The Former President's Policies Constitute a Risk to Civilized Society.
His national and international policies – ranging from the attempted coup in the past to latest moves and warnings – erode both national and global jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions threaten the very concept of civilization itself.
The moral purpose of any advanced culture is to forestall the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Otherwise, we could find ourselves trapped in a state of nature where survival of the strongest wins.
This principle is embedded of America’s founding documents. It is equally the core of the postwar international order supported by the United States, built on international cooperation, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the supremacy of law.
Yet, it is a fragile principle, often broken by those who would exploit their influence. Preserving it requires that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the public demand responsibility when they fail.
Unchecked strength is not right. It results in uncertainty, disruption, and conflict.
Each instance entities that are advantaged prey upon those that are less so, the fabric of society unravels. If such aggression are not contained, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can descend into disorder and conflict. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a global community marked by extreme inequality. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in recent memory. This encourages the elite to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they feel omnipotent.
The resources of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is could consolidate economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the major powers is unmatched in human history.
Enabled by political allies and a pliant judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in the modern era.
Combine these factors and you see the danger.
An unbroken thread connects earlier transgressions to current menaces. These were premised on the overconfidence of absolute power.
There is much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.
Yet, unfettered might does not make right. It makes for uncertainty, upended order, and bloodshed.
History shows that frameworks designed to limit the influential also protect them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for more power and wealth ultimately bring them down – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk international catastrophe.
This blatant lawlessness will plague international stability – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.
