Why Socialism Should be Embraced
Socialism, Egalitarianism, Humanism, Evolution, and Zohran Mamdani
(photo credit: Kara McCurdy / Wikimedia Commons)
With Zohran Mamdani winning the Democratic primary for the current mayoral race in New York City, the concept of socialism is suddenly a very hot item. In many corners of our nation, socialism is considered nearly blasphemous. In fact, in 2023, the United States Congress passed a motion (H.Con.Res.9) denouncing the horrors of socialism. That said, perhaps it would be helpful to take a hard look at what socialism actually is, along with its history and its potential place in the modern, industrialized world.
On social media recently, I saw a telling meme about this topic, saying this: When Jesus wants to feed the poor, it's Christianity. When government wants to feed the poor, it's socialism.
I don't know about you, but I like the idea of a government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people (in the words of Abraham Lincoln, given as part of his renowned Gettysburg Address). Further, that sounds a lot like socialism to me.
And Lincoln was not the only old-school president to clearly include some level of socialism in his value system. Perhaps most famously, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal had all the hallmarks of socialism—his goal was to provide opportunities for all Americans to work, have shelter, have food, healthcare, and education. And, famously, this approach got our country out of the Great Depression. FDR's socialism worked.
From this backdrop, I have to say that I have a hard time dismissing socialism and am concerned when I hear people like Zohran Mamdani getting criticized for supporting such an other-oriented, humanistic set of values. In short, if supporting socialism is wrong, I don’t want to be right…
Egalitarianism as the Natural State of Things
In a recent study of four different nomadic groups in Africa, Thompson et al. (2025) provide evidence that various unrelated nomadic groups are all, in the authors' words, "fiercely egalitarian." This point is consistent with the work of many others (see Bingham & Souza, 2009), suggesting that egalitarianism, while not the only way of organizing societies, is, in fact, perhaps the most common form of social organization in the nomadic world.
Egalitarianism is essentially the practice of making things fair for everyone. For instance, I work to teach my courses in a highly egalitarian manner. I work to not over-benefit some students (e.g., students whom I have had in class before) over others (e.g., quiet students who rarely contribute to class). I try to lift up all my students equally (and I think it often works). I work for a state university and I see egalitarianism in the classroom as consistent with all the goals of my institution (and, ultimately, with the goals of the State of New York).
Egalitarianism is important to understand from an evolutionary perspective, as we know that all humans were nomads up until a relatively brief 10,000 years ago (see Geher & Wedberg, 2022). In essence, humans tend to lean egalitarian. And this makes sense as ancestral human groups were largely comprised of kin and familiar others in stable, small-scale societies. And in this kind of world, there are all kinds of pressures for people to be other-oriented and to help one another and to create systems that are fair for everyone. Egalitarinism makes lots of sense in such contexts.
Egalitarianism, Socialism, and Humanism
While egalitarianism, socialism, and humanism are not identical approaches to the human experience, they do have much overlap. Socialism is essentially an approach to governing people that takes an egalitarianism approach. When FDR talked about the New Deal, he talked about lifting up all Americans and, ultimately, leveling the playing field. This brand of socialism is essentially applied egalitarianism—it is building egalitarianism into the laws and processes of the government. And, again, it cannot be stated enough: It was the New Deal, a deeply socialist doctrine, that got the United States out of the Great Depression. This point essentially provides evidence that helping everyone, ultimately can be good for the nation.
The doctrine of humanism is based partly on the principle that we have the responsibility to respect and care for one another and respecting and protecting everyone's human rights. Clearly, there is overlap between humanism, socialism, and egalitarianism.
And regarding this broader approach to organizing societies, it cannot be understated that (a) this approach to social organization seems to most closely match ancestral forms of social organization during human evolutionary history and (b) it has been shown to be successful in creating effective, fair, and often-thriving nations (such as so many of the northern European countries (such as Finland, which is often scores as the happiest nation on Earth)).
Fiscal Inequality and the GINI Index
The GINI index marks how large the fiscal divide is within a country. A country in which people generally have comparable resources as one another would score low on the GINI index, while a country scoring high on the GINI index would be marked by having a relatively large fiscal divide.
Interestingly, among industrialized nations, the United States tends to score relatively high in the GINI index, meaning that among similar nations, the US has a larger divide between the haves and have-nots than is typical.
In a sense, this fact is unfortunate as poverty, which goes hand-in-hand with high scores on the GINI index* has regularly been shown to correspond to concerning outcomes when it comes to things like health, longevity, and education (among many other kinds of outcomes; see Neaumayer et al., 2016).
Bottom Line
The most common form of social organization under ancestral conditions was most likely found in egalitarianism, which maps strongly onto the doctrines of socialism and humanism (see Bingham & Souza, 2009).
The vilification of socialism in many pockets of the modern industrialized world (as is prevalent in the United States) seems to be uninformed by this important facet of our evolutionary history.
Further, the opposite of socialism, found in the most brazen forms of capitalism, seems to lead to major fiscal inequality which tends to amplify poverty and all the horrors that come along for the ride.
Perhaps at this time in history, we would be wise to more fully understand socialism, including its history and its implications. Maybe NYC Mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, by being outwardly socialistic (as I am), is tapping into some basic part of our evolved psychology. And perhaps, as was true in FDR's day, some variant of socialism, coupled with unbridled Humanism and egalitarianism, will emerge as exactly what is needed to get this wildly unstable world back on track.
References
Bingham, P. M., & Souza, J. (2009). Death from a distance and the birth of a humane universe. BookSurge Publishing.
Neumayer E, Plümper T. Inequalities of Income and Inequalities of Longevity: A Cross-Country Study. Am J Public Health. 2016 Jan;106(1):160-5. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302849. Epub 2015 Nov 12. PMID: 26562120; PMCID: PMC4695950.
Thomson, J., Lew-Levy, S., Rueden, C. von, & Stibbard-Hawkes, D. N. E. (2025). “Fiercely Egalitarian”: Thematic Cross-Cultural Analysis Reveals Regularities in the Maintenance of Egalitarianism Across Four Independent African Hunter-Gatherer Groups. Cross-Cultural Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10693971251338210
*Information from the World Inequality Database here
Note: This post is adapted from a post I published at Psychology Today. I own the copyright to the material.