity.

Peacenik repeats, "this is Peacenik's final game."