Donald Trump's Approach Pose a Threat to Civilization.
The internal and external initiatives – including the attempted coup five years ago to recent actions and statements – erode both domestic and international legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.
They jeopardize the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.
The guiding principle of a functioning society is to prevent the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Otherwise, we risk being permanently immersed in a brutish war where might makes right prevails.
This ideal lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the heart of the postwar international order advocated by the America, which stresses multilateralism, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the legal authority.
Yet, it is a fragile ideal, often broken by those who would exploit their power. Upholding it demands that the influential have enough integrity to avoid seeking short-term wins, and that society hold them accountable if they don't.
Absolute power is not right. It makes for instability, chaos, and war.
Each instance entities that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are weaker, the fabric of our shared norms unravels. If these actions are left unchecked, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can fall into instability and violence. History provides ample precedent.
We now inhabit a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This creates conditions for the powerful to leverage their position against the weaker because they perceive themselves as untouchable.
The wealth of a handful of billionaires is difficult to fathom. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is likely to centralize wealth and power to a greater degree. The military might of the leading countries is without parallel in human history.
Empowered by a compliant faction and a sympathetic judicial body, the presidency has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of the state in history.
Put it all together and you see the danger.
A direct line links earlier transgressions to ongoing menaces. Each were premised on the arrogance of omnipotence.
There is parallel dynamics in international affairs: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.
Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It produces instability, upheaval, and armed conflict.
History shows that frameworks designed to limit the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for increased control and resources eventually cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten global conflict.
This kind of contempt for legal order will plague international stability – and indeed a rules-based order – for years to come.