First off, it was called the space race, not the moon race. And there's a wonderful illustration that shows the ridiculous psychological coping that the US did after losing the space race:
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-2d9117d7b9313504accef46ea8f5eb2c
But I do concede, I was being a bit too generalising there. When I say "The West" I really just meant the NATO countries. Because they carried out so much war and bombings and misery that they didn't really leave any kind of NET positive, they slaughtered millions of people and created the third world as we know it today.
So it's kind of cheating a little bit. Obviously for most of history there is very admirable western accomplishments, especially Roman republicanism and scientific enlightenment come to mind.
But during the 20th century? Full blacklash. Just war and plundering. Like Visigoth days.
Obviously a lot of Eastern Marxists admire authentic western values, because they inspired us. Marx was German, Hegel was German, Engels was German. The Germans were good to us... at first.
Even Ho Chi Minh who used to be a migrant worker in the US, he worked as a chef at the Wardorf Hotel in New York if you can believe it, he drafted his own constitution in a way that was based on the US declaration of independence. He said that he was inspired by the US to break free from the French just as they had from the British.
What happened next was in my opinion a massive act of US hypocrisy mind you, but this is true. I'll give you that. I am not a cynical person, I think western Europe and the US have lost their way, but I think there is a very deep well to draw water from.
I want to see what Thomas Paine's United States looks like. What it would look like if it was built on values from a guy who said that even the most illiterate of Indian is far less a savage than the king of England.
From the guy who said that every religion pursues the same divine truth, and as such they should be equal under the law.
From the guy who said that slavery was one of the most repugnant crimes known to humanity.
From the guy who said that tyranny and poverty are synonymous things.
Thomas Paine's writings were basically the snowball that rolled off the mountaintop, and Bolshevism was the avalanche that followed.
As for the drabness of colour, I would remind you that:
A) 1984 is not a documentary.
B) Eric Arthur Blair largely based it on his own experiences working for the British government. The ministry of truth is the ministry of information, the proles were cockneys, and the prole district was based off of his own experiences slumming it in London's east end. He had never been to the USSR, and his works was largely based on his ideological motives as a Trotskyist. That's who Emmanuel Goldstein was an allegory for, he was Trotsky. That's why Eric kept emphasizing how Jewish the guy was, because presumably that's all he actually knew about Trotsky. Guy was woefully uninformed about Soviet history and culture.
It's obviously a ridiculous stereotype. The USSR existed in the same electromagnetic spectrum as the rest of the world, and when you give it some critical thought you'll see what an absurd piece of propaganda it is to presume that only capitalism has colours.
Here's some pictures in fact:
https://www.bygonely.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/featured_Soviet_Moscow_1950s.jpg
And I also remind you of how this is in my opinion a little bit of projection, considering how western capitalism introduced this nightmare following the 1991 coup d'etat:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0832/9415/files/image2_2048x2048.jpg?v=1593063840
So I'll see your 1984 and raise you Fight Club.
