Trump's Policies Constitute a Risk to Civilized Society.
The national and international strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to current actions and statements – weaken both domestic and international legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.
They endanger the very concept of what we mean by.
A moral purpose of any advanced culture is to forestall the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Otherwise, we could find ourselves locked in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest could survive.
This principle is embedded of America’s founding documents. This is also the foundation of the global system established after WWII championed by the America, which stresses multilateralism, democratic governance, human rights, and the legal authority.
But, it is a vulnerable principle, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their authority. Upholding it requires that the powerful have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that society hold them accountable should they falter.
Unchecked strength does not equal right. It makes for uncertainty, chaos, and hostilities.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are less so, the structure of society unravels. If these actions are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.
Our current reality is a global community marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are more concentrated than ever before. This creates conditions for the powerful to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they feel omnipotent.
The resources of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans numerous countries. AI is poised to centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is unprecedented in the annals of time.
Enabled by a compliant faction and a sympathetic supreme court, the highest office has been made into the most dominant and unchecked entity of government in history.
Consider this confluence and you perceive the danger.
A clear connection connects earlier lawless actions to present-day provocations. These were founded upon the overconfidence of absolute power.
There is much the same in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.
Yet, raw power does not make right. It fosters fragility, upheaval, and bloodshed.
Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to check the powerful also shield them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for greater influence and riches in time bring them down – along with 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 a long time.
