[speaker001:] well you got a topic
[speaker002:] well you know there's uh the uh the the the one that's burning in everybody's uh in everybody's mind the uh break up of the Soviet Union and it's a
[speaker001:] yeah I think I I think that's the obvious one in't it
[speaker002:] ah it's it's it's effects here at home I mean it's gonna have effects all over the world and uh course you know I I expect uh in the next few days when uh the president gives his uh State of the Union address he's got to have to uh pull some uh real drastic changes in what he's doing to to promote some some movement and enthusiasm behind his reelection race
[speaker001:] yeah well it it's truly amazing to um see how rapidly um uh the Soviet Union fell apart um uh
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and it makes me wonder I'm not saying that I'm uh I'm certainly not a hawk necessarily but it makes me wonder I've thought about this if the idea of uh uh the the arms race while granted it has practically practically bankrupted this country uh perhaps it did bankrupt uh Russia and was you know as a as a way of making a a a political change was certainly preferable to a war
[speaker002:] yeah well they they they focused all of their economic capacity on on on their military
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] I mean if they had focused the same capacity in their uh commercial stuff they would've been a lot better off as a society probably uh
[speaker001:] yeah with the right kind of the Japanese for example
[speaker002:] yes like the Japanese right
[speaker001:] yeah well
[speaker002:] and
[speaker001:] I don't know what we've we've seen so many changes just in the past five years uh it makes me think it reminds me of that book uh Future Shock
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] where the the future is coming at us uh at such an accelerated pace day after day that only the most adaptable are gonna be able to uh survive and and keep from just being overrun by the changes
[speaker002:] well uh you know five five years ago could you have have imagined in your in your your wildest dreams that something as as a change as rapid as this would've occurred
[speaker001:] oh no no
[speaker002:] it's just you know it it's almost unthinkable but it it is hey in a I I still wonder whether you know that it's going to be stable and then what's going to happen there
[speaker001:] it really is well and that's just it I I have some I have doubts that uh that it can be ah stable number one you've got uh you know you see on the news the the stories the stories and the and the sights of these these the Soviet people these Russian people that are standing in line uh for hours on end and have for you know bare shelves at in these hugely you know uh higher prices that they have to pay now that that government controls are off
[speaker002:] but I don't think the shelves is bare anymore
[speaker001:] oh are they are they back are they have they got some um
[speaker002:] I think there's now you know I think all the time there were goods to to be distributed that were being held off
[speaker001:] but they're on the black market yeah
[speaker002:] and uh you know I I I think that uh there's still but but you know the the people don't have a lot of money to pay for them there there's a tremendous uh gap in their ability to to supply themselves uh uh that could create a tremendous amount of political stability instability in fact they said tonight on the on the radio uh that
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh some some leader in in in of of the parliament in in Russia is calling for Yeltsin to essentially throw out all of his ministers and replace them
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] because of this this tremendous supply demand uh type gap that they have there
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh I don't know it it's it's it's hard to imagine managing such a rapid change
[speaker001:] yeah and I don't I don't that's just it it's funny it's inconceivable inconceivable to me to think that anyone or any entity I don't care what it is could actually manage I mean it would it's kind of like damage control and maybe putting out the biggest fires but I don't think that it's really a manageable uh of set of circumstances
[speaker002:] well and and I think that you know we we stand uh in in in the possibility of of in of of being confronted with a similar kind of thing here uh everybody is is calling for you know this this this this uh peace dividend and it the with with an election year coming up there's the uh that there's the the the possibility of everybody proposing something radical to to appeal to the voters to to to get elected but you know how how rapidly can they change and how rapid can they move
[speaker001:] well as far as I'm concerned I can change pretty doggone rapidly and I'm all for something radical because I think it's gonna take something radical to turn this country around um