Donald Trump's Actions Pose a Risk to Civilization.
His domestic and foreign initiatives – including the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to latest incursions and threats – weaken not only national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.
They threaten the very concept of civilization itself.
A guiding principle of any advanced culture is to stop the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Otherwise, we would be trapped in a brutish war where only the fittest could survive.
This concept is central of the nation's founding texts. This is also the core of the global system established after WWII advocated by the United States, emphasizing collective action, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the supremacy of law.
Yet, it is a fragile ideal, easily violated by those who would exploit their authority. Upholding it necessitates that the powerful have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.
Absolute power does not equal right. It results in instability, upheaval, and conflict.
Every time people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are not, the structure of civilization unravels. If such aggression are not contained, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into chaos and war. It has happened before.
We now inhabit a international landscape with deepening divides. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than ever before. This invites the elite to take advantage of the weaker because they feel above the law.
The resources of a small group of tycoons is staggering. The reach of global industrial giants covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is poised to further concentrate resources and influence even more. The destructive power of the major powers is without parallel in recorded history.
Empowered by complicit legislators and an accommodating high court, the executive office has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of the state in recent memory.
Consider this confluence and you perceive the looming crisis.
A clear connection connects previous transgressions to ongoing menaces. These were based on the hubris of invincibility.
One observes a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
However, raw power does not create right. It fosters instability, upheaval, and armed conflict.
Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to constrain the powerful also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for more power and wealth eventually lead to their downfall – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk world war.
This kind of lawlessness will haunt international stability – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.
