Trump's Actions Constitute a Risk to Civilization.
The domestic and foreign strategies – from the attempted coup in the past to latest incursions and threats – undermine not only national and global legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
These actions threaten the core idea of what we mean by.
A guiding principle of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Failing that, we risk being locked in a brutish war where survival of the strongest wins.
This concept is central of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the foundation of the postwar international order supported by the United States, emphasizing international cooperation, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.
However, it is a fragile construct, easily violated by those who would exploit their authority. Preserving it necessitates that the influential have enough integrity to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us hold them accountable if they don't.
Absolute power is not right. It makes for uncertainty, disruption, and hostilities.
Each instance individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are weaker, the structure of our shared norms weakens. Should such behavior are left unchecked, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can plunge into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.
We now inhabit a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the elite to take advantage of the weaker because they feel above the law.
The resources of a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of global industrial giants extends over much of the globe. AI is poised to further concentrate wealth and power to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the leading countries is without parallel in human history.
Enabled by complicit legislators and an accommodating supreme court, the presidency has been made into the most dominant and unchecked agent of government in the modern era.
Combine these factors and you grasp the threat.
A clear connection connects previous lawless actions to current provocations. Each were founded upon the hubris of invincibility.
One observes a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
Yet, raw power does not create right. It makes for fragility, revolution, and armed conflict.
History shows that laws and norms to limit the powerful also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches eventually bring them down – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.
Such disregard for rules will plague international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for years to come.
