Take a good look at our current leaders. The western ones. Did you notice something? Exactly, they’re all old. Like, really old. If you look at them, what is the first thing coming to mind? Could it be “This guy’s gonna bite it soon”? Or do you think something along the lines of “Wow, what a pathetic person we elected”? Here we’ll analyze the line of thought that calls western leaders weak.

Old, white men

There is this Idea, that the oldest of our society are the wisest among us. This is not always the case. Especially politicians, who are some of the corruptest and greediest people you’ll ever meet. And many are old, white men.¹ Not meaning to sound like a “Social Justice Warrior™”, I just want to highlight that these leaders never have the people’s interests in mind. Your main goal, as a politician, is to line your pockets before your time’s up. And that’s exactly what you’ll do.

Money, money, money

“Want to know a politician’s true intent? Follow the money.”

Although this quote is mostly original, it speaks true. The fastest way to know what a politician truly wants, is to look at his benefactors. If the arms industry is funding a politician, you’ll know that he’ll defend the right to bear arms. If big tech does it, you can be sure that your digital freedoms will be infringed upon.²

Case in point being that Money controls politics, never the other way around. Making money a weakness of all leaders. If you take away the money, you take away their power. It’s that simple. A poor politician is as useful as a knife when eating soup.

Divide et impera

Another show of our politician’s weakness is the fact that they can’t control a people in unison. So they need to create conflict, stir up rumors, make up panic so the populus start going at each other instead of them. This has been used by many leaders throughout history, and it’s been making a grand comeback in Europe and the US.³

This need to divide people to make them more controllable has shown us how baseless their claim of being in charge actually is. It is not just baseless, it is also crumbling. As we can see in many different countries, the longing for freedom is starting to overrule many borderline dictatorial practices, and showing us how much control these governments have actually lost.

#standwithourleaders

And of course, another way to pull at people’s conscience is to invoke solidarity. Whatever currently demands it, the weakest leaders are often the ones crying the loudest to show solidarity with a relevant cause.⁴ This solidarity, on the politician’s side, is often just your usual “snake oil salesman”-talk, and isn’t usually based in a vested interest that doesn’t coincide with them profiting off of said cause.

Using the example of Ukraine, the biggest profiteers are the politicians, along with arms companies, who sell weapons to the Ukrainian forces. Since their profit margins are astronomical in times of war, politicians are doing everything to keep it going, as long as they are not required to take part themselves. This also means that children can starve to death in the name of “solidarity”.

Hopes for the future

But not all is lost with the west. Sure, we live in the most vile and corrupt system imaginable, where the illusion of freedom clouds our judgement.⁵ Of course, our outlook for the future might look grim, but only if we tread on the same path. What the west needs is strong men and women, people with willpower to make hard decisions. Young, fresh people with a vision for the future.

Conclusion

Although my approach might sound a bit naive, and in some people’s eyes, radical, I truly thing that this is the only way out of our problems.