Intellectual Succession Crisis: Samuel Moyn on the Power of Old Men
An online salon about gerontocracy in America.
My Friends,
An exciting new salon has just been listed on Interintellect: Knowing When to Leave? The Power of Old Men with Samuel Moyn.
🎟️ Grab a ticket!
This is something I think about a lot. My friend and frequent collaborator
always says: Success is succession. And across all walks of life in the Western world today, we seem to be facing a succession crisis.To me, this raises a couple of troubling questions:
If we are so “distrustful” of experts, elites, and older people’s technological or moral competency, why do we give the highest positions to older and older people, and tolerate stuck succession cycles in areas of financial or cultural power?
If knowledge work is undergoing such transformation, where are the stable, longterm, empathetic, and transparent mentorship systems that are both (1) run by people with actual actionable insights about the future, and (2) able to ensure those receiving mentorship can also one day have a good model for becoming mentors themselves?
If feminism has “gone too far” and culture is so “feminized”, where are the women in these ossified leadership structures? Or are women supposed to be the “new generation”? If so, where are they receiving guidance?
The well-known historian
has approached these questions from his own angles. Read his excellent essay in Granta, and his piece in the New York Times to learn more.I want to hear your thoughts and I hope to see you at this important conversation!
x Anna
Join Anna Gát for a conversation with historian Samuel Moyn on succession, gerontocracy, and why the old won’t let go.
King Charles ascended the throne at 73. The 2024 election pitted two men in their late seventies against each other. Boomers cling to corner offices while millennials wait in the wings. The biggest show of the past decade was literally called Succession.
What’s going on?
We’re living through a succession crisis that goes far beyond any single election or leader. At a time when we celebrate youth culture, the old have never held more power -- or held onto it longer. Modern medicine extends lifespans while wealth concentrates upward and property rights entrench generational advantages. The result: political, corporate, and cultural institutions run by people who simply won’t leave.
Yale historian Samuel Moyn has been tracking this phenomenon across politics, wealth, and power. His forthcoming book Gerontocracy in America asks uncomfortable questions: How did the revolutionaries’ promise to overthrow the “old regime” turn into its restoration? What happens when there’s no good mechanism for succession? And can a society organized around the permanent power of the elderly ever truly serve the young?
This isn’t about being anti-old. It’s about understanding how the indefinite extension of power -- political, economic, cultural -- reshapes society. From King Lear’s refusal to relinquish the crown to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s decision to stay on the bench, the drama of succession unleashes consequences far beyond individual choices.
Together we will ask:
Why gerontocracy is the historical norm, not the exception. How modernity promised liberation from elder rule—and failed. The succession crises playing out across institutions. Whether knowing when to leave is possible at all.
Suggested readings:
“America Has a Gerontocracy Problem” — The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/opinion/america-gerontocracy-biden-trump.html
“The Trouble with Old Men” — Granta
https://granta.com/the-trouble-with-old-men/
About Samuel Moyn:
Samuel Moyn is the Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University. His work spans political thought, legal history, and the structures of power. He has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The London Review of Books, and many other publications. His forthcoming book Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Hoard Power and Wealth — and What to Do About It is coming in 2026.
About Anna Gát
Founder and CEO of Interintellect. Anna hosts salons on politics, culture, technology, and public life.
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