Of late we have been gifted with multiple crises. We have a pandemic crisis, an economic crisis and a climate crisis, all happening at the same time.

In terms of crises our cup runneth over.

I haven’t mentioned anything about a leadership crisis because that is a crisis that always seems to be running in the background of all the other crises we experience.

In terms of leadership, perhaps what we are currently experiencing is peak crisis.

That is, our collective leadership has gone from ineffectual and mediocre through appalling to abysmal.

Our current leaders seem to specialise in bringing us new and exciting crises to keep us preoccupied and on tenterhooks.

There’s no doubt that in this era of multiple and rapidly escalating crises we need a few good leaders.

Unfortunately, they are rarely to be found. Instead, all we have is a motley collection of idiots, carpetbaggers and sleight-of-hand merchants.

I think I know why this is so.

In the old days we drew our leaders from a pool of community-minded individuals. Nowadays we get them from a shallower pool of what is known as the meritocracy so called.

The meritocracy so called is that tiny group of greedy elites which control the wealth of the world and the power that flows from that wealth.

They are a bit like a regenerated form of the old feudal aristocracies that were eventually sidelined by the introduction of democracy.

Through the power of their wealth they have managed to bench the democratic process to serve themselves rather than the population at large.

It is from these increasingly dynastic meritocracies that we now draw our leaders.

There is a terrible irony in this situation when one considers that the wealth and power this elite enjoys largely comes from the ruthless exploitation of their fellow citizens. That is, us.

They have metaphorically (sometimes literally) climbed over the dead and battered bodies of their victims to stand on top of the heap and not only claim leadership over the smouldering mess but hold up their ruthlessness as a virtue.

And we, in our poor aspirational funk, seem perfectly happy to go along with it.

The meritocracy spends a great deal of time convincing us that what is in their best interests is also in our best interests.

We not only stupidly go along with this massive confidence trick but actively aid and abet it.

We have, for instance, stood by and mutely watched our educational institutions, which once taught knowledge for its intrinsic value, subverted into a kind of feeder system for the corporations that the meritocracy so-called uses to increase its stranglehold on wealth and power.

We have stood by and watched our health and other service industries become monetised and then depleted for profit, and wonder why they have become so mercenary and hostile.

We eat bad food and grow fat sitting in front of flickering screens being brainwashed by mindless pap and whinge about the state of the world without realising we have been complicit in its creation.

Of all those crises mentioned, including the perennial leadership crises, there is none we have not been involved in creating.

So perhaps we deserve them.

And perhaps the uncaring, ruthless and corrupt leaders we see all over the world are now, immoral as they are, our only option to a slide into outright anarchy and chaos.