Donald Trump's Actions Pose a Risk to Civilized Society.
His national and international policies – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to current moves and threats – weaken not only domestic and international jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.
They jeopardize the core idea of a civilized world.
A moral purpose of any advanced culture is to prevent the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Otherwise, we would be locked in a state of nature where survival of the strongest wins.
This principle is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the core of the modern framework of international relations championed by the US, built on collective action, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the rule of law.
Yet, it is a vulnerable construct, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their influence. Preserving it requires that the powerful have enough integrity to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that society demand responsibility if they don't.
Absolute power does not make right. It results in instability, disruption, and conflict.
Whenever entities that are advantaged prey upon those that are weaker, the framework of our shared norms weakens. Should such behavior are left unchecked, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can fall into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a society and world marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the powerful to take advantage of the less fortunate because they feel above the law.
The wealth of a small group of billionaires is staggering. The influence of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is could further concentrate wealth and power further. The military might of the major powers is unmatched in recorded history.
Empowered by a compliant faction and an accommodating judicial body, the executive office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable instrument of state power in history.
Put it all together and you see the looming crisis.
An unbroken thread ties previous lawless actions to ongoing threats. Both were premised on the overconfidence of invincibility.
You see a similar pattern in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.
However, unfettered might does not create right. It makes for fragility, upheaval, and armed conflict.
History shows that rules and conventions to constrain the powerful also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth eventually bring them down – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten world war.
This kind of contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and indeed a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.
