Donald Trump's Approach Constitute a Risk to Civilized Society.
The internal and external initiatives – ranging from the attempted coup five years ago to latest moves and statements – erode not only national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions jeopardize the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.
A moral purpose of civilized society is to forestall the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Without this, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a brutish war where survival of the strongest wins.
This principle is central of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the core of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the United States, built on international cooperation, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
But, it is a fragile principle, often broken by those who would exploit their power. Preserving it requires that the those in charge have enough integrity to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.
Unchecked strength does not make right. It results in instability, upheaval, and war.
Each instance individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are weaker, the framework of civilization unravels. If these actions are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. History provides ample precedent.
Our current reality is a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This encourages the powerful to exploit the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of above the law.
The fortunes of a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is poised to further concentrate resources and influence further. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is without parallel in the annals of time.
Empowered by complicit legislators and a sympathetic high court, the executive office has been made into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of state power in history.
Consider this confluence and you see the danger.
A clear connection ties past transgressions to present-day threats. These were founded upon the hubris of omnipotence.
One observes parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.
But, raw power does not create right. It produces uncertainty, upheaval, and bloodshed.
The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to constrain the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for increased control and resources eventually cause their collapse – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten world war.
This blatant contempt for legal order will haunt international stability – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for a long time.
