Trump's Actions Present a Danger to Civilized Society.
His internal and external strategies – including the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to recent moves and statements – undermine both domestic and international jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions threaten the very concept of civilization itself.
The ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to forestall the stronger from attacking and exploiting the vulnerable. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest could survive.
This principle is central of the nation's founding texts. This is also the foundation of the modern framework of international relations supported by the US, built on multilateralism, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.
But, it is a vulnerable construct, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their authority. Preserving it demands that the influential have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that society hold them accountable if they don't.
Unfettered might is not right. It results in turmoil, chaos, and hostilities.
Every time people or corporations or countries that are advantaged target and use those that are less so, the fabric of our shared norms unravels. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.
Today, we live in a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than ever before. This invites the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they act with a sense of untouchable.
The fortunes of a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The influence of global industrial giants extends over much of the globe. Advanced technology is likely to centralize resources and influence even more. The destructive power of the leading countries is unmatched in recorded history.
Enabled by political allies and a sympathetic supreme court, the executive office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of state power in history.
Combine these factors and you grasp the looming crisis.
An unbroken thread links earlier transgressions to current threats. These were based on the arrogance of absolute power.
There is much the same in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
But, raw power does not establish right. It produces fragility, revolution, and war.
History shows that laws and norms to limit the influential also protect them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches in time lead to their downfall – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And pave the way for world war.
This blatant contempt for legal order will haunt the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.
