An aging generation of mostly male leaders 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.

Three — among several — world leaders are standout examples of the political dinosaurs presently dominating global politics.

 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.

Of course, 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. In Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei’s Shia regime (which must not to be confused with authentic Islam) is taking his country to the brink of collapse. In North Korea, the badly-barbered Kim Jong-un is destabilising East Asia at the expense of his suffering population. And on it goes. What all of these political dinosaurs have in common is their solipsism – their total inability to imagine a world that matters beyond their own egos. They 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.

However, 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. [See for example, Refaat Ibrahim, “ The generational divide in the West over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: from a culture of loyalty to a culture of justice.” Pearls & Irritations, 28 July 2025.]

Australia is not immune from this development. It is true that at present the country is governed by political has-beens, some of whom are political dinosaurs. (Hello Barnaby!) Most leaders in the mainstream parties are as second-rate as Donald Horne observed of the country’s leadership back in the 1960s. Some today are irredeemably third-rate. (Hello Senator Babet!) Yet even in complacent Australia there is an emerging awareness that the country’s politics need to be comprehensively transformed. 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. For example, in Victoria, Rob Baillieu, a leading figure in the election (and re-election) of Teal MP Monique Ryan to the federal parliament, is an outstanding member of the emerging generation of young leaders in Australia. Recently elected as a city councillor, he is a progressive advocate of environmental policies, gender equality, human rights, and anti-corruption measures in local, state and federal politics. He is an Australian version of America’s Pete Buttigieg. If Zoe Daniels decides not to contest the seat of Goldstein at the next federal election, Rob Baillieu would be an excellent independent candidate to challenge the egregious Tim Wilson in that seat.

The good thing is that the extinction of the generation of political dinosaurs is nigh.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations..