Suck it and see!
A big question: why has an experiment not being carried out to TEST which of the various economic/social systems we have on offer is the best?
Surely such a social experiment COULD be carried out, to at least give us a deeper understanding of how capitalism,communism, anarchism, etc may compare of various aspects. If we can calculate much more strange and complex stuff like the quantity of dark matter in the universe, surely a well designed experiment to see how the different social and economic system perform should not be beyond us? My suggestion is that the power elites of capitalism do not WANT such an experiment carried out, because they fear it may not show capitalism in a good light.
Some say 'It would not be ethical to do such an experiment'. Well, that is a possibility, but as we know many much more damaging ones have been carried out, secretly. Like experimenting with LSD on soldiers, etc. Ones that they thought would have military uses. So, I doubt it is ethical concerns that have stopped such an experiment being carried out so far. I think it highly likely that the power elites dont want such a well constructed, controlled, experiment because the results are likely to reveal fundamental weaknesses in capitalism. If they were very confident that capitalism would come out the best system, I think it likely that such an experiment would have already been undertaken. As to the practical elements involved, in may be very difficult, or next to impossible to run a rigorous controlled experiment on this subject, but an 'observational study' could be done more easily. By which I mean:
"An observational study is used when it is impractical, unethical, cost-prohibitive (or otherwise inefficient) to fit a physical or social system into a laboratory setting, to completely control confounding factors, or to apply random assignment."
So why are we not doing that?
In addition, when people collect together in large groups to tentatively TRY something different we notice that the police turn up pretty quickly. And with weeks or even just days some excuse (public order/protection of property/hygiene,etc) is thought up to physically attack those people and remove them from where ever it is. Again, if the capitalist power elite were so confident that capitalism would come out the best system then surely they would simply laugh at such attempts? Why not just stand back and say: ‘Ha, ha, those stupid hippies - let them TRY, we know they are going to make a mess of it!’. It’s like if a little 4 year old girl hits you, then you just laugh at it - let her pound away pathetically. She cant do much damage.
But if a strong 24 year old man attacks you, well then you react very differently. We only react with such fear and violence to things that are SERIOUS THREATS. So, I think the extreme reaction of police violence and powerful media criticism that anything like the occupy movements gets is because the power elite knows that collective, intelligent action by ordinary people is a REAL threat to their power. We have seen in history many times how the capitalist power elite desperately puts down, with extreme violence, any attempts to even TRY a different system. The massacre of the Paris Communards of 1871 show that, the mass killing of Spanish anarchists in the 30s show it, and does violent suppression of union activity in the USA in the late 19th and early 20thC.
So, if you are the kind of person who trusts science, thinks logically, wants proof... then perhaps you should start thinking why capitalism refuses to allow any such experimentation a chance? Of what are they afraid?
A big question: why has an experiment not being carried out to TEST which of the various economic/social systems we have on offer is the best?
Surely such a social experiment COULD be carried out, to at least give us a deeper understanding of how capitalism,communism, anarchism, etc may compare of various aspects. If we can calculate much more strange and complex stuff like the quantity of dark matter in the universe, surely a well designed experiment to see how the different social and economic system perform should not be beyond us? My suggestion is that the power elites of capitalism do not WANT such an experiment carried out, because they fear it may not show capitalism in a good light.
Some say 'It would not be ethical to do such an experiment'. Well, that is a possibility, but as we know many much more damaging ones have been carried out, secretly. Like experimenting with LSD on soldiers, etc. Ones that they thought would have military uses. So, I doubt it is ethical concerns that have stopped such an experiment being carried out so far. I think it highly likely that the power elites dont want such a well constructed, controlled, experiment because the results are likely to reveal fundamental weaknesses in capitalism. If they were very confident that capitalism would come out the best system, I think it likely that such an experiment would have already been undertaken. As to the practical elements involved, in may be very difficult, or next to impossible to run a rigorous controlled experiment on this subject, but an 'observational study' could be done more easily. By which I mean:
"An observational study is used when it is impractical, unethical, cost-prohibitive (or otherwise inefficient) to fit a physical or social system into a laboratory setting, to completely control confounding factors, or to apply random assignment."
So why are we not doing that?
In addition, when people collect together in large groups to tentatively TRY something different we notice that the police turn up pretty quickly. And with weeks or even just days some excuse (public order/protection of property/hygiene,etc) is thought up to physically attack those people and remove them from where ever it is. Again, if the capitalist power elite were so confident that capitalism would come out the best system then surely they would simply laugh at such attempts? Why not just stand back and say: ‘Ha, ha, those stupid hippies - let them TRY, we know they are going to make a mess of it!’. It’s like if a little 4 year old girl hits you, then you just laugh at it - let her pound away pathetically. She cant do much damage.
But if a strong 24 year old man attacks you, well then you react very differently. We only react with such fear and violence to things that are SERIOUS THREATS. So, I think the extreme reaction of police violence and powerful media criticism that anything like the occupy movements gets is because the power elite knows that collective, intelligent action by ordinary people is a REAL threat to their power. We have seen in history many times how the capitalist power elite desperately puts down, with extreme violence, any attempts to even TRY a different system. The massacre of the Paris Communards of 1871 show that, the mass killing of Spanish anarchists in the 30s show it, and does violent suppression of union activity in the USA in the late 19th and early 20thC.
So, if you are the kind of person who trusts science, thinks logically, wants proof... then perhaps you should start thinking why capitalism refuses to allow any such experimentation a chance? Of what are they afraid?