Boomerdammerung and the Twilight of 20th-Century Norms

"In 2000, Time magazine warned of a coming Boomerdämmerung. The Baby Boomers, it argued, had failed to build enduring wealth, were unprepared for the digital transition, and carried a narcissistic entitlement that made them reluctant to relinquish power. "And your neighbors' children," the magazine warned, "simultaneously burdened with the cost of your aging and victimized by the one thing you'll hold onto-your political power-will boil with resentment.""

"The forecast was of a looming gerontocracy that could entrench itself in political power and then fracture under its own weight. Twenty-five years later, the twilight has arrived more slowly than expected, and many of the international institutions built to stabilize the postwar industrial order are also showing their age and fragility. What is fading, then, is not just a demographic cohort but an entire worldview: one that imagined large institutions as the guarantors of order, morality, and free markets."

"Much of the world's political and economic power remains concentrated in the hands of leaders from one generation: The Boomers. From Modi to Netanyahu, Erdoğan to Putin, Xi, and Trump, the most consequential figures of our time were shaped before the internet, before the knowledge economy, before algorithmic governance. They preside over nuclear arsenals, central banks, and global networks of power."

A generational cohort of leaders, shaped before the internet and the knowledge economy, continues to hold disproportionate political and economic power. Warnings about a gerontocracy predicted entrenchment and eventual fracture as aging leaders resisted relinquishing control. Many international institutions that stabilized the postwar order are showing age and fragility. Hubristic claims of immortality among aging autocrats act as psychological denial of decline and can intensify instability. As old rules and norms weaken, individual choice, responsible stewardship, and clear succession become essential to renew civic institutions and prevent conflation of personal instability with broader societal change.

Read at Psychology Today