The Former President's Actions Constitute a Threat to Civilization.
His domestic and foreign strategies – ranging from the attempted coup in the past to recent actions and statements – undermine both national and global law. But that’s not all.
They jeopardize the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.
A guiding principle of a functioning society is to prevent the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Failing that, we would be locked in a brutish war where might makes right wins.
This ideal is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the core of the modern framework of international relations championed by the US, built on international cooperation, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.
However, it is a vulnerable construct, frequently ignored by those who choose to misuse their influence. Maintaining it necessitates that the those in charge have enough integrity to refrain from seeking immediate gains, and that the public ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.
Absolute power is not right. It leads to turmoil, upheaval, and hostilities.
Whenever people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger attack and exploit those that are weaker, the structure of civilization frays. If such aggression are not contained, the structure collapses. Without intervention, the world can plunge into instability and violence. We have seen this pattern previously.
Our current reality is a international landscape with deepening divides. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in modern history. This encourages the privileged to leverage their position against the less fortunate because they act with a sense of above the law.
The wealth of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The power of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors spans much of the globe. Advanced technology is poised to further concentrate wealth and power to a greater degree. The military might of the leading countries is unmatched in recorded history.
Enabled by complicit legislators and a sympathetic supreme court, the highest office has been transformed into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of the state in recent memory.
Consider this confluence and you perceive the danger.
A direct line links previous breaches of norms to current menaces. Both were founded upon the arrogance of omnipotence.
You see a similar pattern in other global contexts: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by industrial titans.
But, raw power does not create right. It makes for uncertainty, upheaval, and armed conflict.
Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to constrain the influential also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for greater influence and riches ultimately bring them down – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten world war.
Such lawlessness will haunt the nation and the world – and indeed civilization – for the foreseeable future.
