There are different examples of radical socialist societies in history, too bad all of them were oppressed by all too powerful neighbours. If you like Orwell, you might like reading "Homage to Catalonia", his experience fighting for Republican Spain in the Civil War. The CNT-FAI supported a radical socialist society, in particular, an anarcho-syndicalist one. Another example is the Free Territory of Ukraine, during the russian civil war. In the early twenties it was conquered by the bolsheviks, since they didn't want Makhno, the military leader of this anarchist society, gaining popular support outside Ukraine. There are other examples: in Korea during the thirties... There are alternatives to both capitalism and Communism (in the Soviet Union sense). The fact that those alternatives aren't considered is caused by lots of propaganda against leftist ideal, take for example the two red scares.