Donald Trump's Approach Present a Threat to Our Social Fabric.
His national and international initiatives – ranging from the attempted coup five years ago to recent actions and warnings – undermine not only domestic and international law. But that’s not all.
These actions threaten the very concept of what we mean by.
The guiding principle of a functioning society is to prevent the more powerful from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Without this, we risk being trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest could survive.
This principle is embedded of the nation's founding texts. This is also the core of the global system established after WWII supported by the America, which stresses international cooperation, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
However, it is a vulnerable ideal, often broken by those who seek to abuse their influence. Maintaining it demands that the powerful have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.
Absolute power does not equal right. It makes for instability, chaos, and hostilities.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are not, the framework of society weakens. If these actions are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can plunge into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
We now inhabit a international landscape with deepening divides. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than ever before. This creates conditions for the powerful to exploit the weaker because they act with a sense of omnipotent.
The fortunes of certain tycoons is staggering. The influence of global industrial giants extends over much of the globe. AI is poised to consolidate resources and influence further. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in human history.
Empowered by complicit legislators and an accommodating high court, the presidency has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked entity of state power in the modern era.
Consider this confluence and you grasp the threat.
A direct line links previous breaches of norms to present-day threats. Both were based on the arrogance of omnipotence.
One observes much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.
Yet, strength without restraint does not establish right. It makes for instability, revolution, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to constrain the powerful also shield them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches eventually cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten international catastrophe.
This kind of contempt for legal order will plague the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for years to come.
