Donald Trump's Policies Constitute a Risk to Civilized Society.
His national and international strategies – including the effort to overturn the election five years ago to recent actions and warnings – erode not only national and global jurisprudence. But that’s not all.
They endanger the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.
A guiding principle of any advanced culture is to prevent the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a state of nature where survival of the strongest could survive.
This principle is central of America’s founding documents. It is equally the core of the postwar international order advocated by the US, which stresses multilateralism, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.
Yet, it is a fragile principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their influence. Upholding it demands that the powerful have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public demand responsibility should they falter.
Absolute power does not make right. It results in turmoil, disruption, and war.
Each instance entities that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are weaker, the fabric of society weakens. If such aggression are left unchecked, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can descend into instability and violence. It has happened before.
Today, we live in a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the privileged to exploit the less fortunate because they feel untouchable.
The resources of certain tycoons is staggering. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is poised to centralize resources and influence further. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in recorded history.
Supported by complicit legislators and a pliant high court, the highest office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of state power in history.
Consider this confluence and you grasp the threat.
A clear connection connects earlier breaches of norms to present-day threats. Each were founded upon the hubris of invincibility.
One observes a similar pattern in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by powerful corporate entities.
But, raw power does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, upheaval, and armed conflict.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to constrain the powerful also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for more power and wealth ultimately cause their collapse – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten global conflict.
This kind of contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over international stability – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.
