Only when the world desperately needs wise elderly, its destiny is in the hands of the old Patriarch and the two decisions David van Ribruck

toEt at a sensitive thing: talking about age without slipping up. It has not happened before in modern history those who have the fate of the world in their hands were old. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are both 72. Narendra Modi is 74, Benjamin Netanyahu 75, Donald Trump 79, and Ali Khouna 86.

Thanks to the progress of medical science, people can live a longer and more active life – but we are now also witnessing a frightening number of political leaders who tighten their grip on power with their age, often at the expense of their young colleagues.

This week, at their annual summit, NATO leaders – including Emmanuel Macron and Mitt Friedrixen (both of them 47), Georgia Miloni (48) and Pedro Sanchez (53) – were forced to swallow Trump’s request to increase military spending. The average age of NATO heads of 60.

All of them bowed to a 5 % new defensive goal – an arbitrary figure, imposed without serious military thinking or rational debate, not to mention serious democratic debate at home. It was a lesser policy, and more respectful of the passions of an angry patriarch. The Secretary General of NATO, Mark Roti – the same only 58 years old – went further to call Trump “my father.” This is not diplomacy. This is submission.

This clash of generations play in other squares. 47 -year -old Ukraine President Voludmir Zelinski resists the imperial aspirations of Putin. Septuagenarian eleventh eyes Taiwan led by the head of seven young years. Netanyahu, three quarters of a century, supervises the destruction in Gaza, where almost Half of the population is less than 18 years old. In Iran, there are 86 -year -old rules for residents with Average age of 32. Paul Bia, 92, was in power since 1982 in a country where Average age 18 And the expected age Only 62.

There is no gerontocratic plot at work here – no club is the elderly that bends global domination. But there is something annoying about dismantling a world by people whose lives were defined through architecture after the war. He was six years old when the Second World War ended.

Trump was born in 1946, which is the year The first general assembly was held. Netanyahu was born a year after the founding of Israel. Moody was born in 1950, when India became a republic. Putin entered the world in October 1952, months before Stalin’s death. Eleven in June 1953, after. Erdogan was born in 1954, two years later Türkiye joined NATO. These men are the children of the post -war world – and while they were near the end of their lives, they seem to be determined to demolish it. Almost looks like revenge. Dylan Thomas urged us To “anger, anger against death from light.” The craftsman rarely hair.

Yes, the international system -based system was more chaotic in practice than paper. But at least the ideal was present. There was a common moral framework – fragile, yes, but it is true – based on the conviction that humanity should never be repeated atrocities in the first half of the twentieth century and that dialogue and diplomacy were better. This conviction has now evaporated, not the least in the minds of those who should be proud of it more.

This is an unprecedented moment. Architects in the former global turmoil – Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao – were in the 1930s or forties when they rose to power. A new generation built a new world, and lived with its consequences. Today, this new world is being made by an old generation – one who will not live to see the debris that leaves it behind. It is easier to scream “drilling, child, drilling” when it is unlikely to be statistically to experience the worst climate collapse. Après nous le déluge, says the French.

You may think a very lucky generation to take advantage of the longevity will leave behind a legacy of care, gratitude and global supervision. Instead, we are witnessing the worst return of repression, violence, genocide, oxide, contempt for international law for decades – launching, more often, by harsh septuagenarians, and Octogenic doctors who seem to be more interested in escaping more than prosecution than preserving peace.

But it should not be this way.

After leaving the position, Nelson Mandela established the elderlyA network of former world leaders working to promote peace, justice and human rights. Inspired by the African traditions of the greatest consensus and wisdom, the elders are an example of how age can bring clarity, mercy and conscience – not only influence.

The problem is not aging. How some have chosen to practice it. The world does not need more aging who clings to power. It needs the elderly who want to give up – and guidance. The type that thinks about a legacy is not as personal glory, but as a scientist who leaves behind them. In this era, what we need is not domination, but wisdom. In the end, this is what separates the ruler from the leader.