1950 years ago to the day young Nero, then not yet 17 years old, was made emperor of Rome. Among other more or less wacky things, he had his mother (after several intricate but failed attempts) and two wives murdered, Rome set on fire (I finally understand the pun 'Nero burning ROM')and large numbers of people, among them many christians, put to death on loose grounds during his 14 years in power. In June 68 he comitted suicide to avoid being flogged to death (sanest thing he ever did).
Thus it is that we still in this day and age prefer to choose our leaders among old dull men (Sweden's finance minister even has the inspired name Bo Ringholm), not because we believe them wiser than others (if we did believe that, we've been proven wrong many times over), but because we believe that the seeds of raving madness should have already made themselves known by then.