The Former President's Approach Present a Risk to Our Social Fabric.
His internal and external initiatives – including the attempted coup previously to recent actions and statements – weaken both domestic and international jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.
A ethical foundation of civilized society is to forestall the stronger from preying upon and using the less powerful. Otherwise, we would be trapped in a brutish war where only the fittest wins.
This ideal lies at the center of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the modern framework of international relations supported by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, democracy, individual liberties, and the supremacy of law.
However, it is a delicate principle, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their authority. Preserving it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to abstain from seeking temporary advantages, and that the rest of us demand responsibility if they don't.
Unfettered might does not make right. It leads to uncertainty, upheaval, and conflict.
Each instance entities that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are weaker, the structure of our shared norms weakens. If such aggression are not contained, the structure collapses. Allowing it to persist, the world can descend into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.
Today, we live in a society and world with deepening divides. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than ever before. This creates conditions for the powerful to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they feel untouchable.
The wealth of certain billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The power of global industrial giants covers a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is could consolidate wealth and power to a greater degree. The destructive power of the leading countries is unprecedented in the annals of time.
Supported by a compliant faction and a sympathetic judicial body, the highest office has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of government in recent memory.
Consider this confluence and you grasp the looming crisis.
A clear connection links past lawless actions to ongoing threats. Both were premised on the overconfidence of absolute power.
One observes much the same in the actions of other powers: in territorial invasions, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
But, raw power does not create right. It makes for uncertainty, upended order, and war.
The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to check the powerful also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for more power and wealth eventually cause their collapse – and with them their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.
This kind of lawlessness will plague international stability – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for years to come.
