Our world is in crisis. The failures of neoliberal economic policy have brought about devastating inequality, and a far-right populism that once again threatens democracies around the world. Our world in flames, set alight by the unadulterated greed of man, yet our governments refuse to take decisive action.
Recently, I picked up George Orwellâs essay, âThe Lion and The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Geniusâ from the library. Written during The Blitz of 1941, it presents a vision of a new democratic âEnglish Socialismâ, as opposed to the totalitarian Soviet Communism, and argues that in order to defeat Nazi Germany, England needs a socialist revolution. With the crises facing our world today, Orwellâs vision of democratic socialism, is more relevant now than ever before.
Nations are a Social Construct
Orwell begins by underscoring just how important nationalism is to understanding the modern world.
George Orwell
One cannot see the modern world as it is unless one recognizes the overwhelming strength of patriotism, national loyalty. ⊠Christianity and international Socialism are as weak as straw in comparison with it.
This is something that today, most people donât realise (which goes to show just how powerful and pervasive of a force nationalism is) - that nations are nothing more than social constructs. In a certain sense, they arenât real.
As the philosopher Ernest Gellner writes in his book, Thought and Change (Gellner, 1969),
Ernest Gellner
Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness: it invents nations where they do not exist.
For most of history, most people did not identify with a nation. They didnât believe that they were French, English, Chinese, etc. Before the industrial revolution, peopleâs lives largely revolved around their local village and community. They would have identified with their local community, rather than the larger state that they would have been a part of.
In 1740, when a geometer who was sent to map the area around Mont Gerbier de Jonc , in France, climbed the mountain, âhe could take in at a glance several small regions whose inhabitants barely knew of each otherâs existenceâ (Robb, 2008).
The cited book goes on,
Graham Robb
To walk in any direction for a day was to become incomprehensible, for the MĂ©zenc range to which the mountain belonged was also a watershed of languages. The people who saw the sun set behind the Gerbier de Jonc spoke one group of dialects; the people on the evening side spoke another. Forty miles to the north, the wine growers and silkweavers of the Lyonnais spoke a different language altogether, which had yet to be identified and named by scholars.
This shows just how insular we used to be - such that the people from one village would be unable to understand the language spoken by the people in the next.
The book later on, addresses the issue of national identity too, saying
Graham Robb
The people of the MĂ©zenc, like the inhabitants of many others towns and villages in France, would not have considered themselves âFrenchâ in any case. Few would have been able to say exactly what the word meant.
In fact before the French Revolution, hardly anyone in France actually spoke a language that we would consider French. Consider the following map of languages in France in the late 1700s.
![The languages of France in 1789. The dialects today referred to as Occitan are branches of a distinct Romance language closely related to Catalan. [@france_map]](../assets/images/languages_of_france.png)
Most people either spoke a dialect of French or a completely different language. According to the 1794 Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalise the use of the French language, only 3 million of the then 25 million people living in France spoke Parisian French as their native language (Grégoire, 1794).
Class Inequality and Fascism
George Orwell
England is the most class-ridden country under the sun. It is a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly.
Within his essay, Orwell derides the vast class inequality in England - the primary issue that motivates his belief in Democratic Socialism.
Class inequality is something that I and most people have always been aware of. However, it was only in the wake of Trumpâs re-election in 2024, that I came to realise just how pressing of an issue this is. The fact that a convicted felon and insurrectionist could return to the White House, laid bare the corruption at the heart of American society (and in many other places too). I could now, see clearly that, as Orwell says,
George Orwell
It is not that anyone imagines the law to be just. Everyone knows that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor.
I came to realise, that it is precisely this massive rise in inequality across the world (Figure 2, Figure 3), that has led to success of many right-wing populist parties across the globe, including but not limited to
- Donald Trumpâs re-election in 2024
- AfDâs success in the 2025 German elections, clinging 20% of the popular vote
- SanseitĆâs success in the recent 2025 Japanese elections
- Reform UK surging in the polls
This mirrors the rise of far-right movements in the wake of the Great Depression. In 1928, the Nazi Party only obtained 2.8% of the popular vote. It was only after the crash of 1929, in the 1930 elections, that their vote share increased to 18.3%.
The people who vote for Trump and other similar demagogues tend to be working-class blue collar workers, those who have been left behind by globalisation. They are looking for answers - an explanation - for why the system has failed them. Why are they still poor? Living from paycheck to paycheck? Why canât they get a job?
