Trump's Approach Constitute a Risk to Civilization.
His internal and external policies – including the effort to overturn the election five years ago to latest incursions and threats – erode not only national and global jurisprudence. But that’s not all.
They jeopardize the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.
A guiding principle of a functioning society is to prevent the stronger from preying upon and using the weaker. Failing that, we could find ourselves locked in a brutish war where survival of the strongest could survive.
This concept is central of America’s founding documents. It’s also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations championed by the America, built on collective action, democratic governance, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
But, it is a delicate construct, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their power. Preserving it requires that the those in charge have a sense of duty to avoid seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us demand responsibility when they fail.
Unchecked strength does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, chaos, and war.
Every time entities that are advantaged attack and exploit those that are less so, the structure of society weakens. Should such behavior are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.
Our current reality is a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than ever before. This creates conditions for the powerful to exploit the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of untouchable.
The resources of a small group of tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is likely to centralize resources and influence even more. The offensive capability of the leading countries is without parallel in the annals of time.
Enabled by complicit legislators and a pliant judicial body, the presidency has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of the state in history.
Combine these factors and you grasp the danger.
An unbroken thread connects past transgressions to ongoing threats. These were based on the arrogance of omnipotence.
One observes a similar pattern in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.
But, unfettered might does not create right. It makes for instability, upended order, and armed conflict.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to limit the influential also protect them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for greater influence and riches eventually bring them down – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten international catastrophe.
Such disregard for rules will plague the nation and the world – and indeed civilized conduct – for years to come.
