Donald Trump's Approach Present a Risk to Civilization.
The domestic and foreign policies β from the attempted coup previously to latest actions and statements β erode not only national and global jurisprudence. But thatβs not all.
They endanger the very concept of civilization itself.
A guiding principle of civilized society is to forestall the more powerful from preying upon and using the weaker. Without this, we would be locked in a state of nature where survival of the strongest wins.
This ideal is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the heart of the postwar international order advocated by the US, emphasizing multilateralism, democracy, human rights, and the legal authority.
Yet, it is a fragile principle, frequently ignored by those who seek to abuse their influence. Upholding it necessitates that the powerful have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society hold them accountable when they fail.
Unchecked strength does not make right. It leads to turmoil, chaos, and hostilities.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are advantaged target and use those that are weaker, the structure of civilization frays. If these actions are allowed to continue, the system fails. If not stopped, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.
We now inhabit a society and world with deepening divides. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This invites the privileged to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they act with a sense of untouchable.
The fortunes of a small group of tycoons is difficult to fathom. The influence of global industrial giants covers much of the globe. AI is poised to consolidate resources and influence even more. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is without parallel in the annals of time.
Supported by complicit legislators and a sympathetic judicial body, the executive office has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked entity of state power in history.
Combine these factors and you grasp the danger.
A direct line connects earlier breaches of norms to current provocations. Both were premised on the overconfidence of omnipotence.
You see a similar pattern in international affairs: in wars of aggression, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
However, strength without restraint does not make right. It fosters fragility, upheaval, and armed conflict.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to limit the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth ultimately lead to their downfall β taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for international catastrophe.
Such lawlessness will plague international stability β and the very idea of civilized conduct β for a long time.
