Jon Pareles of the
New York Times described the song as having "a groove out of
James Brown by way of
Prince". Andrew Panos of
Number One gave the song a four out of five star rating saying "The layoff has seen the EWF lads gain a bit of a social conscience as they sing here of the sufferings of the world and what a depressing place it is. You can however, ease your troubles if you have a nip out onto the dancefloor once in a while and jig along to splendid thumping disco tunes such as this". John Milward of
USA Today proclaimed that the song "boasts a clean dance groove". Richard Lowe of
Smash Hits wrote "now they've back with a thumping great funk thing called System of Survival which is all about how terrible a place the world is and all that and how strutting one's 'stuff' is quite a good way of enjoying yourself despite it all. Just to make it more modern and 'trendy' they've got this bit with someone talking on the radio on it, and its going to be a roaring success, which is only right and 'proper'." Chris Heim of the
Chicago Tribune found that "the ebullient celebration of everyone as a
Shining Star has given way to the grimmer task of constructing a
System of Survival".
Robert Christgau of the
Village Voice called the tune "the strongest protest this seminal pop transcendentalist has ever gotten down. Dave Hill of
The Independent exclaimed "System of Survival is a blissfully erudite single." Harry Sumrall of the
San Jose Mercury-News exclaimed "System of Survival is a scathing political/social commentary in the context of boiling rhythms and lithe vocal acrobatics." Connie Johnson of the
Los Angeles Times declared that the tune is "packed with energy and passion". Simon Witter of
NME called the song "horn parping, electro-bass romping, nasal howl-rolling bliss". Roe Hoeburger of
Rolling Stone also described the song as "a
Stayin' Alive for the eighties". ==Credits==