Donald Trump's Policies Constitute a Threat to Civilized Society.
His internal and external strategies – from the attempted coup five years ago to current actions and statements – undermine both national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.
They endanger the very concept of what we mean by.
A guiding principle of civilized society is to stop the dominant from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Otherwise, we would be permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest prevails.
This concept is embedded of America’s founding documents. It’s also the heart of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the America, which stresses international cooperation, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.
Yet, it is a delicate principle, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their authority. Upholding it demands that the powerful have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that society demand responsibility should they falter.
Absolute power does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, upheaval, and hostilities.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are less so, the fabric of society weakens. Should such behavior are not contained, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can descend into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a global community marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are more concentrated than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the powerful to exploit the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as untouchable.
The resources of a handful of billionaires is difficult to fathom. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans much of the globe. Advanced technology is likely to further concentrate wealth and power even more. The military might of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in the annals of time.
Empowered by complicit legislators and an accommodating supreme court, the highest office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of the state in history.
Combine these factors and you grasp the looming crisis.
An unbroken thread ties past transgressions to current threats. Both were based on the overconfidence of invincibility.
There is much the same in the actions of other powers: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
However, strength without restraint does not establish right. It fosters fragility, revolution, and armed conflict.
The lessons of the past reveal that frameworks designed to limit the influential also shield them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for more power and wealth in time bring them down – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten world war.
This blatant disregard for rules will plague international stability – and indeed civilization – for the foreseeable future.