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But now there are two superpowers: the US and the merging voice of the people of the world.

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Robert Muller

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In this unprecedented public conversation, the world is asking: "Is war legitimate? Is it illegitimate? Is there enough evidence to warrant an attack? Is there not enough evidence to warrant killing masses of human brothers and sisters? "What will be the consequences? The costs? What will happen after a war? Will this set off other conflicts? What might be peaceful alternatives? "What kind of negotiations are we not thinking of? What are the real intentions for declaring war?"

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We'd be worse off due to the continuing subtle McCarthyism that permeated Canada and the USA as late as the 1980s: "Aren't you being a little soft on Communism?" is the sneer that terrified many a politician.

As well, the bipolar-world model means that one of its worst defects, the willingness to ignore human rights abuses by one side's SOBs meant that non-industrial nations would continue to be destabilized by the US or the USSR without serious dissenting opinion being a factor - witness the differences between casual acceptance of the CIA's assistance in getting Allende knocked off versus many people today questioning the US's unseemly interference in Venezuela's internal affairs.

We'd be better off in the sense that the military-capital complex would be forced to continue the Keynesian Compact if only to keep workers from being attracted to the fact that an alternative to capitalism was functional and operative. (The reverse is also true, incidentally; the existence of the USA and its allies was a beacon to Russians who wanted reforms and an end to the stifling hand of bureaucratic interference in domestic affairs)