With absolute indelicacy, Wikipedia defines old age as “ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings and is thus the end of the human cycle.” Reinforcing this sombre hypothesis, neuroscience suggests that the brain volume diminishes over time at 5 per cent every decade from the 30s, especially that part of the brain that regulates executive functions and leadership qualities such as problem-solving or goal setting. The decline in aptitude and mental processing speed results in dysfunctions such as unconscious repetition of thoughts and behaviour and an erratic memory. (Mercifully, culling is not applied to humans; otherwise, we geriatrics would be foremost in line to the chopping block for the expendables).

For the elderly, the sliver of hope in an otherwise hopeless situation is the recent George Washington University School of Medicine study affirming that the peak of human intellectual, creative activity occurs around the age of 70, which, in effect, commends the elders to devote themselves to cerebral pursuits and leave the running of the world to those below 60 years who still have their wits about them. But is anyone listening?

Speaking as one who has been there for quite some time, I can assure you that old age is not a nice place to be. Tactfully but infelicitously referred to as the golden or senior years, the twilight age is a litany of aches and pains, memory loss and a lot worse. And yet, kindly gerontologists and medical experts would have us believe that while we lose physical prowess, old age brings wisdom and empathy, sharpens our emotional intelligence, and mellows and softens us. But leaving delusionary flights of fancy aside, old age is a burden not only for the dotard but also for those trapped in his orbit. And if the decrepit old guy happens to be a powerful politician, watch out because he is up to no good. Politicians are unquestionably one species who wear badly; the older they get, the worse they become. Our world is ruined by malevolent old politicians who preach high principles but act dishonourably.

Octogenarian leader of the USA, Joe Biden and the unspeakable septuagenarian PM of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, are currently engaged in a genocidal tango against humanity and the people of Palestine. It is ironic that in the face of such unmitigated evil perpetrated by these two men, the Yanks and their media, normally hyper-strident in expressing sanctimonious indignation at human rights violations across the world, have been muted - barring some conscience-stricken students and faculty in university campuses. Alexis de Tocqueville diagnosed this American failing aeons ago in 1840: “nothing conceivable is so petty, so insipid, so crowded with paltry interests as the life of man in the United States.”

That’s the American way: ignore or trivialise life and death happenings anywhere in the world if America and its citizens are safe and instead focus on the trite. True to form, the killing of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children and the relentless bombing of schools and hospitals by the US-backed homicidal Israel are peripheral concerns. Instead, one of the leading subjects of public debate is Biden’s age, a significant concern among electors, especially after his announcement that he would run again for President. 

Biden, who turned 81 a few days ago, has given ample evidence of physical and cognitive decline with his stumbles and verbal slips, so much so that even his former boss and close friend, Barak Obama, threw up his hands in despair and let slip this bazooka: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fu-k things up.” Biden’s most outrageous faux pas happened at a conference last year where he sought out Indiana Representative Jackie Walorski barely weeks after her high-profile death in a horrific car accident. “Where’s Jackie?” asked the President from the podium as he peered about the hall, adding (and confirming amnesia), “I thought she’d be here.”

But these are relatively benign age-related frailties for which the bible-toting Catholic Biden can be excused, but how is one to react to this “nice guy” and his murderous liaison with Netanyahu that goes against everything human or civilised, that has plumbed the depths of human depravity? To Biden’s eternal shame, the US has been stonewalling every UN resolution for an immediate ceasefire. A moot question: has the American President taken this wicked decision to endorse genocide on his own, or is he just a mere stooge in that shadowy Frankensteinian monster that is the US establishment? 

America’s unequivocal support for Israel’s sustained genocidal assault on Gaza follows a well-worn script adopted by successive US administrations. Historically, from the time that US President Harry Truman became the first world leader to recognise Israel - created by poaching Arab land in 1948, the USA has been Israel’s accomplice and chief arms supplier in its killing sprees, spurred on by overwhelming public support for Israel, the indefatigable propaganda of pro-Israel interest groups and their donation of millions of dollars to politicians, both Republican and Democrat. Even the suave, righteous and sugar-sweet Obama (who waged war and dropped bombs on six countries) was a toady of Israel, disproving my thesis about venality being the preserve of old politicians. Possibly, politics soils anyone who ventures into its swamp.

There are other geriatric politicians hellbent on ruining our present world. The Stalinist epigone, Vladimir Putin, has, up until now, instigated the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians (mainly Ukrainian) and armed forces personnel (Russian and Ukrainian) since invading Ukraine in February 2022, with casualties mounting by the day. The inscrutable assassin, Xi Jinping, has incarcerated over a million Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang in state-sponsored camps. In a textbook example of ethnocide, these victims have been denied religious and political rights and are subjected to forced labour and birth control. The unspeakable cruelty extends to separating children from their parents. The world clucks in disapproval but does nothing!

Unlike America, where the President is still shackled by democratic norms (which Trump promises to cast aside if re-elected), our benighted country is firmly under the authoritarian leadership of the septuagenarian Vishwaguru, who is two-and-a-half times as old as the median Indian (28 years). In his imperious whip hand, our decorative democracy is a sham behind which this regime has captured every institution of governance, using fear and dissimulation as the controlling mechanisms. “Killing the Constitution by a million cuts” is Professor Tarunabh Khaitan’s brilliant forensic dissection of how our freedoms have been “picked” even as we sleepwalk into authoritarianism. He has duped us all!

While his law-enforcement hitmen besiege and batter all opponents into submission, our preening Vishwaguru pulls the wool over our adoring eyes. The sententious leader effortlessly straddles the disjunction between precept and practice, railing against corruption (unfazed by his fingerprints on Adanigate, electoral bonds, washing machine-transformed opponents-turned-friends), boasting about being the fifth largest economy (disregarding the fact that in terms of per capita GDP, we are ranked 127th out of 179 countries); hitting out at dynasts (even as a single family, the Sangh Parivar, has usurped all institutions); displaying the “ghar me ghuskar maroonga” macho image (but cringing away from China which, uninvited, enjoys our hospitality); and never tiring of repeating that bogus “Sabka saath sabka vikas” trope despite doing everything to divide his people to stay in power.

Yet, from the looks of it – his god-like power over his people, his abuse of religion to divide and rule, his emphatic victory in the recent Assembly elections - our Vishwaguru threatens to be the Methuselah among world leaders! God help us!

(The writer is a former civil servant. The views are personal)