I’ve been around the sun a frightening number of times in my life and so have seen many western leaders come and go. Never have I seen such a paucity of leadership, let alone statesmanship. Looking at the current lot, what a dismal, unimaginative, unprincipled bunch. One could speculate why this is so but that won’t get us anywhere.
If we look back over the years, and compare past leaders with the current occupants, this becomes very apparent, if not depressing. One concerning feature of the majority of the current leaders is that they appear to be nihilistic, having minimal values and principles.
‘A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy.’
What do these leaders really believe in? Power, money, prestige, alliances, political power games? Advancing the interests of their financial backers? Personal and financial gain?
There’s minimal evidence that they want to improve things for the citizens of their countries. There would appear to be a wealth of evidence that their citizens, far from supporting their policies, are actively against them. But these leaders persist in their lemming like behaviours to take their countries over the proverbial cliffs. A striking feature of the western political scene is the disregard the leaders have for their people and which is reflected in opinion polling.
Let’s start with the UK. Once the UK produced leaders such as Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher. None of those could be accused of being light weight space holders. Thatcher in particular was a dominating force. One could easily argue this was not a good thing but that’s beside the point.
In recent decades we’ve had the very shady Tony Blair, the wish washy David Cameron (the Brexit referendum being an example) followed by the bloviating Boris Johnson, and the nonentities of Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak.
Now they’re stuck with the most unpopular prime minister in British history, Sir Keir Starmer, or as he’s been labelled, in the UK, ‘Never Here Starmer,’ due to the fact that he spends more time out of the country than in it, far more concerned with the war against Russia than the welfare of the citizens of the UK.
And there’s no one on the horizon in Labour or the Conservatives who appears to be any better. Jeremy Corbyn may have been an exception but Starmer knee capped him before he had the chance.
Boris Johnson belongs in a category all of his own! Intelligent, without a doubt. Principled? Yeah, right. He’s the ultimate nihilist.
So that’s the UK, now let’s hop over the channel to France. Once France was led by the towering figure (both physically and intellectually) of Charles de Gaulle. A number of other competent leaders followed, Chirac and Pompidou, for example.
In recent years France has been ‘led’ by the crook Sarkozy, the incompetent Hollande, and now the diminutive (physically and intellectually) Emmanuel Macron, ‘Le Petit Roi’ being his nickname due to his desire to present himself as another Napoleon Bonaparte. He’s been labelled the ultimate flip flopper due to his never ending changes of position. His poll ratings are in a race to the bottom with Starmer.
Once Germany (actually West Germany) was led by politicians like Konrad Adenauer and especially Willy Brandt, a politician who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize when it actually meant something.
These days Germans have to choose between politicians like Olaf Scholz (the man who stood silently by Joe Biden when Biden said he was going to blow up the Nord stream pipeline for the Russian gas on which German industry depended), or the current leader Friedrich Merz, whose poll ratings are approaching the depths being seen by Macron and Starmer.
I don’t know much about the current Swedish leaders but that probably says it all, when you look back a few decades at the charismatic Olof Palme, gunned down by an unknown assassin, possibly because he was treading on too many precious western world toes.
(If you can find it, there’s a marvellous documentary featuring ‘Girl With a Dragon Tattoo’ author Stieg Larsson’s investigation into this assassination.)
The European Union is not excused either as typified by the top two unelected office holders. President Ursula von der Leyen and Foreign Minister Kaja Kalas, whose Russiaphobia is seemingly unlimited, remind us every day of their intellectual shortcomings.
And not to be left out there’s the leader of NATO, Dutchman Mark Rutte, the one who called Donald Trump “Daddy”. He was an undistinguished Dutch Prime Minister, now he is madly keen to get NATO into an all out war against Russia.
As for Canada, while I don’t know much about their past leaders, they surely had to better than the last two of Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney.
Closer to home, Australia has also been affected by the leadership deterioration disease. Dominating Australian politics for many years after WWll was the indomitable figure of ‘Pig Iron Bob’ (Robert Menzies). As with Thatcher, regardless of people’s opinions about him, his leadership abilities can not be denied. Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating also stood head and shoulders above recent and current Australian leaders.
