Product Description
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Collapse is the story of Michael Ruppert, former Los Angeles
officer turned rogue reporter whose eerie prediction of
the current financial crisis shocked millions. Now Ruppert is
warning of a new meltdown, one rooted in oil, economics, and
covert U.S. policies that are leading US all towards
unprecedented global disaster. Is he a prophet who can clearly
see America's terrifying future, or a conspiracy theorist fueled
by fear and paranoia? And if Ruppert is right, can this slide
into catastrophe be stopped? Experience this sometimes harrowing,
often poignant and always riveting look into the mind of 'the
ultimate outsider' from filmmaker Chris Smith, the award-winning
director of American Movie and the Yes Men.
.com
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You might not want to watch Collapse if you're in a good mood.
On the other hand, viewing this documentary in a bad mood might
not be such a good idea either--at least not if there are any
sharp objects lying around. Such is the extremity of the dire
message delivered by Michael Ruppert, who predicts nothing less
than the imminent and total breakdown of industrialized
civilization. Ruppert has some credentials--a UCLA graduate, he
served in the Los Angeles Department, and is now an
investigative journalist with many articles and several books to
his credit--and a large a of information at hand. And
although it's worth noting that everything he offers in the way
of facts in the course of this film goes virtually unchallenged,
his argument is compelling, and more than a little frightening.
As Ruppert sees it, the collapse can be attributed primarily to
just one thing: oil, and our almost complete dependence on it.
The world has passed the point of peak production, he says, and
the supply is now in steady decline (and this was well before the
2010 spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico). There is no currently
viable energy alternative--ethanol, nuclear power, Canadian "tar
sand," and everything else is dismissed outright, leaving only
wind and solar power as vague possibilities. The planet's
unsustainable population growth began with the discovery of oil
(and it will go down accordingly when the oil is gone), Ruppert
argues; what's more, the world's economy is essentially a
"pyramid scheme" based on the notion of infinite growth, which
can't happen because it too depends on oil and its many
derivatives (such as plastic). In the end, he says, what we're
witnessing is Darwinism in action, and while there are a few ways
to prepare for what he passionately describes as "the cataclysmic
end of a paradigm" (he suggests learning to grow your own food,
for starters), the momentum is irreversible. One might be tempted
to dismiss this guy as some wacko with a website, but
Collapse--essentially a long interview conducted by director
Chris Smith, supported by photos, film footage, animation, and
other visuals to illustrate Ruppert's arguments--offers some very
serious food for thought. --Sam Graham