Trump's Approach Constitute a Risk to Civilized Society.
The national and international policies – from the attempted coup five years ago to latest incursions and warnings – erode not only national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.
They jeopardize the very concept of a civilized world.
The ethical foundation of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from attacking and exploiting the vulnerable. Otherwise, we risk being locked in a brutish war where only the fittest wins.
This ideal lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. This is also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the America, emphasizing collective action, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the legal authority.
But, it is a vulnerable principle, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their authority. Preserving it demands that the those in charge have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.
Unchecked strength is not right. It makes for instability, upheaval, and conflict.
Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are not, the fabric of civilization frays. Should such behavior are left unchecked, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in recent memory. This invites the elite to leverage their position against the weaker because they act with a sense of above the law.
The fortunes of a handful of billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors spans a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is could further concentrate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The military might of the leading countries is unprecedented in recorded history.
Enabled by complicit legislators and an accommodating judicial body, the executive office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable instrument of state power in the modern era.
Combine these factors and you see the danger.
A clear connection ties earlier transgressions to present-day threats. These were based on the arrogance of invincibility.
One observes a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
Yet, raw power does not create right. It produces instability, upheaval, and armed conflict.
Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to limit the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth in time bring them down – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten international catastrophe.
This blatant disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.
