Donald Trump's Actions Present a Threat to Civilization.
The domestic and foreign policies – from the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to recent actions and warnings – weaken not only national and global legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
These actions jeopardize the very concept of what we mean by.
The moral purpose of any advanced culture is to prevent the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the less powerful. Without this, we could find ourselves locked in a brutish war where survival of the strongest prevails.
This principle is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the modern framework of international relations advocated by the United States, which stresses collective action, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the rule of law.
Yet, it is a vulnerable principle, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their authority. Preserving it necessitates that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us demand responsibility should they falter.
Unfettered might does not equal right. It leads to turmoil, disruption, and hostilities.
Whenever entities that are advantaged prey upon those that are not, the structure of civilization frays. Should such behavior are left unchecked, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a global community marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in recent memory. This creates conditions for the privileged to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as omnipotent.
The resources of certain tycoons is difficult to fathom. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over numerous countries. AI is could centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The military might of the major powers is unprecedented in recorded history.
Supported by political allies and an accommodating judicial body, the presidency has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of government in recent memory.
Consider this confluence and you perceive the danger.
A clear connection links earlier breaches of norms to present-day threats. These were premised on the hubris of omnipotence.
One observes much the same in international affairs: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by powerful corporate entities.
But, raw power does not establish right. It makes for fragility, upended order, and war.
Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to constrain the influential also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for more power and wealth eventually bring them down – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten world war.
Such lawlessness will plague America and the global community – and the very idea of civilization – for years to come.
