War with the East will be indecisive and very costly for both sides. If the war doesn’t become nuclear, then I can see the conditions of the October Revolution (WW1) being replicated everywhere in the West.

The war will become very unpopular once the realities of war set in. Vietnam draft riots will be a pindrop compared to war with Russia, especially since the youth (they fight wars) nowadays (at least in the US) don’t eat up propaganda as well as they used to.

There are no issues in Ba Sing Se.

I recall The Math Sorcerer saying that mathematics historically were printed in four languages. These languages being English, French, German and Russian. The USSR put a lot of resources into STEM research and even made the fruits of this research available to the public to read and learn from. In the USSR, you used to be able to get cutting-edge academic level textbooks and theory for cheap while in the West, just reading a single article from an academic journal can cost you $50.

It’s a really big shame because many people go to college and are completely shut out from the academic world after they graduate. The USSR took amateur science more seriously.

I wonder if the United States were ever to become socialist, if the country would have to undergo a period of re-industrialization just because so much American industry has been outsourced. China’s manufacturing prowess in comparison is only going to continue to grow.

I made the big leap and applied to become a member of the PSL yesterday! Not sure what will happen, but the opportunity to make a positive difference in the world makes me feel very excited about the future.