The Former President's Policies Constitute a Threat to Our Social Fabric.
The national and international initiatives – including the attempted coup in the past to latest incursions and warnings – weaken both national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.
These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.
A ethical foundation of any advanced culture is to forestall the stronger from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Failing that, we risk being trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest prevails.
This principle is central of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the heart of the modern framework of international relations supported by the US, which stresses collective action, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.
But, it is a fragile construct, often broken by those who would exploit their power. Preserving it necessitates that the influential have enough integrity to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.
Absolute power does not equal right. It results in uncertainty, chaos, and war.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are advantaged attack and exploit those that are not, the structure of our shared norms weakens. Should such behavior are not contained, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can descend into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
Our current reality is a international landscape marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are held by fewer hands than ever before. This encourages the privileged to take advantage of the weaker because they perceive themselves as above the law.
The fortunes of a handful of billionaires is difficult to fathom. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace spans a vast portion of the world. Artificial intelligence is likely to centralize economic and political clout further. The destructive power of the leading countries is unmatched in the annals of time.
Empowered by political allies and an accommodating judicial body, the highest office has been made into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of the state in recent memory.
Combine these factors and you perceive the danger.
A direct line ties previous breaches of norms to current threats. These were premised on the arrogance of absolute power.
There is a similar pattern in international affairs: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by massive conglomerates.
Yet, strength without restraint does not establish right. It fosters instability, upended order, and bloodshed.
History shows that laws and norms to limit the influential also protect them. Without such constraints, their endless appetite for increased control and resources in time cause their collapse – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And risk world war.
This blatant contempt for legal order will haunt the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for a long time.
