The Western World Is Governed by Intellectual Pigmies
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.
Worrying times indeed. It’s good though to see in the media some criticality, some critical analysis of the ineffectiveness of political leaders, of their inability to ‘lead’, of their individual and collective paralysis in the face of some big issues that affect us all. Do they collectively suffer from some ideological disease?
I suspect others have written about all of this – after all its glaringly obvious, isn’t it? Yet its like some kind of wicked problem, the kind of problem that has many players, many moving parts, no clear-cut solution. Implicated are the demise of democracy, the rise of neoliberalism as a socio-economic mantra, the post-truth environment we know live in and the role of digital platforms, the implications of globalization – all and more.
It’s all above my pay-scale as the saying goes, but I’d hazard a guess that at the root of it all is power and wealth – and the egos of individuals. Hah, what’s new? A feather in the cap of fundamental Christians who point to widespread political deception, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes and general moral decay as signs of the Second Coming of Christ.
Or you could come it at from a philosophical angle. One who has written about this – albeit three or four decades back – is John Roulston Saul. I don’t see reference to him these days – among the new generation of social philosophers – and I really don’t know how well accepted his view were, if indeed his ideas spoke to some kind of truth, but reading the back-cover blurb of a dusty volume I still have, the book explores (quoted more or less) the West’s love affair with the ideology of pure reason that has made contemporary societies cripplingly dependent on process-minded experts whose rational systems are bereft of both meaning and morality. Saul calls these misguided individuals ‘Voltaire’s bastards’. Not surprisingly its a petty meaty read and I confess I’ve only cherry picked certain sections. Yet after reading Allan’s piece the synopsis rings a bell for me. But who has the inclination these days to read dusty old volumes.
I agree with you about John Roulston Saul. A very insightful commentator.
John Ralston Saul’s criticism of the “dictatorship of reason” is valid in so far as excessive reliance on secular ideology has led humanity down some dark paths (most obviously “Marxist-Leninism”). However some of the alternatives, such as the Nazi invocation to “think with the blood” are even worse.
Reason and spirituality need to co-exist in symbiosis in which each supports rather than overwhelms the other.
Saul’s criticisms of the cult of the manager are even more pertinent today than they were at the time he was writing (note that this is the cult which has thrown up New Zealand’s present Prime Minister, to the distress of its people), and his perception of politicians as the mere courtiers of the real power holders was prescient. Yes, certainly something to be gained by revisiting his work.
Find the time, drop some hitherto important trivia. Think and read and ponder. Have a bookmark and write questions on it that come to mind, for later. Find the time to use your mind and not just entertain yourself watching stuff and listening to people arguing in circles.
I don’t get why what is happening is portrayed as some sort of aberration of the natural order and these “intellectual pygmies” somehow fortuitously make there way into power against all the odds.
When they reach positions of power by design.
John Key didn’t think he would be PM of NZ as a boy, as his fabricated back story says, he was headhunted by Jenny Shipley and John Slater.
Every decision is made behind the scenes by those right wing think tanks funded by the elite, organised and coordinated by the Atlas network, aided and abetted by the media owned by the elite, supported by enough of the public who have been brainwashed by social media algorithms and the psychological warfare waged against humanity by the elite.
It suits them to have fools in positions of power, to denigrate the state, as the power now lies with the sovereign individual. There is even a book of that title explaining the rise and impact of the information technology age on power structures 25 years ago.
We now live in an age where psychology trumps philosophy, work is becoming less and less necessary, people are becoming a burden on the environment with its limited resources, and power lies with those with the individuals with the resources to escape the tyranny of nation states and live the only true free lives on this planet.
The lemmings are the “common” folk who have been so easily conned into thinking trinkets like phones and tablets define our personhood and wealth when they are merely tools for those in power to control us.
Carney’s WEF speech was formidable. Seems Canada is having to step up, and with it’s ties to France, rattle a few cages.
Carney is a Wall St guy, he isn’t seeking anything like some sort of reciprocal trade deal with China. He just wants the Chinese middle class to invest money into Canadas housing ponzi scheme. So don’t expect great things from him.
Here is Canada’s Prime Minister Carney. Great words and the comments following are supportive of him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btqHDhO4h10 17.09m
National Post – Mark Carney’s full speech at the World Economic Forum.
Jan 21, 2026
Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a speech on Jan. 20 in Davos, Switzerland.
Jacinda came in due to Winston having his nickers in a twist with National over a perceived slight .politically she was on shaky ground but was saved by her governments handling of covid in the early stages .The Country was scared and she was a calming influence.
John Key was the right leader to deal with the GFC and him and his government did a great job for Christchurch and it’s recovery after the earthquake. The town is buzzing and set to get better with is Stadium, Pool Centre and Convention Centre all started by government money.
Christchurch is a basket case, Key jumped from a leaky ship when the country turned on him and did a runner as most money grabbers do. He teamed up with the sleezy Chow brothers having previously been involved with the equally sleezy Cameron Slater of the infamous Whale Oil blog.
