Political leadership of the future (part 2)

We said in the last issue that the future of leaders with a populist style is assured. The world is experiencing a new cultural paradigm that is favorable to this type of leadership. Postmodernity is the ideal environment for strident and disruptive speeches that stimulate negative emotions, even if they are riddled with lies.

In these times, the structures that once guaranteed order and social cohesion are being dissolved. Institutions such as the church, the family, democracy and individual freedoms are in a process of deconstruction. Even gender identity and the use of language want to be modified at the whim of “I feel, therefore I am.”

The eclipse of reason is real in this postmodern society. I like the term eclipse because it perfectly describes what is happening. These are times when rational thought is in disuse; today’s thing is to feel and act accordingly. Contemporary society rewards mediocrity, disapproves of meritocratic structures, promotes leisure and lifestyles isolated from interpersonal interaction.

Of course, in this environment of eclipse of reason, it is much easier for leaders who lack scruples and attachment to ethics or aesthetics to gain power.

Politicians such as Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Boris Johnson or Viktor Orbán are worthy exponents of right-wing populism. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Pablo Iglesias, Hugo Chávez or Gustavo Petro are left-wing ones. And now Javier Milei, who inaugurated a new version of “libertarian” populism with conservative overtones.

I don’t want to forget to mention Samuel García. During his brief foray into the national political scene, lasting only 15 days as a presidential candidate, he managed to grow more in the polls than Xóchitl Gálvez in her 3 months of campaigning. He used popular language, identified an enemy (old politics) and incorporated an empty signifier as part of his strategy (the orange tennis shoes). Without a doubt, the strategy of the governor of Nuevo León included the complete recipe for a typical populist candidate.

Why do these strategies work when society rejected them in the past? Because people’s culture has changed.

Cultural change has many causes, but the most obvious one, and the one that many of us agree on, is related to the destruction of values ​​in society. The absence of values ​​also corresponds to a lack of leaders who bear values.

Families stopped educating their children, the media diluted and distorted values, educational systems focused on developing work skills, governments and political leaders wasted time in their power struggles, companies and businessmen in maximizing their profits. For years, no one cared about the formation of values ​​in society. Entire generations grew up empty, their deficiencies filled with dopamine from the interaction of social networks, oxytocin from digital pornography, the desire to have and the frustration of not being able to buy. We became a society lacking respect for human dignity.

The political leader of the future will follow the recipe I presented in the previous article. The competition for power will be a fair of characters with disruptive styles and speeches. Banal ideas will be the only menu available in the political offer. We will iterate between dementia and madness, until one day society tires of the consequences, and that may take decades.

I hope that at the same time another leadership profile will emerge, one that chooses to become – by example – a regenerator of values ​​in society. These leaders will have a harder time in the short term, but their contribution will serve to build a better world.

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