Quote Originally Posted by TheCurmudgeon View Post
They thought commercialism was the cure for communism.
They were very likely right, in the long run. They misjudged the time frame, and they mistakenly believed that commercialism, or modernization, or industrialization, or development, can be inserted into another country, rather than developing organically.

Industrialization, modernity, commercialism do change societies. I don't think there's much doubt about that. We cannot reliably predict what changes will result or how long it will take them to emerge, and we cannot externally impose or engineer commercialism, modernity, development or industrialization.

I don't think anyone can point to a case, anywhere, where meaningful "development" was engineered from the outside. Countries do develop, but they cannot "be developed" by an external force.