There's no moral core to the west. Once that was religion but now it's just the market. The last chance as a secular moral society was if the German communists succeeded and coupled their industrial base with the pre-industrial Soviets to avoid the pitfalls of the Weimar Republic and Stalin having to rush that process. Life is damned as a result and with it Gaia.
literally any european country, or a bit more of asia/america couldve put sufficient resources in the red camp. and the reds themselves could have played the cold war better (sinosoviet split anyone?)
The lost one of the 1920s which resulted in everything since
The potential one that China seems most capable of achieving as it sheds the market structures it used to build up its industrial capacity
I don't know Matt's view on China's growth but there's still room for that second attempt and they have the best of an industrial and agrarian economy combined. It'd certainly help if the US or Europe suddenly became socialist, but they don't have that same dependency on a larger or more advanced partner because they're the largest and most advanced country in the ways that matter.
I don’t know if I’m just overly optimistic but things seem to be getting worse in the US, and if neoliberal policies keep taking away public safety nets I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw violent revolt of some kind very soon.