Trump's Approach Pose a Danger to Civilized Society.

The national and international strategies – including the attempted coup five years ago to recent actions and warnings – erode not only domestic and international law. However, the issue goes deeper.

They threaten the very concept of civilization itself.

A moral purpose of civilized society is to prevent the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Without this, we could find ourselves locked in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest could survive.

This principle is central of America’s founding documents. It is equally the core of the global system established after WWII advocated by the US, which stresses collective action, popular sovereignty, individual liberties, and the rule of law.

However, it is a delicate construct, often broken by those who choose to misuse their authority. Maintaining it demands that the powerful have a sense of duty to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that the public demand responsibility should they falter.

Absolute power does not equal right. It makes for uncertainty, disruption, and conflict.

Each instance people or corporations or countries that are wealthier and stronger target and use those that are not, the structure of society weakens. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can fall into chaos and war. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a society and world with deepening divides. Influence and wealth are more concentrated than in recent memory. This invites the privileged to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they feel above the law.

The fortunes of certain billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors covers numerous countries. Advanced technology is likely to centralize economic and political clout to a greater degree. The destructive power of the leading countries is without parallel in the annals of time.

Supported by a compliant faction and a pliant high court, the presidency has been turned into the most dominant and unchecked agent of state power in history.

Put it all together and you perceive the danger.

A direct line ties previous transgressions to present-day provocations. Each were premised on the overconfidence of absolute power.

There is a similar pattern in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in expansive ambitions, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.

But, strength without restraint does not make right. It produces instability, upended order, and bloodshed.

The lessons of the past reveal that frameworks designed to check the influential also protect them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth in time cause their collapse – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten world war.

This blatant disregard for rules will plague the nation and the world – and indeed a rules-based order – for a long time.