In most of the world's largest and most populous countries, older men hold power

Posted On: March 20, 2024

The generation born during the great demographic explosion at the end of or after World War II is called baby boomers
From any point of view, this generation is the luckiest generation alive today, wherever we look
Two-thirds of America's wealth is controlled by boomers, who also constitute the country's most influential cultural and intellectual resources.
The boomer generation also has a dominant influence in political life because their generation votes twice as often as the younger generation
From the Philippines, through Europe, to Brazil, there are promises of a strong state that cracks down on immigration and crime and respects “traditional family values.”

Whoever wins the next US presidential election will be the oldest person ever elected to the nation's highest office. When voters go to the polls in November, Donald Trump will be 74 years old, almost a year older than Ronald Reagan was when he began his second term. Joe Biden, at 77, will be a month younger than Reagan on his final day in office. And Bernie Sanders, who has very little chance of getting the nomination, will be 79 in September.

The winner of the competition will join the ranks of aging world leaders such as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (69), Russian President Vladimir Purtin (67), Chinese leader Xi Jinping (66), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (66) and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (65). Or Poland's de facto leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, who will turn 71 in June.

So we can perhaps talk about the last bastion of the so-called baby boomers, namely those born during the great demographic explosion at the end of or after World War II. They are the luckiest generation alive today, wherever we look. And they also hold the power of the world.

So let's ask: why, in the midst of accelerating social, technological and political change, are so many of the world's highest positions still held by grumpy old men?

We love old people

One answer to this question is economics. In the United States, for example, the boomer generation controls two-thirds of the country's wealth and runs large companies: the average CEO is a boomer. The same thing happens in Hollywood, in the arts and media. Even the music that united America – from the Beatles to the Beach Boys to Fleetwood Mac – was the melody of the 1960s, the tumultuous and hedonistic decade in which the boomer generation reached its peak.

The quintessential boomer generation is President Trump, with his blow-dried hair, exaggerated gestures, arrogance, and inherent sense of privilege. Like others of his generation, he grew up at a time when nothing was right (because you shouldn't trust your boring, old-fashioned parents!) and at the same time, anything was possible.

The boomer generation was so successful in America that even the younger generation demanding radical change chose Sanders, an aging boomer, to lead their socialist revolution. Likewise millennial generation they seem to want their country to be ruled by an angry old man.

It's not just in America that the younger generation is picking on the older generation. The majority of young Russians, dubbed the “Putin generation” by the media, choose stability over change and continue to support the authoritarian president. Putin is currently planning to change the constitution so he can reset the clock and serve two more presidential terms. This means he will be 83 years old when his final term ends in 2036. As comedian Trevor Noah recently joked, “he will be old enough to run for president in America.”

Most Russians simply ignored Putin's efforts to stay in power in the autumn of his life. His predecessor, the alcoholic Boris Yeltsin, made a bad impression on old age, but a fit Putin in his late 70s is still a symbol of strength. And strength. And the fact that the Russian president will be a man in his seventies does not seem so strange in a situation when America is also ruled by people of the same age.

Populous China is ruled by 66-year-old President Xi, who has essentially declared himself ruler for life.

Even though more than half of India's population is under 30, voters last year approved another five-year term for aging, nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Even Brazil, whose population is as young as India, elected hot-tempered grandfather Jair Bolsanaro in the last election. A similar situation occurs in Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Poland and many other countries: the boomer generation is still in power.

Old people of this world, unite

Another reason why this generation is durable is that the boomer generation tends to support each other. They vote twice as often as younger generations, so they have a dominant influence in political life.

But there is another, darker, more fundamental cause of boomer dominance. As resentment against globalization and immigration grows, frustrated voters fantasize about going back in time and returning to the hallowed past when things were simpler and better. And in a situation like this, who better than a grumpy grandfather to lead the charge towards the glorious past?

In India, Modi mobilized his Hindu base by demonizing Muslims and promising to return India to its pre-Islamic glory. His attacks on India's secular ideology have been protested by liberals but are widely popular among the country's more nationalist communities.

Putin also promised to restore Russia's Soviet-era great power status. The annexation of Crimea and the Kremlin's foreign policy flex were popular despite the difficulties caused by Western sanctions.

In China, Xi still talks about a strong country that will regain its former glory, free from the shackles of Western imperialism, and ready to challenge America to become world leader.

It is no coincidence that most boomer leaders prefer a strong government in which they break the law to achieve their illiberal and populist goals. Poland's de facto ruler, Jarosław Kaczyński, has openly flouted Brussels diktats by halting immigration, attacking liberals, and pandering to the needs of his conservative voters.

Across the world, from the Philippines to Europe to Brazil, promises of a strong state that cracks down on immigration and crime and respects “traditional family values” ring loud.

For authoritarian-minded leaders, the global coronavirus epidemic is another reason to tighten regulations, even though they are among the most vulnerable groups: the virus has devastated Iran's aging leadership and infected many senior politicians, from Republican senator Rand Paul to the head of the Union Europe. Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

The unstable post-epidemic situation may further strengthen the appeal of senior leaders (those who survive).

Baby Boomers built their wealth in a period of rapid globalization, trade and freedom of movement. Now, as the border approaches and the world sinks into recession, people can use it as a reminder of happier and more prosperous times.

The aging boomer generation would happily turn back the clock if it allowed them to stay in power a little longer.