Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
After the fact. Our perceptions are now tainted by experience.
This clouds our vision for what was actually in the realm of possibilities.
The factors that were missing were well known in 2004. They were based off a 1959 research paper. They were ignored by the political leadership who choose to believe the "end of history" crowd like Larry Diamond and Francis Fukiyama. The fact that it did not come about meant that it was, for all intents and purposes, outside the realm of probability.