Gerontocracy Plays a Minor Role in American Political Dysfunction
Here is an unpopular, and seemingly counterintuitive, opinion: The advanced age of political leaders in USA are, at best, a minor contributor to the political dysfunction currently seen in this country. Today, you might have seen two news articles relevant to this topic. The first was about how the Republican party leader in Senate, Mitch McConnell, suffered what appeared to be some sort of transient neurological issue while delivering a press briefing in the rotunda of that building. While we know that Mitch, now aged 81, has suffered two serious falls in past few months, one of which resulted in a concussion- the connection of these falls to his transient neurological issue seen today is unclear. Having said that, he has been seen using a wheelchair in past few months- raising the possibility that today’s incident could be linked to some progressive neurological disease condition.
We also saw how the 90 year old senator from California, Dianne Feinstein, appeared confused during a simple senate vote today. Once again, it is an open secret that she has been suffered cognitive decline over the past few years to the point where she requires the continuous presence of one or more of her staff to function at any level compatible with her job. As you might also know, the current president, Joe Biden, has cognitive “issues” serious enough to require constant attention. Many have pointed out that the average and median age for members of the house, senate and presidency are the oldest they have ever been- with the leadership class being in their 80s. Some see this as a sign of widespread secular stagnation in this country, and that is true. However, the idea that we could have a much better government by replacing these very old people with younger ones is simply not true- and here is why.
To understand what I am talking about we have to be first honest about something very important. To put it bluntly, elected political leaders in Western countries are almost exclusively puppet figures put into office by moneyed interests. Only those who are willing to rubber-stamp every idea put forth by their financial backers will ever be able to attain political office at any level of the government in every single western country. This is why the degree of secular stagnation and political dysfunction in many west European countries with younger political leaders (including more female ones) is just as bad as what we see in this country. If you don’t believe just look at the dumb and incompetent losers in political office (ruling and opposition) in countries with younger politicians such as Germany, UK, Italy, France, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Finland and Sweden. It makes no difference if they are young, old or even alive. They are all equally beholden to their owners.
The real problems facing the West are a consequence of prolonged systemic decline caused by a variety of major negative convergent trends ranging from low fertility, bad ideological framework, corrupt and malfunctioning institutions and a governance model which became openly dysfunctional almost four decades ago. Replacing every single old leader and politician with somebody 20, 30 or even 40 years younger than them will therefore have no real effect in that underlying trend of systemic decline. Even worse, it is unlikely to cause even a temporary shift for the better. Remember Obama and his “hope and change'“ bullshit which most of you bought uncritically in 2008? Your best hope for substantive change, at this point, are as follow: 1] World War with heavy casualties in the West; 2] Alien Invasion or some sort of ‘First Contact’ situation; 3] Large asteroid or cometary impact- preferably somewhere in Western Europe or North America; 4] Supervolcano Eruption- preferably a truly humongous one. In other words, nothing short of a massive and acute event causing many tens of millions of casualties in the West can now reverse its ongoing terminal decline.
What do you think? Comments?