Barbarism OR The People: A Human Fight for a Better World

Rising Together: Ending Neoliberalism’s Barbarism with Democratic Socialism

I stand with young people, older people, families, workers, with anyone who’s looked at the world lately and felt a mix of rage and hope. We are at the cliff’s edge: a choice between barbarism or the people. For over forty years, neoliberalism has insidiously crept into our lives, promising prosperity but delivering crisis after crisis: economic, social, and moral. It has unleashed a barbarism that breaks my heart.

We see this barbarism in Gaza’s bombed-out communities, where estimates show up to 186,000 total deaths since October 2023, and we see it in Ukraine’s war-torn cities, where millions suffer while arms dealers profit. And we see it locally, in Australia’s housing crisis, where 175,000 languish on public housing waitlists.

As philosopher Hannah Arendt warned, “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism”.

Neoliberalism’s elite-driven system has eroded that empathy, sacrificing humanity for profit and power.

But there is another path: democratic socialism. It is a system for the many, not the few, rooted in fairness and democracy. This is why I’m calling out the corporate and political villains, like Raytheon’s CEO Greg Hayes, and politicians hiding behind "security". We must draw on the courage of figures like Harry S. Truman, Hannah Arendt, and Zohran Mamdani to guide us. Let’s choose the people by dismantling elite power, seeing through the propaganda, and rebuilding a world of dignity and hope. This is a human fight for a better world.

Recognising Barbarism Today: The Collapse of Empathy

Barbarism isn’t just overt violence; it is the systemic collapse of empathy, where dehumanisation becomes routine. Hannah Arendt, who fled Nazi Germany and studied totalitarianism, saw this clearly. She argued that when we stop seeing others as human, we pave the way for atrocities.

Today, we recognise barbarism in policies and actions that prioritise profit over people, justified by slick corporate and political spin.

It is global, in Gaza and Ukraine’s bombed cities, and the targeted murder of civilians, through to local issues, like Australia’s housing crisis or underfunded hospitals. Barbarism is the opposite of "woke," a term rooted in empathy and awareness of injustice, which neoliberalism’s critics mock to distract from their own moral failings. Arendt’s insights give this moment weight. Her concept of the "banality of evil" shows how ordinary people enable horror through thoughtlessness. Neoliberalism’s barbarism thrives because we are told it’s “Normal” to prioritise profit. But it is not. We see it, and we are ready to fight back.

Neoliberalism’s Role: Enabling Barbarism at Scale and Locally

Neoliberalism, creeping in since the 1970s, has enabled barbarism by rigging the system for elites. Economist Friedrich Hayek (The Road to Serfdom, 1944) championed markets as freedom, but leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, backed by corporate giants, used crises like stagflation to slash taxes and deregulate. David Harvey (A Brief History of Neoliberalism, 2005) traces this to the 1971 Powell Memo, where elites like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce funded think tanks like the Cato Institute to gut labour and welfare. Thomas Piketty (Capital in the 21st Century, 2014) shows the result: the top 1% own half of global wealth (Oxfam, 2023), while Australian real wages grew just 0.3% annually from 1983 to 2020 (Australian Bureau of Statistics). Joseph Stiglitz (The Price of Inequality, 2012) calls it “rent-seeking,” with elites profiting from our pain.

In Australia, the Howard government (1996–2007) supercharged the neoliberal agenda, transforming housing from a right into a speculative investment. John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello introduced the 50% capital gains tax (CGT) discount in 1999, replacing inflation indexation, and preserved generous negative gearing, allowing property investors to deduct rental losses from their taxable income. These policies, sold as boosting housing supply, instead fuelled a crisis: from 2001 to 2003, home prices surged 13% annually above inflation, and from 2013 to 2017, 6% annually, while wages rose just 44% since 1999 compared to a 142% rise in home prices (ACOSS, 2025). The wealthiest 10% of households, owning two-thirds of investment properties, reap 82% of the $16 billion CGT discount and 39% of negative gearing benefits, costing the budget $165.58 billion over the next decade (Parliamentary Budget Office, 2024). This isn’t about liberty, it’s about entrenching wealth for the few, leaving first homebuyers outbid and renters squeezed.