Such right-wing movements are popular because they provide answers - by tapping into peopleâs worst instincts of fear, anger and hate. They tap into nationalist sentiments (an incredibly powerful force as previously mentioned), turning them into ultranationalists. Instead of identifying the true culprits - the rich and powerful who exploit the working class in the name of increasing value for shareholders, they scapegoat immigrants and other marginalised groups. They claim that these groups are âstealing our jobsâ, âfueling violent crimeâ, âindoctrinating our childrenâ, and in eerily similar rhetoric to 20th century Fascist movements, âpoisoning the blood of our countryâ. As Lyndon B. Johnston, who helped secure the passage of the Civil Rights Act, said,
Lyndon B. Johnson
If you can convince the lowest white man heâs better than the best colored man, he wonât notice youâre picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and heâll empty his pockets for you.
Hiding behind such rhetoric, these far-right populists claim to support the working class, all the while picking from their pockets, with legislation like Trumpâs Big Beautiful Bill - estimated to decrease resources for households in the lowest decile in the US by $1600 per year (Congressional Budget Office, 2025).
This is why so many of the rich and wealthy have rallied behind Trump and other populists. These populists donât truly serve the working class. They simply give them an outlet for their frustrations, while serving the interests of the rich. Orwell in his essay, highlights this fact, stating that,
George Orwell
One ought not to pay any attention to Hitlerâs recent line of talk about being the friend of the poor man, the enemy of plutocracy, ⊠He has never persecuted the rich, except when they were Jews or when they tried actively to oppose him. He stands for a centralized economy which robs the capitalist of most of his power but leaves the structure of society much as before.
This exploitation of racial divisions to prevent class unity isnât a new phenomenon. In Colonial Virginia in 1676, elites were spooked by united class action in Baconâs rebellion, where thousands of Virginians, both whites and blacks, rose up against their colonial governor. The alliance of the European indentured servants and Africans terrified the rich planters, who decided âpoor Whites had to be forever separated from enslaved Blacksâ. New privileges were given to Whites. Only the White rebels were pardoned. All Whites were given absolute power to abuse any African person (Kendi, 2017). This gave the Whites a sense of superiority over the Black slaves. preventing any collective action against the ruling elites.
A drastic shift away from the neoliberal policies which have contributed to the devastating inequality that plagues our modern societies is required. The absurd notion that giving tax-breaks and loosening regulations on profit-driven corporations would somehow cause them to compromise profits to raise workers wages must go. We must create a fairer and more equal society, that cares for its the weakest, most vulnerable members - rather than allowing the rich to squeeze every last drop of wealth out of them.
As FDR said in his State of the Union address in 1944,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
Consumerism and Equality of Sacrifice
In the 2nd portion of his essay, Orwell emphasises the need for the equality of sacrifice during the war. As workers are forced to put up with lower wages, longer hours and war-rationing, it would be incredibly destructive to morale for the wealthy to be seen continuing their luxurious lifestyle. He writes,
George Orwell
In the short run, equality of sacrifice, âwar-Communismâ, is even more important than radical economic changes. ⊠Almost certainly the main reason why the Spanish Republic could keep up the fight for two and a half years against impossible odds was that there were no gross contrasts of wealth. The people suffered horribly, but they all suffered alike. When the private soldier had not a cigarette, the general had not one either. Given equality of sacrifice, the morale of a country like England would probably be unbreakable.
Today, we face another war - but this time, against greenhouse gas emissions. Other than Orwellâs essay, I picked up another book from the library, Utopianism for a Dying Planet:Â Life after Consumerism by Gregory Claeys, which discusses how the utopian tradition offers a solution to todayâs environmental crisis.
The book makes it clear that without profound changes to our economic system and our individual and collective behaviour, we will not able to prevent warming past 1.5°C. One particularly damning statistic I read was that there is only sufficient cobalt on Earth to build 375 million electric cars. There are currently one billion cars on Earth. Granted, technological innovations may allow us to build electric cars without cobalt. Nevertheless, this shows that a truly green, sustainable economy cannot just be a carbon-copy of our current one but without greenhouse gas emissions. Rampant consumerism and planned obsolescence must end (e.g. fast fashion, free returns). As the Native American chief, Sitting Bull said,
Sitting Bull
The love of possessions is a disease with [us].
