Trump's Actions Pose a Threat to Civilized Society.
The internal and external strategies – including the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to recent moves and statements – erode not only national and global jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.
They threaten the very concept of what we mean by.
The guiding principle of a functioning society is to stop the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Without this, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a brutish war where survival of the strongest prevails.
This concept is central of America’s founding documents. It’s also the core of the global system established after WWII championed by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, democratic governance, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
But, it is a fragile construct, often broken by those who choose to misuse their power. Maintaining it requires that the powerful have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the public hold them accountable when they fail.
Absolute power does not equal right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and hostilities.
Every time people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are less so, the framework of society frays. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can descend into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than ever before. This invites the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as above the law.
The fortunes of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The influence of global industrial giants covers numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is poised to centralize resources and influence to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is without parallel in recorded history.
Supported by complicit legislators and an accommodating judicial body, the executive office has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked entity of government in recent memory.
Combine these factors and you grasp the looming crisis.
An unbroken thread connects past lawless actions to ongoing provocations. These were founded upon the overconfidence of omnipotence.
There is parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
However, strength without restraint does not create right. It fosters instability, upended order, and armed conflict.
Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to check the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources eventually cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten international catastrophe.
Such lawlessness will plague international stability – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.