From my five stages of Empire perspective, the West is suffering from a plague of Idiots. Because it is increasingly evident that our leadership — and indeed Western society more broadly — is experiencing a profound crisis of competence, judgment, and Cortisol with which to drive our sense of collective danger and motivation to see and react to the oncoming threats.
This crisis extends well beyond individual policy failures; it reflects a civilisation in the late stages of institutional decay and declining effectiveness. The Western order — historically anchored in discipline, faith, service, and strategic clarity — now appears weakened by a loss of strategic understanding and professional competence, and is increasingly marked by complacency, self-absorption, and managerial mediocrity. Leadership oscillates between ego-driven populism and technocratic caution, neither firmly rooted in long-term stewardship nor in a willingness to take difficult, sacrificial decisions.
Some leaders, such as Trump, appear driven by personal vanity and spectacle; others, such as Starmer, seem hesitant and overwhelmed by the scale of the historical moment. In both cases, what is missing is a deeper civilisational awareness — the understanding that enduring powers survive through courage, cohesion, discipline, and sustained strategic will. When a ruling class loses seriousness while its adversaries become more focused and determined, decline accelerates. What we are witnessing is not simply political dysfunction, but the symptoms of a Western system that has lost sight of its foundational strengths and is drifting toward fragility.
In an era defined by great-power competition, missile warfare, and systemic instability, such leadership deficits materially increase strategic risk. Whether expressed through impulsive rhetoric or bureaucratic inertia, the greater danger lies in governments reacting to events rather than shaping them. Clarity, resilience, and strategic literacy are essential in moments of geopolitical inflection — yet they appear increasingly scarce.
Compounding this challenge is a broader cultural erosion. Societies long cushioned by prosperity and expansive monetary policy have, in many instances, deprioritised performance, accountability, and adaptability. Meritocratic standards have weakened, and institutional competence has diminished. The result is a widening gap between the demands of a more hostile global environment and the capacity of Western systems to meet those demands. If left unaddressed, that imbalance may prove the most serious long-term threat of all, and the plague of idiots will inevitably sabotage the existence of our Western democratic civilisation.
© David Murrin 2026. All images courtesy of Getty Images. |