Donald Trump's Policies Constitute a Threat to Civilization.
His domestic and foreign policies – from the challenge to the democratic process in the past to recent moves and threats – weaken both domestic and international legal frameworks. But that’s not all.
These actions jeopardize the core idea of a civilized world.
A ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to prevent the more powerful from preying upon and using the weaker. Without this, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a state of nature where only the fittest could survive.
This principle is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the global system established after WWII supported by the America, emphasizing multilateralism, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the legal authority.
Yet, it is a delicate principle, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their power. Upholding it demands that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.
Unfettered might does not equal right. It results in instability, disruption, and war.
Each instance people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are less so, the fabric of our shared norms weakens. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
Our current reality is a society and world with deepening divides. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in recent memory. This encourages the privileged to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they feel omnipotent.
The resources of a small group of tycoons is difficult to fathom. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers much of the globe. Advanced technology is likely to centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is without parallel in the annals of time.
Supported by complicit legislators and an accommodating high court, the presidency has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable instrument of state power in the modern era.
Combine these factors and you see the looming crisis.
A direct line connects earlier lawless actions to present-day provocations. These were based on the arrogance of invincibility.
You see a similar pattern in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.
Yet, unfettered might does not create right. It produces fragility, upended order, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that frameworks designed to check the influential also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth eventually bring them down – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.
This blatant lawlessness will plague the nation and the world – and indeed civilization – for years to come.