Donald Trump's Policies Constitute a Threat to Civilization.
His national and international strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process in the past to current actions and threats – erode both national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.
They jeopardize the very concept of a civilized world.
The guiding principle of civilized society is to stop the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Failing that, we risk being locked in a conflict of all against all where might makes right could survive.
This principle is central of America’s founding documents. This is also the core of the global system established after WWII supported by the United States, which stresses multilateralism, democratic governance, individual liberties, and the rule of law.
Yet, it is a delicate ideal, easily violated by those who would exploit their influence. Preserving it demands that the influential have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public demand responsibility should they falter.
Unfettered might does not equal right. It results in uncertainty, upheaval, and conflict.
Every time entities that are wealthier and stronger prey upon those that are not, the fabric of society frays. If such aggression are left unchecked, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a global community grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the powerful to leverage their position against the weaker because they feel omnipotent.
The fortunes of a handful of tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is could centralize economic and political clout even more. The military might of the leading countries is unprecedented in human history.
Enabled by complicit legislators and a sympathetic high court, the executive office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of the state in the modern era.
Put it all together and you see the danger.
An unbroken thread connects earlier breaches of norms to current menaces. Each were premised on the arrogance of invincibility.
One observes much the same in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by massive conglomerates.
But, strength without restraint does not establish right. It fosters instability, revolution, and bloodshed.
Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to check the influential also shield them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth ultimately lead to their downfall – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And pave the way for world war.
This kind of lawlessness will cast a long shadow over international stability – and indeed a rules-based order – for a long time.