However, this will be incredibly difficult. Religious arguments against materialism seem to have declined as capitalists have co-opted Christian imagery and rhetoric to support unregulated capitalism and Rooseveltâs New Deal (Kruse, 2016). Many evangelical Christians, especially in America, are supportive of unregulated capitalism and accumulation of wealth, despite verses like âYou cannot serve God and moneyâ (Matthew 6:24). In his book, One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America, Kevin M. Kruse writes,
Kevin M. Kruse
Above all, they insisted that the welfare state was not a means to implement Christâs teachings about caring for the poor and the needy, but rather a perversion of Christian doctrine. In a forceful rejection of the public service themes of the Social Gospel, they argued that the central tenet of Christianity remained the salvation of the individual. ⊠Nothing better exemplified such values ⊠than the capitalist system of free enterprise.
Furthermore, rampant consumerism is no longer limited to the developed economies of the West. It has spread across the globe, including where I live in Asia. The biggest shopping malls are now in the Middle East and Asia. Online shopping has become incredibly popular, not least in Singapore, where we often buy cheap consumer products on platforms like TaoBao, Shopee and Lazada. Advertisements plaster billboards across our cities and on social media, attempting to convince us to buy that which we do not need. As a recent video I saw put it - âthey [deliver] austerity for the soul, dressed in luxury packing.â
One important part of such a transition is economic equality. Claeys writes,
Gregory Claeys
Besides making people feel inferior and unvalued, extreme economic inequality distorts social relationships and makes people want to consume well out of proportion to sustainability, or even their own needs, or what they can afford. Reducing such inequality will reduce unhappiness. More-equal societies have lower crime rates and less mental illness, anxiety, violence and other problems.
The book also draws an analogy with severe crises, such as a pandemic or in wartime, when rationing is willingly endured due to the dire circumstances. This is why equality of sacrifice is so critical.
It is the wealthy, who will have to endure the greatest loss in terms of luxury. After all, they have the largest carbon footprints, with 66% and 20% of warming attributable to the richest 10% and 1% respectively (Schöngart et al., 2025). However, their immense fortunes mean that they are in a good position to avoid any kind of limit on their consumption of goods. If people see that there remains one law for the rich and another for the poor, such a scheme will fail. As Orwell writes about rationing in WW2,
George Orwell
The lady in the Rolls-Royce car is more damaging to morale than a fleet of Goeringâs bombing planes.
There cannot be a situation where, as Orwell put it, âfactory-workers are asked to put up with longer hours, [as] advertisements for âButler. One in family, eight in staffâ are appearing in the pressâ.
Conclusion
Orwellâs essay shines a light on the heart of todayâs anti-democratic far-right populist movements. Our collective greed has led to the top 1% holding 50% of the worldâs net wealth, brought our natural world to the brink of collapse and could even lead to the end of democracy.
What we need a radical shift away from the neoliberal politics of the present - which has paved the way for environmental collapse and Fascism. What we need is a left-wing populist movement, a grassroots movement of the working class against the elites, a movement that identifies the true culprits for the exploitation of the working class and works towards truly solving the crises of our time. As Orwell wrote,
George Orwell
We cannot look to this or to any similar government to put through the necessary changes of its own accord. The initiative will have to come from below. That means that there will have to arise something that has never existed in England, a Socialist movement that actually has the mass of the people behind it.
No one is coming to save us. We will, like many times before, have to save ourselves.
References
- Bell, D. A. (2009). The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-1800: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-1800. Harvard University Press.
- Congressional Budget Office. (2025). Preliminary Analysis of the Distributional Effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
- Gellner, E. (1969). Thought and Change (2. impr., p. 169).
- GrĂ©goire, H. (1794). Rapport sur la nĂ©cessitĂ© et les moyens dâanĂ©antir les patois et dâuniversaliser lâusage de la langue française (pp. 1â19).
- Kendi, I. X. (2017). Stamped from The Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (First trade paperback edition, pp. 53â54). Bold Type Books.
- Kruse, K. M. (2016). One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (pp. 7â8). Basic Books.
- Robb, G. (2008). The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography (pp. 3â4). Norton.
- Schöngart, S., Nicholls, Z., Hoffmann, R., Pelz, S., & Schleussner, C.-F. (2025). High-income groups disproportionately contribute to climate extremes worldwide. Nature Climate Change, 15(6), 627â633. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02325-x
- Shin, K.-Y., & Kong, J. (2014). Why Does Inequality in South Korea Continue to Rise? Korean Journal of Sociology, 48, 31. https://doi.org/10.21562/kjs.2014.12.48.6.31