In the 1990s, I fell into a confident, reasonable New York Times attitude toward the world, one that consigned conspiracy theories to the wing nut bin. Then 911 happened and the world came to look less like the Times op-ed page than the overheated screenplay of a farfetched Hollywood thriller. Hijacked jumbo jets toppling the Twin Towers? Who would have thought?
Michael Ruppert might have been less surprised than some of us. The LAPD cop-cum-conspiracy maven has been publishing dire predictions on geopolitics and the world economy for many years and the funny thing is, much of what he wrote has happenedmore or less. Ruppert is the subject of the latest documentary by Milwaukees Chris Smith, Collapse (out on DVD, June 15). Like the culty film for which Smith remains best known, American Movie, Collapse focuses intensively and without comment on a person mainstream society might write-off as eccentric, Quixotic, even nuts.
Ruppert claims he has been betrayed, stalked, almost killed by the CIA after the agency failed to enlist him in a scheme to import illegal drugs into the U.S. Believing him on those points isnt necessary for accepting that much of what he says about the state of things is entirely plausible. After all, just because youre paranoid doesnt mean youre always wrong.
Collapse consists of an extended interview with the chain-smoking Ruppert, illustrated by cutaways to some of the scenarios of man-made disasters he describes. Much of the interview is focused on the crisis of energy consumption, especially the problem of dwindling petroleum supplies versus growing demand and rising population. As Ruppert reminds us, its not just about the liquid that fills our gas tanks. Petroleum is the basis for our plastic, disposable culture. Toothpaste and tires are made from it. The agro-business fertilizers that threaten to leech the health from our soil are synthesized from billion-year old carbon. What happens when the well of oil in the earth and under the sea is tapped out? The rush to gain control of remaining reserves was instrumental in the decision to invade Iraq.
Ruppert sounds well informed and reasonable on most of the issues he addresses. Arctic drilling? The oil is often 15,000 feet below the unstable surface of the polar ice cap. Arctic drilling is a tea bag fantasy. Electric cars? Driving them feels good until you stop to consider that almost all the components are produced by burning energy, which brings us back to the dwindling stock of petroleum.
A glance beyond the headlines reveals that Ruppert is correct to wonder if many societies around the world are facing entropy. The old political models are failing and fracturing against colossal global problems of energy, economics and the environment. The people who are running the planet are losing control, he says with a hint of satisfaction. Not unlike John Locke from Lost, he seems illuminated by the inner glow of knowing something. Indeed, Ruppert could be a character from a Hollywood thriller. But then, maybe the world has caught up with the imagination of Hollywood. Are we living in the last act of the sort of bad movie once dismissed by high-toned critics as pulpy and unrealistic?
