The Hollow Men (and Women): Why the Ruling Elites Will Not Age Well, By Charles Taylor (Florida)

In 121 A.D., Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, Hadrian's private secretary, penned The Twelve Caesars, a lurid catalogue of cruelty, gluttony, incest, and fiscal insanity that still scorches the page two millennia later. Caligula's golden orgies, Nero's arson anthems, Domitian's paranoid purges: even discounting gossip and spin, the verdict is brutal. Power plus wealth equals moral vertigo, a giddy, drunken stumble into self-parody.

Fast-forward to 2025. John Leake's November 4 essay, Current U.S. Ruling Class Will Not Age Well, channels Suetonius for the post-Cold War era. From Clinton's intern-stained Oval to Biden's classified-document garage, our elites have delivered extravagant debt, endless wars, institutional rot, the COVID debacle, sordid affairs, money worship, bad manners, and tribal fracture, a 33-year psycho-clown show that leaves Gen Z and Millennials with zero heroes to emulate.

T.S. Eliot saw them coming in 1925:

"We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men… Shape without form, shade without colour, / Paralysed force, gesture without motion."

This essay is that indictment, updated for the age of $36 trillion debt, mRNA mandates, and Epstein flight logs. Our ruling class is not merely corrupt; it is hollow, a shell of slogans, scandals, and spreadsheets, echoing across a republic that once produced Washington, Lincoln, and the Greatest Generation.

Rome's emperors bankrupted the treasury on bread, circuses, and marble phalluses. America's elites? $36.2 trillion in federal debt (127% of GDP, October 2025), a 400% surge since 2000, with $1.7 trillion in annual interest now eclipsing defence spending.

The hollow part? No one owns it. Clinton brags "surpluses"; Bush claims "compassionate conservatism"; Obama pivots to "hope"; Trump touts "best economy ever"; Biden blames "MAGA Republicans." Meanwhile, Social Security's trust fund depletes by 2034, Medicare by 2036, intergenerational theft dressed as compassion.

Suetonius chronicled legions wasted on vanity campaigns. Our elites? $8.3 trillion on post-9/11 wars (Brown University, 2021–2025 update), yielding zero strategic gains.

Afghanistan (2001–2021): $2.3T, 2,459 U.S. dead, Taliban back in power.

Iraq (2003–2025): $2T+, 4,500 U.S. dead, ISIS birthed, Iran ascendant.

Ukraine proxy (2022–2025): $175B+ U.S. aid, no ceasefire, NATO expansion stalled.

The hollowness? Bipartisan applause. Neocons (Cheney, Bolton) and liberal hawks (Nuland, Blinken) chant "democracy" while defense stocks soar, Lockheed Martin up 1,200% since 2001. No emperor ever declared "Mission Accomplished" with a straight face.

Caligula made his horse a senator. Our elites? Epstein's island, Clinton's 26 flights, Gates' "friendship", Cuomo's nursing-home body bags, FTX's $10B fraud (laundered via Ukraine aid). Money is the new incense, burned at Davos, Aspen, and Bohemian Grove.

Wealth concentration: Top 1% captured 63% of all new wealth (2019–2025, Oxfam).

Revolving door: 413 former Congress members lobbyists (OpenSecrets 2025).

Bad manners: Pelosi's stock trades (+69% in 2024), Biden's "garbage" slur, Trump's "sh**hole countries," AOC's $35k Met Gala "Tax the Rich" dress.

"Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the Shadow."

Our elites gesture without motion:

Climate: $100B annual pledges, zero enforceable cuts, private-jet COPs.

Equity: "Defund the police" → record homicide spikes → re-fund quietly.

Democracy: J6 prisoners in solitary, 51 intel officials lie about Hunter's laptop, Big Tech censors dissent.

They are stuffed men, degrees from Harvard, résumés from Goldman, talking points from McKinsey, yet paralysed when principle collides with power.

Rome endured its Twelve Caesars; America will survive its Five Squanderers. But history is unkind to hollow men:

The young will judge, and they already are. Gen Z approval of Biden: 31%. Millennial homeownership: 48% vs. 68% for Boomers at same age. Fertility rate: 1.62, lowest ever. They inherit debt, wars, and a culture of contempt.

Eliot ended The Hollow Men with a whisper:

"This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper."

Our elites whimper, "democracy," "science," "inclusion, "while the republic hollows. They will not age well. Their statues will not stand in town squares. Their memoirs will gather dust next to Suetonius, cautionary tales of what happens when power forgets duty.

But the democracy? It can be refilled. The young are angry, awake, and allergic to hollow gestures. The next Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius may already be in a garage, a classroom, or a startup — un-stuffed, un-hollow, ready to build.

Until then, the shadow falls.

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/current-us-ruling-class-will-not