What does this mean?????? Any smarties out there?? Can you interpret this confusing paragraph?

Question

Research for a project on Utopian Socialism:

Critics have argued that utopian socialists who established experimental communities were in fact trying to apply the scientific method to human social organization, and were therefore not utopian. For instance, Joshua Muravchik stated that science is "the practice of experimentation, of hypothesis and test," and argued that "Owen and Fourier and their followers were the real ‘scientific socialists.’ They hit upon the idea of socialism, and they tested it by attempting to form socialist communities. In all, there were scores of these tests in America and England—and all of them failed, utterly and disastrously." Muravchik further argued that, in contrast, Marx made untestable predictions about the future, and that Marx's view that socialism would be created by impersonal historical forces may lead one to conclude that it is unnecessary to strive for socialism because it will happen anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism

Answer 1

Utopia seems to be the key word here and implies that of a perfect community which is unrealistic and unattainable. Socialism fails because we do not want to be "lumped" into one category and behave like robots. You cannot force these things, as we are all individuals with our own minds. It just won't work and in countries or even the scientists who experiment with this, will certainly fail. Socialism to me is like Communism and while some countries must obey and embrace it, many detest it and will suffer the consequences. Historical forces could be construed as wars. Good luck .

Answer 2

Background:

Marxists portrayed themselves as "scientific socialists" and most other socialists as "utopian socialists."

Explanation:

Science proceeds through experimentation.

The "utopian socialists" founded experimental communities, or other projects, and tried to learn from what worked and from what didn't work. This was relatively scientific.

The "scientific socialists" constructed long-term large-scale political programs without trying short-term small-scale tests first. This was relatively unscientific.

Comment:

There are some problems with this argument. Many of the experimental communities, e.g. Oneida Commune, suffered because of government interference, and other experimental projects, e.g. independent banks, independent postal services, etc. suffered from governmental bans, special taxes on them, or special subsidies/privileges for their capitalist competitors. This drew "utopian socialists" into politics as early as the 1820s and 1830s.

The socialist movement was already dividing among different political platforms before Marx and Engels got involved, each drawing different lessons from the experimental communities, as well as the development of society in general.

Answer 3

Basically. The socailists were arguing that what they were doing was science while some other homies were saying it wasn't. To prove it was, they started trying to make socialist communities to test etc and it didn't work, and so someone said because of the way history works there is no need to try and create socialism because it will happen anyway

Answer 4

see what happens aftr they ban smoking

Answer 5

It is only use of the word 'Utopian' which is confusing.The use of second 'Utopian' as adjective suggests impractical, 'removed from reality'.

Try reading the paragraph with this in mind?Hope it helps.

Answer 6

It's basically saying that historical premises have shaped a culture of 'hierarchical differences' among people, that is undo-able because it is deeply embedded in our understandings of the world we live in.  The hypothesis is based on our knowledge of human nature, and the test is to challenge the basis of it, making all persons equal contributors in a give-and-take social organization.  The 'scientific socialists' wanted to prove that it was indeed possible, which is false.  In order to have socialism, you have to take from those who have and give to those who have-not; this is merely impossible because those who have are those who hold the power to make decisions for or against change.

The closest attempt to creating a successful, Utopian society can be found in Israel, on the Kibbutz communes, which have restructured their organization to reflect more mainstream social organization and are structured in opposition to the foundational principles and goals by which they originated from, in order to maintain their existence, prosperity, and growth.