Trump's Actions Present a Threat to Civilized Society.
His national and international strategies – ranging from the challenge to the democratic process in the past to latest moves and warnings – erode both national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions jeopardize the core idea of what we mean by.
The ethical foundation of a functioning society is to forestall the more powerful from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Otherwise, we would be permanently immersed in a brutish war where might makes right could survive.
This ideal is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the America, which stresses multilateralism, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
But, it is a vulnerable construct, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their influence. Preserving it requires that the influential have enough integrity to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society hold them accountable when they fail.
Absolute power does not make right. It makes for instability, chaos, and war.
Each instance people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are not, the fabric of society weakens. If these actions are left unchecked, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can plunge into chaos and war. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a global community grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This invites the powerful to leverage their position against the weaker because they act with a sense of above the law.
The wealth of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans a vast portion of the world. AI is could centralize resources and influence even more. The military might of the major powers is unmatched in recorded history.
Empowered by complicit legislators and a sympathetic supreme court, the presidency has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of state power in history.
Consider this confluence and you perceive the danger.
A clear connection connects earlier transgressions to current threats. Each were founded upon the arrogance of invincibility.
There is much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.
Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It fosters instability, revolution, and bloodshed.
History shows that laws and norms to limit the influential also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches eventually cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk global conflict.
This kind of lawlessness will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.
