The Former President's Actions Constitute a Risk to Civilized Society.
His domestic and foreign initiatives – from the challenge to the democratic process previously to recent moves and statements – weaken both national and global jurisprudence. However, the issue goes deeper.
These actions jeopardize the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.
A guiding principle of civilized society is to forestall the dominant from attacking and exploiting the vulnerable. Otherwise, we risk being permanently immersed in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest could survive.
This ideal lies at the center of America’s founding documents. It’s also the heart of the modern framework of international relations supported by the United States, which stresses international cooperation, popular sovereignty, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
But, it is a fragile ideal, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their power. Maintaining it requires that the influential have the moral fortitude to abstain from seeking immediate gains, and that society ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.
Unfettered might does not make right. It leads to instability, chaos, and hostilities.
Whenever entities that are advantaged target and use those that are less so, the structure of society frays. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can descend into instability and violence. It has happened before.
Our current reality is a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than in modern history. This creates conditions for the powerful to leverage their position against the weaker because they perceive themselves as untouchable.
The wealth of a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals is staggering. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is could further concentrate resources and influence even more. The destructive power 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 made into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of the state in history.
Consider this confluence and you see the threat.
An unbroken thread connects previous breaches of norms to current provocations. Each were founded upon the arrogance of omnipotence.
You see much the same in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.
But, raw power does not establish right. It makes for uncertainty, revolution, and bloodshed.
History shows that laws and norms to limit the powerful also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches eventually cause their collapse – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk world war.
Such contempt for legal order will plague the nation and the world – and indeed civilized conduct – for years to come.
