Life on the West Island - Political dinosaurs

Prominent West Island academic Dr Allan Patience lost patience with the ageing generation of mostly male leaders, which is presently occupying the commanding heights of the most powerful states around the world. They share a similar narcissism, they are intellectually limited, and all are morally bankrupt. The good thing is that they are a dying breed.

In a recently published paper, Dr Patience singles out in scathing terms three examples of what he calls “political dinosaurs” who are currently dominating the world stage:

In America, Trump’s narcissism, short attention span, and lack of a moral core are reinforced by the sycophants in his inner circle. They pander to his worst instincts, jockeying among themselves to take over as soon as his days end. Trump’s MAGA base maintains its blind faith in him even though he is neither with them, nor for them; he is there only for himself. While women constitute a part of his base, it’s mainly composed of poorly educated, middle-aged, unemployed or under-employed, overweight, gun-toting white men.

Many suffer from poor physical and mental health. Many lead risky lifestyles (booze, smoking, drugs, poor diets), limiting their life expectancy. Some have criminal records. Many experience violence in their daily lives. It’s a sad fact that the majority of Trump’s base are the gullible victims of his fake MAGA ideology. But it’s not just Trump who has abandoned them; they belong to a generation long abandoned by the Democrat and Republican elites.

In Russia, Putin’s vainglorious ambition to resurrect the defunct Soviet Empire menaces the whole of Europe. Unlike Trump, Putin’s mind has been shaped by his years in the KGB. His temperament is icy-cold and his strategising is sharply focused. He exercises power ruthlessly, sending undercover agents abroad to eliminate critics and sow fear among the Russian diaspora. Within Russia, his clandestine agents assassinate journalists and torture, imprison and murder political opponents.

He is a totalitarian dictator in the paranoid tradition of Stalin, suppressing those in the Russian population — especially younger Russians —who dare to dream about a post-totalitarian Russia arising from the ashes of the closed redoubt that Russia has become. His brutal war on Ukraine epitomises his imperial designs. He has sent thousands of Russian troops into the conflict and the death toll has been horrific. He dismisses the economic sanctions that Europe and (to a lesser extent) Trump’s America are imposing on the country, causing suffering for poorer Russians and those struggling in rural and remote regions.

In China, Xi Jinping’s ideological reconstruction of Maoist politics threatens nuclear war with the United States over Taiwan. He is as ruthless as Putin in dealing with rivals and dissidents. He has assembled a sophisticated surveillance apparatus that spies on China’s citizens and enables his apparatchiks to swoop on pockets of resistance. His crushing of the democratic movement in Hong Kong places him among the most tyrannical rulers of recent times. He flirts cunningly with Putin, egging him on in the war against Ukraine in order to test the West’s resolve as he contemplates moving on Taiwan. His adventurism in the South China Sea is challenging neighbours like Japan, Philippines and Vietnam.

Patience says that this evil trinity of leaders is not alone. Others include Israel’s Netanyahu whose crimes against humanity in Gaza and the West Bank will condemn him and his government to ignominy forever, while condemning Israel to pariah status internationally.

He also notes Ayatollah Ali Khamanei in Iran and Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who operate within a decrepit ideology of state sovereignty in an age which demands comprehensive global cooperation based on a cosmopolitan understanding of what all of humankind has in common – that is, its fundamental humanity.

But Dr Patience sees a glimmer of hope for the future, because what today’s political dinosaurs do have in common is that they’re fast approaching their end days. A new generation is emerging. Young people, along with increasing numbers of people of goodwill, are communicating through social media, inspiring each to action across state boundaries and cultural borders. They tend to be better educated, better placed, actively strategising, and very angry about the world they are inheriting from the present generation of self-entitled leaders.

Patience says that the West Island has often been governed by political has-beens, but there is an emerging awareness that the country’s politics need to be comprehensively transformed. He says that this realisation has been foreshadowed, but not yet consummated, by the Teal movement in Australian politics: those intelligent, ethically motivated, (mainly) women who are confronting the tired old (mainly) men of mainstream Australian party politics. The greatest contribution the Teal movement has achieved so far has been to mobilise communities of volunteers in their hundreds demanding a new politics for Australia. Moreover, the movement has attracted some promising young people.

Patience firmly believes that the good thing is that the extinction of the generation of political dinosaurs is nigh. This could be wishful thinking, given the extent to which the selfish politics of leaders like Trump and Putin seem to have taken hold amongst large proportions of their respective populations, who apparently approve of autocratic rule and are prepared to sacrifice liberal democratic values. This position was decisively rejected at the recent West Island election, yet extremist ideologies and fact-free conspiracy theories continue to spread across the nation, especially through fringe social media and some right-wing news organisations.

Are the days of the political dinosaurs coming to an end or is democracy itself crumbling? Only time will tell.