Donald Trump's Approach Present a Threat to Civilization.

The internal and external policies – including the effort to overturn the election five years ago to latest moves and threats – weaken both domestic and international jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

They jeopardize the fundamental meaning of what we mean by.

The guiding principle of a functioning society is to prevent the more powerful from harming and taking advantage of the vulnerable. Failing that, we risk being locked in a conflict of all against all where only the fittest prevails.

This ideal is embedded of the Declaration and Constitution. This is also the foundation of the global system established after WWII advocated by the US, built on collective action, democracy, individual liberties, and the rule of law.

However, it is a delicate principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their influence. Preserving it necessitates that the those in charge have the moral fortitude to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us demand responsibility should they falter.

Absolute power does not equal right. It results in uncertainty, upheaval, and war.

Every time people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful prey upon those that are less so, the fabric of society unravels. If such aggression are allowed to continue, the fabric unravels. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into chaos and war. It has happened before.

Today, we live in a society and world with deepening divides. Authority and resources are more concentrated than in recent memory. This invites the elite to exploit the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as untouchable.

The resources of a handful of billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The power of global industrial giants covers numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is poised to consolidate resources and influence even more. The destructive power of the world's largest nations is without parallel in human history.

Supported by political allies and an accommodating high court, the executive office has been transformed into the most dominant and unchecked entity of government in the modern era.

Put it all together and you grasp the looming crisis.

A clear connection connects previous lawless actions to ongoing provocations. Each were premised on the overconfidence of absolute power.

You see a similar pattern in other global contexts: in wars of aggression, in strategic threats, and in the global depredation by industrial titans.

However, unfettered might does not create right. It produces instability, revolution, and war.

The lessons of the past reveal that rules and conventions to check the powerful also protect them. Absent these limits, their endless appetite for more power and wealth in time cause their collapse – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk world war.

Such lawlessness will plague the nation and the world – and indeed civilization – for a long time.