Psychologist Albert Bandura’s eight mechanisms of moral disengagement reveal how neoliberalism’s elites justify this barbarism. Here are some examples:

• Gaza’s Heartbreak: The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), backed by an annual budget of $3.8 billion in U.S. aid, have caused immense suffering. Since October 7, 2023, the U.S. has approved substantially more military aid to Israel, with at least $17.9 billion in security assistance approved from October 7, 2023, through September 2024. This figure marks the largest single year of U.S. military aid to Israel since 1959. Over 60,000 people have been killed, including 17,000 children. Gaza’s bombings are justified as “self-defence” (moral justification), masking civilian deaths, while Palestinians are labelled “terrorists” (dehumanisation). Military-industrial giants like Raytheon openly profit, with executives like Greg Hayes touting “demand” for their weapons (moral disengagement via euphemistic labelling and advantageous comparison). Furthermore, Gazans are often blamed for Hamas’s actions, conveniently ignoring Israel’s long-standing blockade (attribution of blame). This brutalisation is a clear example of neoliberalism's barbarism at play.

• Ukraine’s Ruins: Russia’s Invasion and the War Economy: Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has displaced 8 million people. While the US has provided $175 billion in aid, a significant portion of this fuels the coffers of military corporations like Lockheed Martin. This assistance is euphemistically labelled "supporting democracy," a narrative that often prolongs the war rather than seeking a swift resolution (moral disengagement via euphemistic labelling). The Kakhovka Dam attack, an act of ecocide, has been largely ignored by the very arms dealers profiting from the conflict, highlighting their disregard for consequences. The ongoing conflict underscores the complicity of the military-industrial complex, which thrives on protracted conflicts, prioritising business profits over human lives and environmental destruction.

• Australia’s Housing Crisis: A Manufactured Scarcity Aided by Neoliberal Policies: Neoliberal cuts to public spending have left a staggering 175,000 people languishing on public housing waitlists across Australia. This systemic failure is often disingenuously justified as “market efficiency” (moral justification), yet it actively manufactures scarcity, driving up prices and pushing vulnerable families into destitution. The problem was significantly exacerbated by policies enacted under successive Liberal National Party governments, which embraced neoliberal principles leading to a reduction in direct public housing investment, while simultaneously introducing tax settings favourable to property speculation, such as generous negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions. These policies incentivised property investors over first-home buyers and those in need, creating an environment where housing became a commodity for wealth accumulation rather than a fundamental right. While everyday Australians struggle to find affordable homes, major developers like Meriton continue to profit immensely from this engineered crisis, demonstrating how unchecked market forces prioritise corporate gain over fundamental human needs. This crisis highlights the stark moral failure of a system that allows shelter to be a commodity for speculation rather than a guaranteed right.

• U.S. Immigration Cruelty: Profiting from Human Desperation: The U.S. immigration system exemplifies barbarism, turning human desperation into corporate profit. Private prison corporations like GEO Group operate facilities such as the notorious "Alligator Alcatraz," caging migrants and generating billions in revenue ($2.4 billion revenue, 2022). These cruel facilities are euphemistically labelled a “deterrent,” obscuring the reality of their inhumane conditions and the suffering they inflict (euphemistic labelling). Furthermore, practices like ICE’s systematic family separations (Yale Law Journal, 2023) are branded as essential for “border security,” a narrative that dehumanises migrants by labelling them “illegals” (dehumanisation). This is not security; it is a calculated system of cruelty designed to maximise private profits from incarceration and exploitation.

• Surveillance Capitalism: The Erosion of Privacy for Data Profits: The rise of surveillance capitalism, as articulated by Shoshana Zuboff, represents a new frontier of neoliberal barbarism, where our digital lives are systematically exploited for profit. Companies like Google engage in vast data exploitation, creating intricate profiles of individuals that disregard privacy harm (disregard for consequences). When confronted, these corporations often deflect responsibility, blaming “user choice” or the impersonal nature of “algorithms” for privacy violations (displacement of responsibility). This insidious form of barbarism normalises the constant monitoring and commodification of our personal information, eroding our autonomy and dignity in the relentless pursuit of advertising revenue and predictive power.

