Young hoist red flag but know nothing of Mao and less of Lenin

Almost two-thirds of university-educated Millennials are in favour of socialism. Just don’t ask them who Mao, Lenin or Stalin are.

Almost two-thirds of university-educated millennials are in favour of socialism. Just don’t ask them who Mao, Lenin or Stalin are.

In further evidence the young are lurching to the left, a YouGov Galaxy poll commissioned by the Centre for Independent Studies has revealed that 58 per cent of millennials — those born between 1980 and 1996 — viewed socialism favourably. Support was even higher among university graduates, at 63 per cent.

Similarly, 59 per cent were of the view that capitalism had failed society and 62 per cent believed Australian workers were worse off now than they were 40 years ago, notwithstanding the economic data suggesting otherwise.

Yet despite the millennials’ embrace of socialism — a system whereby the government has ultimate control for the economy and society, where the promise of equal opportunity and a welfare safety net comes at the cost to individual freedom — few respondents were familiar with some of its most famous historical figures.

Of the 1003 people polled, only 21 per cent were familiar with ­Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong, 26 per cent were familiar with Vladimir Lenin and 34 per cent knew about Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Combined, the trio are responsible for causing the deaths of more than 80 million people.

Centre for Independent Studies executive director Tom ­Switzer said socialism’s rise in popularity was alarming.

“A problem with the young is they fail to put contemporary events in a broader historic context,” he said. “We’ve had 27 years of uninterrupted economic growth so these young people have not seen a recession or an economic downturn.”

Mr Switzer warned that the shift to the left could have significant implications as millennials, of which the oldest is now 38, move into positions of power in government and business.