The Former President's Actions Constitute a Risk to Civilized Society.
His national and international strategies – from the attempted coup in the past to current actions and threats – erode not only national and global law. The implications are broader.
They jeopardize the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.
A ethical foundation of civilized society is to forestall the more powerful from preying upon and using the vulnerable. Without this, we risk being permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest wins.
This ideal is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the foundation of the global system established after WWII supported by the United States, built on international cooperation, democratic governance, fundamental freedoms, and the legal authority.
But, it is a vulnerable principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their power. Upholding it demands that the influential have enough integrity to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us demand responsibility if they don't.
Absolute power is not right. It leads to uncertainty, upheaval, and conflict.
Whenever entities that are advantaged target and use those that are less so, the structure of civilization weakens. Should such behavior are not contained, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
Today, we live in a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Authority and resources are more concentrated than ever before. This creates conditions for the privileged to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they act with a sense of above the law.
The wealth of a small group of tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is likely to further concentrate wealth and power further. The offensive capability of the world's largest nations is unmatched in the annals of time.
Empowered by a compliant faction and an accommodating supreme court, the executive office has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of state power in recent memory.
Combine these factors and you grasp the looming crisis.
A clear connection links previous breaches of norms to ongoing provocations. Each were founded upon the overconfidence of absolute power.
One observes parallel dynamics in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
But, unfettered might does not establish right. It fosters uncertainty, upheaval, and armed conflict.
The lessons of the past reveal that laws and norms to check the influential also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth in time bring them down – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk global conflict.
This blatant disregard for rules will haunt international stability – and the very idea of civilization – for the foreseeable future.