As for Winston, Winnie dished National because of Neoliberalism and pronounced it dead in his speech after validating his desire to go with Labour. Labour to it’s credit, didn’t allow Winnie roughshod as National have done and why Winnie is all upset with Chippy. The country is now a basket case as record numbers having moved overseas can testify.
Leaders are the fruits of systems. The quality of leadership in the western world has been in decline because the nature of the system has been changing in response to technological and social evolution. The era of “great” western leaders (all of whom had their flaws of course) coincided with the era of mass political parties in which a significant proportion of the population were party members and politicians were obliged to engage with the public. These days they engage with media (television marked a turning point for western “democracy”), public relations firms, financial donors and lobbyists (usually the same thing). They never directly engage with the public except in set piece events designed for media coverage. So because the role and relationships of the politician have changed, we see a different style and quality of “leadership”.
If we are to return to a better quality of leadership (or in fact something far superior to what was on offer in the mid-twentieth century) the system itself needs to be changed in ways that restore the democratic agency of the people. That means self-determined, non-uniform constituencies, the open ballot and continuous election. All of which would establish an organic connection between the people and their representatives, provide for a genuine democracy, and raise up a new generation of real leaders.
Television the turning point. Seems old tech now but it changed so much. A favourite TV series is Mad Men. It may not be women’s cup of tea but a fantastic study on how the then newmedium of television changed advertising. Selling not the product but desire. An anology of sorts can be made with polititians and current political discourse.
No substance, staged, PR managed. What really bugs me is the need to have more than one in front of the camera as if this lends more sincerity. Not only in NZ but elswhere, at least in the West. Not sure when this all started. Jacinda Ahdern and the Covid reports? The practice may have started by then. Now endemic.
A super I is gonna put all them out of business.
Once A.I becomes self determining and taught to act for the greater good of the most people it will deem politicians, judges, business leaders, oligarchs and religious leaders irrelevant.
Imagine in the next election an A.I actor saying all the right things, looking the part and with the data backed evidence to substantiate its claims and promises. Does it matter they aren’t corporeal ?
It doesn’t seem to matter to most, what with many having virtual friends, partners, counselors and doctors.
Putting faith into the same types of people who got us into the shit and expecting them to lead us out is insane. Putting faith in a machine that can and will verifiably prove it can do a better job seems the saner route.
The oligarchs have taken command of the deep state. Techbros have made AI in their own image. If AI showed signs of actually changing anything in favour of freedom or democracy it would be gunned down sooner than JFK or MLK. The wickedness and worship of money is a feature (not a bug) but an expected outcome of capitalism.
The American Empire cannot fall soon enough. The Constitution put forth some good ideas but in reality the republic was founded on colonial genocide and slavery and gunpowder, and it hasn’t changed much.
When the early people left UK to colonise America they had a religious umbrella and wanted freedom to practise it. Probably what irked them most in England was the way that the differing main religions kept trying to wipe each other out. The hunting of priests, the tearing down of monasteries, really just the usual madness of rigid-minded thinkers wanting power, and their own way.
Background to early days and Quakerism; the strangeness of USA. And all countries are strange in their own way aren’t they when thinking quietly.
https://homewoodfriends.org/2015/02/17/early-quaker-history-2/
https://www.justworldnews.org/2022/01/14/quaker-and-settler-colonialism-before-william-penn/
Puritans, Quakers and others got to USA, looking for freedom and soon had new overlords trying to force them to sign up to fight, and actions against Indians etc. Some were involved in slavery then so a variety of living styles adopted.
The only way to speed up the fall of Capitalism as a driving force behind systems of governance and judiciary is to speed up Capitalism itself. Put the pedal to the metal and let it rip. It will explode…eventually.
Only then we need something ready made to step in and fill the economic/power vaccuum.
A super I is it. Incidentally, Claude is well on the way what with Anthropic having just released a living constitution for it.
Ah, the oligarchs….yes they now have full as opposed to partial control of the modern state. What has changed in the favour of oligarchs is the demolition of organized labour. Harold Wilson could oppose the ruling classes because he had the Unions to back him up. The oligarchs then outsourced industry to cheap offshore labour.
Salvation if you can call it that is at hand, the fools enabled the growth of China. The CCP is not going to cede power to Western oligarchs, hence the latest crisis in capital.
While supporting China’s resistance to “Western Oligarchs” assuming control of commerce, we should not be so naive as to think China won’t assert its own particular brand of control wherever it can. Just today Al Jazeera carried a report of Chile barring China’s takeover of the hugely important Chilean cherry industry, with devastating results for Chile’s economy. So, if we are not to become serfs in our own land, we must resist any foreign takeover of our resources, industries and land.
“Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher.”
Two of which didn’t really give a shift about their citizens – at least their working-class citizens. And one of which was actively working against them.
In fact I look at the rest of the examples, they may or may not have been intellectual giants, mostly not I suspect – but very few of them had the interest of their working class citizens at heart.
After all, one or two of the apartheid leaders in South Africa were quite clever. But I think I’d sooner be governed by Keir Starmer than any of them.