Trump's Approach Constitute a Threat to Civilized Society.
His internal and external initiatives – ranging from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to recent incursions and warnings – weaken not only domestic and international legal frameworks. But that’s not all.
They endanger the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.
A ethical foundation of civilized society is to forestall the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Otherwise, we would be locked in a state of nature where only the fittest wins.
This ideal lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. This is also the foundation of the postwar international order supported by the US, which stresses collective action, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the legal authority.
But, it is a vulnerable ideal, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their influence. Maintaining it demands that the influential have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society hold them accountable should they falter.
Unfettered might does not make right. It results in instability, chaos, and conflict.
Each instance entities that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are less so, the fabric of society frays. If such aggression are not contained, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a global community grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This creates conditions for the elite to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they act with a sense of omnipotent.
The fortunes of a handful of billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is poised to further concentrate economic and political clout even more. The military might of the major powers is without parallel in human history.
Enabled by political allies and a sympathetic judicial body, the executive office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of government in the modern era.
Put it all together and you see the danger.
A direct line ties previous lawless actions to ongoing threats. These were based on the arrogance of invincibility.
There is parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
Yet, strength without restraint does not establish right. It makes for fragility, upheaval, and bloodshed.
Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to check the influential also protect them. Absent these limits, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth in time bring them down – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for world war.
Such disregard for rules will plague the nation and the world – and indeed civilization – for the foreseeable future.
