Donald Trump's Policies Constitute a Danger to Civilization.
The national and international initiatives – including the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to recent actions and threats – weaken not only national and global legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
They threaten the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.
A moral purpose of a functioning society is to forestall the dominant from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Otherwise, we would be permanently immersed in a state of nature where might makes right could survive.
This ideal is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the foundation of the postwar international order advocated by the United States, which stresses collective action, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.
Yet, it is a delicate principle, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their authority. Maintaining it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that the public demand responsibility when they fail.
Unchecked strength does not equal right. It results in uncertainty, upheaval, and conflict.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are less so, the structure of our shared norms frays. Should such behavior are not contained, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can descend into chaos and war. It has happened before.
We now inhabit a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This encourages the powerful to exploit the weaker because they feel above the law.
The wealth of a small group of billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over a vast portion of the world. AI is could centralize wealth and power even more. The offensive capability of the leading countries is unprecedented in the annals of time.
Empowered by political allies and a pliant judicial body, the executive office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in the modern era.
Put it all together and you perceive the danger.
A clear connection ties previous transgressions to present-day threats. Both were founded upon the overconfidence of omnipotence.
One observes parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the rampant monopolization by massive conglomerates.
Yet, raw power does not establish right. It fosters uncertainty, upended order, and armed conflict.
Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to limit the powerful also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources eventually lead to their downfall – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for international catastrophe.
This blatant contempt for legal order will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of a rules-based order – for years to come.
