Almost 40 years ago, when I was a green undergraduate in music (I hadn’t made a decision at that point whether I wanted a degree in performance, music education or musicology), I took a survey course in political science in order to satisfy 1/5 of the requirements in Humanities and Social science (what a misnomer!). When the question was raised why most, if not all of Europe (save the USSR, which was Bolshevik and communist) went toward social democracy. The answer, according to this professor, was that post, WW II, Europe laid in complete ruins. After 2 Major ruinous wars, within a 20 year span, there was not much of anything left on the European continent. IIRC, the US, went back into semi-isolation after Germany, Italy, and Japan surrendered. Yes, there was the Marshall plan, but it really wasn’t enough to allay European suffering, IMNSHO.
Some political leader in the U.S., made the comment many decades ago, that government should be the solution of last resort. In addition, another professor I had, (IIRC, it was a music theory professor I had, who was a contemporary of Bela Bartok, that barely got out of Hungary with his life (he had the misfortune of stepping on a land mine, which nearly took his leg off), made the comment that the difference between Socialists and Communists were that Socialists took power via the Ballot Box, while the Communists took power at the end of a rifle.
In short, we might have socialized medicine and more government control that we have today IF WWII have had major battles happening on the continental USA, rather than the Hawaiian Islands (which was a US territory during WWII), the Philippines (also a US territory and protectorate) and Okinawa (ditto).
Anyhow, this is just my $.02US. Take it for what it’s worth (which isn’t much, in most people’s opinions of me).
14 Jun 2019, 9:03 am
