Trump's Actions Present a Risk to Civilized Society.
The domestic and foreign strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process previously to current actions and threats – erode not only domestic and international legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
They threaten the core idea of civilization itself.
A moral purpose of any advanced culture is to stop the more powerful from preying upon and using the weaker. Failing that, we risk being trapped in a state of nature where only the fittest could survive.
This concept is embedded of America’s founding documents. This is also the core of the global system established after WWII advocated by the United States, emphasizing collective action, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the rule of law.
Yet, it is a fragile ideal, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their influence. Upholding it necessitates that the powerful have enough integrity to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us demand responsibility should they falter.
Absolute power does not equal right. It leads to instability, upheaval, and conflict.
Whenever entities that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are not, the framework of society frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can fall into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
Today, we live in a global community marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This invites the powerful to exploit the weaker because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.
The wealth of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is poised to centralize wealth and power even more. The military might of the major powers is unmatched in the annals of time.
Supported by complicit legislators and a pliant supreme court, the executive office has been made into the most dominant and unchecked entity of the state in history.
Combine these factors and you perceive the danger.
A direct line ties past transgressions to present-day provocations. These were founded upon the hubris of absolute power.
One observes parallel dynamics in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.
Yet, raw power does not establish right. It produces instability, revolution, and bloodshed.
Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to check the influential also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth eventually bring them down – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.
This blatant contempt for legal order will plague the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.