Naomi Klein shows how crises are exploited for profit. This is economic failure (soaring inequality), social failure (fractured communities), and moral failure (empathy’s death).

Democratic Socialism: The Sensible Centre for the Many

I envision a world where we all can thrive with healthcare, education, a job, and a home, decided by us, not elites. We have everything we need to achieve this. Democratic socialism delivers this through democracy, balancing community and freedom. Political theorist Michael Walzer calls it fairness across life’s domains. Unlike communism’s control or neoliberalism’s greed, it is the sensible centre, embracing the values of empathy and justice.

Where It Exists Today:

• Sweden: With a Gini coefficient of 0.28 , Sweden’s free healthcare and education keep inequality low—a beacon for activists.

• Denmark: Its welfare state (Gini: 0.27) offers universal services and green energy, showing democracy and equity thrive.

• Australia: (in part) Medicare and public schools are wins, though neoliberalism raises inequality (Gini: 0.34, 2020).

• New Zealand: (in part) Under Jacinda Ardern, public housing and climate action grew, despite market pressures.

Why It Works:

• Fairness through progressive taxes.

• Dignity via universal services.

• Democracy with corporate reform.

• Community to fight alienation.

• Sustainability through public investment.

The Smear: Cutting Through the Propaganda

The “socialism is communism” lie infuriates me. It's a deliberate distortion designed to scare people away from policies that would genuinely benefit the many. To be clear:

• Democratic Socialism: This is a political ideology advocating for a democratic political system alongside a socialist economic system. It champions public ownership or control of key industries and services (like healthcare and education) within a democratic framework, ensuring social and economic equality, often through progressive taxation, strong welfare states, and worker protections. Unlike communism, it embraces multi-party democracy, individual freedoms, and a mixed economy where private enterprise can still exist, but is regulated to serve the public good. Countries like Sweden and Denmark are often cited as examples of nations with strong democratic socialist elements.

• Communism: This is a revolutionary political and economic ideology that advocates for a classless society in which all property and resources are communally owned and controlled by the state, rather than by individuals. It typically involves a single-party authoritarian rule, with the state having extensive control over all aspects of economic and often personal life. Historical examples like China (though now a mixed economy with significant state control) or the former Soviet Union demonstrate communism's tendency towards state control, suppression of dissent, and often high levels of inequality under the ruling party.

Hannah Arendt saw how propaganda distorts truth: “Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts”. This tactic, honed during the Cold War with campaigns like McCarthyism (Ellen Schrecker, 1998), painted socialism as tyranny, a calculated effort to protect corporate power.

Today in Australia, this same playbook is employed by neoliberal think tanks and their powerful associates. Groups like the Liberal Party’s Menzies Research Centre and the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) actively work to scare us from fairness and collective action, disseminating propaganda that vilifies democratic socialism.

As Wendy Brown (2019) argues, this is how neoliberalism seeks to keep elites firmly in charge, by dismantling any challenge to their power.

The Intergenerational Divide: Why Some Resist Change

While more and more young people (and quite a few of us oldies) are championing democratic socialism, we face powerful resistance from some older generations and those still wedded to neoliberalism ideology. It’s infuriating to hear those who benefited from social safety nets now pull the ladder up behind them. Many of today’s wealthy elders, now fiercely protecting their multi-million dollar superannuation accounts, often forget they were the direct beneficiaries of a more equitable society.

In Australia, for example, many enjoyed free university education in the 1970s and 80s, the emergence of Medicare, and the strong, publicly funded Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), which provides affordable access to essential medicines. These and other substantial public investments in infrastructure and social programs gave them a leg up that’s now denied to younger generations, who face crippling student debt, an unaffordable housing market, and precarious work.

Their fear isn’t about protecting liberty; it’s about safeguarding their immense wealth, often accumulated at the expense of collective well-being. This imbalance was significantly amplified by policies rooted in Howardism, the neoliberal agenda of the Howard era (1996-2007). Through the introduction and entrenchment of policies like generous negative gearing and the 50% capital gains tax discount (introduced in September 1999), the government explicitly designed the tax system to favour wealth accumulation, particularly through property ownership and speculation. This disproportionately benefited older, asset-rich generations. Housing, once widely understood as a fundamental right, was fundamentally transformed into an investment vehicle.

