The "long-term viability" question seems to me a red herring which tends to be used as an argument against "alternative" social/political arrangements. No political system lasts forever. Was the Puritan revolution inviable because after Cromwell died the Monarchy was restored? Was the American revolution inviable because of the the Civil War? French revolution inviable because of the Terror, the Directory, the Empire or the subsequent restoration of the Monarchy? Was the Russian revolution inviable because of Stalin, or because of Gorbachev?

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo