Trump's Actions Pose a Risk to Civilization.
His national and international initiatives – from the challenge to the democratic process previously to recent actions and warnings – undermine both domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions jeopardize the very concept of what we mean by.
A guiding principle of a functioning society is to forestall the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Without this, we risk being permanently immersed in a brutish war where only the fittest wins.
This principle is central of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the heart of the postwar international order supported by the United States, built on multilateralism, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
But, it is a vulnerable ideal, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their power. Upholding it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us demand responsibility should they falter.
Unfettered might is not right. It makes for turmoil, upheaval, and hostilities.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are less so, the framework of society weakens. If such aggression are left unchecked, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. History provides ample precedent.
Our current reality is a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in modern history. This encourages the powerful to leverage their position against the weaker because they perceive themselves as untouchable.
The wealth of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors spans a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is poised to centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the leading countries is without parallel in human history.
Empowered by complicit legislators and an accommodating supreme court, the highest office has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked instrument of the state in the modern era.
Combine these factors and you see the looming crisis.
An unbroken thread ties earlier lawless actions to present-day provocations. Each were founded upon the overconfidence of omnipotence.
One observes much the same in other global contexts: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by powerful corporate entities.
However, unfettered might does not make right. It produces instability, upended order, and armed conflict.
History shows that frameworks designed to limit the powerful also shield them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for greater influence and riches in time bring them down – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk global conflict.
This kind of contempt for legal order will plague the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilization – for years to come.