They refuse to acknowledge that their success wasn't solely due to individual merit, but also the strong social infrastructure built by previous generations. A social infrastructure now eroded by the very neoliberal policies they champion. While we continue to fight fiercely to protect cherished institutions like Medicare and the PBS from constant attacks by corporate interests, particularly the US pharmaceutical industry seeking to dismantle our affordable medicine scheme for greater profits, the fact remains that a more secure and accessible foundation was laid for them.

The stark reality is that for many young Australians and many young people around the world, life today is arguably worse than it was for their grandparents’ generation in the 1950s to 1970s. Back then, a single income could often afford a home, education was accessible, and job security was more common. Today, young people face crippling student debt, an unaffordable housing market, precarious work, and a climate crisis inherited from unchecked corporate greed.

These are the very conditions driving them to democratic socialism. The wealthy few, clinging to their vast fortunes and benefiting from a tax system that disproportionately favours wealth over wages, a system deeply shaped by Howardism, are holding up progress, ensuring that their comfort comes at the cost of a dignified future for the rest of us. They are afraid of sharing, afraid of losing even a fraction of what they have, even if it means denying basic human rights to others.

It’s time to call out this intergenerational selfishness and demand a society that works for all ages.

Truman’s Vision: Thwarted by Villains

Harry S. Truman, US president in the 1940s and 1950s, showed us a better way. His Fair Deal: universal healthcare, higher wages, expanded social security, was democratic socialism, rebuilding a war-torn world. He stood for workers, backing unions and public housing, in an era when the highest marginal tax rate for the wealthiest Americans reached 90%. Imagine the public money available to solve the world’s problems today if billionaires and corporations were taxed with such fairness and foresight. But corporate villains like the American Medical Association and conservative politicians like Senator Robert Taft blocked his healthcare plan, branding it “socialised medicine” to protect private profits. Their propaganda, which echoes today, stopped a fairer America.

Truman’s courage, like Arendt’s clarity, inspires me. We can revive their vision.

Young People Leading: A New York Spark

In June 2025, 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, beating Andrew Cuomo with ideas like free transit and rent freezes. Backed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he’s proof the tide is turning, despite fierce pushback from Wall Street and real estate tycoons like Douglas Durst. These powerful elites will relentlessly defend their wealth and privilege, but Mamdani's victory lights the spark: it's a powerful reminder that organised people, not organised money, can be the unstoppable force for change. It’s why I write these articles to remind us we can make the change.

A Tipping Point: Our Fight to Rebuild

We are at the cliff’s edge: barbarism or the people.

I stand by and walk with the climate strikers, ‘end war’ and ‘equality’ protesters, workers, families, and everyone, young and old, fighting for fairness. This fight is particularly urgent for younger generations, whose worldview distinctly contrasts with older cohorts.

Polls consistently show higher levels of concern among young Australians for critical issues. For instance, while 56% of Australians overall view global warming as a serious and pressing problem requiring immediate steps, this rises significantly to 73% for those aged 18-29 (Lowy Institute, 2023). Furthermore, younger Australians are less inclined to support increased defence spending (39% for 18–29-year-olds vs. 62% for those over 60, Lowy Institute, 2023), reflecting a clear anti-war sentiment. This drive for a fairer world extends to economic systems, with a 2023 poll revealing that 41% of Australians aged 18-34 would prefer to live in a socialist society, compared to 32% who favoured a capitalist one (Essential Report, 2023).

A Human Fight: Choosing the People

Neoliberalism’s barbarism that created Gaza’s ruins, Ukraine’s pain, and Australia’s housing crisis is an economic, social, and moral failure, propped up by corporate lies Bandura exposes, and Arendt warned against. The military-industrial complex and surveillance giants profit from our pain.

Democratic socialism, the sensible centre, rooted in empathy and justice, offers hope, as seen in Sweden, Denmark, and Australia’s Medicare.

We’re at a tipping point.

Standing with young people and all who dream of fairness, inspired by Truman’s courage and Arendt’s clarity, let’s share stories, build movements, and fight the elites for a world where people win over barbarism.

Join me. We can make it happen.

You know what to do.

Onward we press.