The Former President's Policies Present a Threat to Civilization.
His internal and external policies – including the effort to overturn the election five years ago to latest actions and threats – undermine not only domestic and international jurisprudence. But that’s not all.
They endanger the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.
The ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to prevent the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Otherwise, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a state of nature where survival of the strongest wins.
This ideal is central of the nation's founding texts. It is equally the heart of the global system established after WWII supported by the United States, emphasizing multilateralism, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the legal authority.
However, it is a vulnerable construct, often broken by those who choose to misuse their influence. Upholding it necessitates that the powerful have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us demand responsibility when they fail.
Unchecked strength is not right. It makes for instability, upheaval, and war.
Every time individuals, companies, or nations that are advantaged attack and exploit those that are less so, the fabric of civilization frays. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This encourages the powerful to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as above the law.
The resources of a handful of billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The power of global industrial giants spans a vast portion of the world. AI is likely to consolidate economic and political clout even more. The military might of the leading countries is without parallel in recorded history.
Empowered by political allies and an accommodating judicial body, the executive office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable instrument of state power in recent memory.
Consider this confluence and you grasp the danger.
A direct line links past transgressions to ongoing provocations. Each were based on the hubris of omnipotence.
There is a similar pattern in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.
Yet, unfettered might does not establish right. It makes for uncertainty, upheaval, and bloodshed.
Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to check the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches ultimately cause their collapse – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk world war.
This kind of lawlessness will plague America and the global community – and indeed civilized conduct – for years to come.
