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Isaac Asimov (in his book Robots and Empire; Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1985, page 58) speaks of the "crisis" possible when the Spacers (the first colonizers of outer space from earth who have now grown comfortable in their 50-planet world) are in the process of being passed up by the earth people who aspire to colonize the rest of the galaxy.
"...the Spacers will grow weaker. There will, however, be a period of time during which the Spacers will remain stronger than Earth and the Settlers [from Earth], though by a steadily diminishing margin. Eventually, the Spacers will inevitably become aware of Earthpeople as a growing danger. At that time the Spacer worlds will surely decide that Earth and the Settlers must be stopped before it is too late and it will seem to them that drastic measures will have to be taken. That will be a period of crisis that will determine the entire future history of human beings."This time of "crisis" is surely coming if not already here for the two great "camps" which struggle with each other to control the destiny of planet Earth: the capitalist camp folks (whom we may equate with the Spacers) and the socialist camp folks (whom we may equate with the Earthpeople). Those in the socialist camp have firmly established themselves on Earth by the shedding of much blood, sweat, and tears; they can now get pretty much all they need to defend themselves and to set up viable/sustainable economies. The capitalist class and their supporters have the advantage of years of organization and bountiful and ready resources; all is in place for their final push to world domination. But all this dissolves/'falls apart' in the presence of the fundamental laws of human development--indeed, the fundamental laws of the universe--which state that things change step by step (quantitatively) till there is a transformation to something better (a qualitative change) and the majority of the people decide/recognize this new goodness and take action to bring it into being. The great majorities on the planet always side on the side of the qualitatively better and the great majorites are now the proletarians whose leaders are the communists, and all of this describes the essence of socialism. So the capitalist class and their supporters are defeated and the communist class and their supporters--all within the socialist camp--win out. In the end, however, there are no winners or losers for the cycle of change continues; something new and different has come into being and life goes on.