Trump's Approach Pose a Threat to Civilization.
The internal and external strategies – ranging from the attempted coup in the past to latest incursions and statements – weaken both national and global law. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions endanger the core idea of a civilized world.
A ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to prevent the stronger from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Otherwise, we could find ourselves trapped in a state of nature where might makes right prevails.
This ideal is embedded of America’s founding documents. This is also the core of the postwar international order advocated by the America, emphasizing international cooperation, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the rule of law.
But, it is a vulnerable construct, frequently ignored by those who would exploit their influence. Maintaining it requires that the influential have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us hold them accountable if they don't.
Unfettered might does not equal right. It leads to turmoil, chaos, and hostilities.
Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are advantaged prey upon those that are less so, the framework of our shared norms frays. Should such behavior are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a society and world with deepening divides. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of omnipotent.
The resources of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The reach of global industrial giants covers much of the globe. AI is likely to consolidate wealth and power to a greater degree. The military might of the leading countries is unmatched in recorded history.
Supported by a compliant faction and a pliant supreme court, the highest office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of the state in recent memory.
Consider this confluence and you grasp the looming crisis.
An unbroken thread ties previous transgressions to present-day provocations. Both were based on the overconfidence of invincibility.
You see a similar pattern in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
Yet, strength without restraint does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, upheaval, and armed conflict.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to check the powerful also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for increased control and resources ultimately cause their collapse – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for world war.
This kind of contempt for legal order will haunt the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilization – for a long time.
