The Former President's Actions Constitute a Risk to Civilized Society.
His internal and external strategies – from the challenge to the democratic process previously to latest moves and threats – erode both domestic and international legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
They endanger the core idea of civilization itself.
The ethical foundation of civilized society is to stop the stronger from preying upon and using the weaker. Otherwise, we risk being locked in a state of nature where might makes right prevails.
This principle is central of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the foundation of the postwar international order supported by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the rule of law.
Yet, it is a vulnerable principle, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their authority. Maintaining it necessitates that the influential have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us hold them accountable when they fail.
Unfettered might does not make right. It makes for instability, upheaval, and hostilities.
Every time people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are not, the structure of our shared norms weakens. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can fall into instability and violence. History provides ample precedent.
Our current reality is a international landscape with deepening divides. Political and economic power are more concentrated than ever before. This creates conditions for the powerful to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they perceive themselves as above the law.
The wealth of certain billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors spans a vast portion of the world. AI is could further concentrate wealth and power further. The military might of the world's largest nations is unmatched in recorded history.
Enabled by a compliant faction and an accommodating judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the most powerful and unaccountable entity of state power in history.
Combine these factors and you see the threat.
A clear connection links past breaches of norms to present-day threats. Each were based on the hubris of omnipotence.
There is a similar pattern in international affairs: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the worldwide exploitation by powerful corporate entities.
Yet, strength without restraint does not make right. It fosters uncertainty, upended order, and war.
Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to limit the powerful also safeguard them. If these guardrails are removed, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches ultimately cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten global conflict.
This kind of disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over America and the global community – and indeed civilization – for a long time.