Julia Gillard, as with Corbyn, was taken out before being able to show what she could do. Compare them to Tony Abbott and Scott “Scotty from marketing” Morrison, who has too much in common with a certain other prime minister.
Speaking of that certain other prime minister (Minister of Spotify Playlists), New Zealand isn’t immune from this affliction. Leadership names that spring to mind are Michael Savage, Peter Fraser, to an extent Keith Holyoake who had the wit and wisdom to avoid the USA’s pressures for a full NZ commitment to the Vietnam War, Norm Kirk, Rob Muldoon (again regardless what you think about him, there’s no way he could be accused of being an intellectual pigmy), David Lange, Jim Bolger, Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern (for all the irrational Ardern haters out there, the same comment applies to her).
It took a very well planned and actioned, internationally coordinated effort, to bring Ardern down. As with Gillard, you can’t help speculating that misogyny played a major part, that the very conservative old stale white men of the western world (e.g., the Atlas Network) couldn’t abide having uppity leftish women running things. We will never know how Ardern would have done as leader if Covid hadn’t arrived and changed everything.
Where are we now?
Christopher “I used to run an airline” Luxon has in no way shown in his term as prime minister to date that he has any of the intellectual and leadership properties of a great, let alone middlingly average, leader. This follows on from his mentor John ‘please give me a knighthood’ Key, both perfect examples of nihilism – no discernible values or principles, other than a desire for personal benefit.
Unfortunately our other prominent political leaders stand out by being equally undistinguished; the great unknown being Chlöe Swarbrick, and it is very likely we will never find out. It’s not looking hopeful, is It?
I’ve left the worst for last. Trump belongs in a category all of his own. Once USA was led by dominant politicians like Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and Richard “I’m not a crook” Nixon (same disclaimer applies to him as to Thatcher, et al), Even Ronald Reagan had his moments before Alzheimer’s disease took hold.
But it’s been all downhill since then. George W Bush? Hah. Obama could have joined this group but either chose not to, or wasn’t able to due to pressures from the deep state that appears to be the real power in the USA.
In spite of all appearances, I don’t think Trump is a fool, he’s far smarter than he makes out. He (and those around him) know what he wants, to do away with federal elections so he and his family can rule as dictators/emperors, and for USA to be the world hegemon, in total control of military and financial affairs, all to the benefit of the USA and just incidentally, to the benefit of the Trump dynasty. As this fits in nicely with the deep state and the multinational corporations, he has all the support he needs. Just look at the lapdogs in the US Congress. No future leaders of renown there.
US commentator Brian Berlectic has documented that everything Trump is doing is a continuation of the USA planning that has been laid out in many publications over the years. Brian’s YouTube channel is a must watch if you really want thoroughly researched and revealing information on the USA’s agenda and how it is being actioned. Frightening.
Trump/USA wants Greenland? If you must, say the European leaders. Here’s a prediction – if the USA gets Greenland, then Iceland will be next. Look at the map of the North Atlantic and it’s obvious why they’d want Iceland.
As I commented on one of Martyn’s posts, we should not be complacent in New Zealand, thinking our isolation will save us. At the moment the USA does not have treaty entitlement to any land in Antarctica. Their McMurdo base is on NZ’s Antarctic Territory. Should Trump/USA decide they want entitlement to Antarctic territory, then our territory is the obvious place to start. After all, they are already established there.
In their desire to dominate the world, control of the Southern Ocean is a must. There are three obvious options for USA bases to enable this – the tip of South America, the tip of southern Africa, and the south of New Zealand. Which one stands out as the best option?
Far fetched? Maybe. Do we want to find out?
The powder puff nature of the western world’s leaders is handing this to him and the USA on a plate. At a time when we need real statesmen and women, instead we’ve got this set of intellectual pigmies, with no one showing any ability to move up and take their place.
These are worrying times.