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The throne of the Corpse King.
The trope of a hollowed-out husk of a man rulling over the great unwashed masses is ubiquitous in popular culture. Think of emperor palpatine from star wars. He seems Enigmatic and elusive in the second film, appearing only as a hologram and pulling the strings from behind the curtain. When you finally get to see him in the third film he's shriveled and deathly pale. He looks like he's hanging on to life through pure malevolence before being triumphantly slain at the end of the film. This is far from the only example of fictional decrepit rulers: Mad king aerys, The god emperor (Warhammer), and king vendrik (dark souls) to name a few.
How did so many creatives over the years stumble on the same trope. It's hardly a new phenomenon both fictionally and in real life. Shakespeare and Sophocles gave far more sympathetic takes with Oedipus at colonus and king lear after all. The real life of decrepit rulers is also nothing new. If a monarch has a long and successful reign, in that they stay in power without being deposed, then they will be advanced in years by the end of it. This has the effect of the next generation being older when they assume the mantle of rulership and so on.
Contemporaneously we appear to be living through the reign of ageing leaders. The United States government which still holds hegemony over much of the world is ruled by a class of wealthy octogenarians. Like some kind of retirement village for the power hungry. There is no better example of this than the president himself. I do not think much of his opposition, he was in power for four years and achieved nothing of note, However there is nothing more emblematic than the leader of the free world being a dementia patient.
The politics that both parties represent in America are meaningless. Neither is willing or able to exercise power through the executive. Both are led, by the nose, by the existing policy makers, Think-tanks, and NGOS of Washington. So that the same bureaucracy that has led the western world since the end of the second world war will continue to do so. Perhaps the corpse of LBJ can be wheeled out and announce an election campaign for 2028. That would suit the bureaucrats nicely
How did so many creatives over the years stumble on the same trope. It's hardly a new phenomenon both fictionally and in real life. Shakespeare and Sophocles gave far more sympathetic takes with Oedipus at colonus and king lear after all. The real life of decrepit rulers is also nothing new. If a monarch has a long and successful reign, in that they stay in power without being deposed, then they will be advanced in years by the end of it. This has the effect of the next generation being older when they assume the mantle of rulership and so on.
Contemporaneously we appear to be living through the reign of ageing leaders. The United States government which still holds hegemony over much of the world is ruled by a class of wealthy octogenarians. Like some kind of retirement village for the power hungry. There is no better example of this than the president himself. I do not think much of his opposition, he was in power for four years and achieved nothing of note, However there is nothing more emblematic than the leader of the free world being a dementia patient.
The politics that both parties represent in America are meaningless. Neither is willing or able to exercise power through the executive. Both are led, by the nose, by the existing policy makers, Think-tanks, and NGOS of Washington. So that the same bureaucracy that has led the western world since the end of the second world war will continue to do so. Perhaps the corpse of LBJ can be wheeled out and announce an election campaign for 2028. That would suit the bureaucrats nicely
