The Former President's Approach Constitute a Danger to Civilization.
His internal and external initiatives – including the challenge to the democratic process five years ago to current moves and warnings – weaken both national and global legal frameworks. The implications are broader.
They threaten the core idea of civilization itself.
The moral purpose of a functioning society is to stop the stronger from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Without this, we could find ourselves permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where might makes right wins.
This concept is central of the Declaration and Constitution. It is equally the core of the postwar international order championed by the United States, built on collective action, democratic governance, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
Yet, it is a vulnerable ideal, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their power. Maintaining it demands that the those in charge have enough integrity to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that society ensure they answer for their actions when they fail.
Absolute power is not right. It leads to uncertainty, chaos, and hostilities.
Whenever entities that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are weaker, the structure of our shared norms weakens. If these actions are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. Without intervention, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.
We now inhabit a society and world with deepening divides. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This encourages the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they feel untouchable.
The resources of a handful of tycoons is difficult to fathom. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers a vast portion of the world. AI is could consolidate economic and political clout even more. The military might of the leading countries is without parallel in the annals of time.
Supported by complicit legislators and an accommodating judicial body, the highest office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of state power in the modern era.
Put it all together and you see the danger.
An unbroken thread ties previous breaches of norms to ongoing threats. Both were founded upon the overconfidence of absolute power.
One observes parallel dynamics in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.
Yet, raw power does not establish right. It fosters fragility, revolution, and armed conflict.
Historical evidence demonstrates that rules and conventions to limit the powerful also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for greater influence and riches ultimately lead to their downfall – and with them their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk international catastrophe.
This kind of contempt for legal order will haunt America and the global community – and indeed civilization – for the foreseeable future.
