Desiring Machine

The Greying of Presidents

Originally uploaded by desiringmachineflickr.

One trend in the modern American presidency that I have noticed is the greying of presidents after being in office a few years. It is evident in this before and after montage. The one glaring exception to this was Reagan, but they all say that he dyed his hair. I think the weathered look on his face conveys the trend quite clearly. I suppose there are few different ways one could approach this phenomenon.

1.) The president is a hard worker and takes in the worries of the nation. The level of grey represents his level of dedication to the nation.

2.) The presidency is a stressful position and the level of grey over the years reflects the given tension of the presidency during those years.

3.) The modern president is a constantly dogged individual. The stress of addressing the American public is reflected in the president’s hair.

Whatever the reasons, and whatever the conclusions you may draw, the greying of the American president is an interesting metric. In many regards I think it is a useful metric. I think it tells us something about the nature of the office and the state of the nation. On the one hand I would imagine it tells us in a certain sense how engaged our president is. It also says something about the condition of our democracy and the resoluteness of our nation to put pressure on our president, through the media or otherwise. I would be very distrustful of a president who didn’t grey. It is likely to indicate that he does not really feel the pressures of the office and is not bothered by the issues facing the nation.