The Former President's Policies Constitute a Threat to Civilization.
The domestic and foreign initiatives – ranging from the effort to overturn the election previously to recent actions and statements – undermine not only domestic and international jurisprudence. But that’s not all.
They jeopardize the core idea of what we mean by.
The guiding principle of any advanced culture is to prevent the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Without this, we could find ourselves trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest wins.
This principle lies at the center of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the core of the modern framework of international relations championed by the US, emphasizing collective action, democratic governance, human rights, and the rule of law.
But, it is a delicate ideal, often broken by those who would exploit their authority. Upholding it demands that the influential have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us demand responsibility if they don't.
Unfettered might does not equal right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and conflict.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are less so, the framework of our shared norms frays. Should such behavior are left unchecked, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into chaos and war. We have seen this pattern previously.
Today, we live in a society and world with deepening divides. Influence and wealth are held by fewer hands than ever before. This creates conditions for the privileged to take advantage of the less fortunate because they feel omnipotent.
The fortunes of certain billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans much of the globe. AI is poised to consolidate resources and influence even more. The military might of the major powers is unmatched in the annals of time.
Supported by political allies and an accommodating judicial body, the highest office has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked instrument of state power in recent memory.
Put it all together and you perceive the looming crisis.
A clear connection connects earlier transgressions to ongoing menaces. Each were premised on the overconfidence of omnipotence.
You see a similar pattern in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.
However, raw power does not create right. It makes for uncertainty, revolution, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to check the powerful also protect them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches ultimately bring them down – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.
This kind of contempt for legal order will plague international stability – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.
