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His national and international initiatives – ranging from the attempted coup previously to recent incursions and statements – erode both domestic and international law. The implications are broader.

They threaten the core idea of civilization itself.

The moral purpose of any advanced culture is to forestall the dominant from harming and taking advantage of the weaker. Failing that, we would be permanently immersed in a state of nature where only the fittest could survive.

This ideal is embedded of the nation's founding texts. It’s also the heart of the global system established after WWII advocated by the United States, emphasizing international cooperation, democracy, human rights, and the supremacy of law.

But, it is a vulnerable ideal, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their authority. Maintaining it requires that the those in charge have enough integrity to refrain from seeking short-term wins, and that society ensure they answer for their actions should they falter.

Unfettered might is not right. It makes for turmoil, chaos, and war.

Whenever entities that are advantaged prey upon those that are less so, the framework of civilization weakens. Should such behavior are not contained, the system fails. Without intervention, the world can plunge into chaos and war. History provides ample precedent.

We now inhabit a international landscape grown vastly more unequal. Influence and wealth are increasingly centralized than ever before. This creates conditions for the privileged to take advantage of the disadvantaged because they perceive themselves as above the law.

The resources of certain ultra-wealthy individuals is difficult to fathom. The influence of big tech, big oil, and large defense contractors extends over numerous countries. AI is poised to centralize economic and political clout further. The military might of the world's largest nations is unprecedented in recorded history.

Enabled by political allies and a pliant supreme court, the executive office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none instrument of government in the modern era.

Consider this confluence and you perceive the danger.

An unbroken thread connects earlier transgressions to ongoing provocations. Both were founded upon the arrogance of omnipotence.

You see much the same in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in coercive diplomacy, and in the global depredation by powerful corporate entities.

However, strength without restraint does not create right. It makes for uncertainty, upended order, and bloodshed.

Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to constrain the influential also shield them. If these guardrails are removed, their endless appetite for increased control and resources eventually bring them down – taking down their corporations, nations, or empires. And risk international catastrophe.

Such disregard for rules will haunt international stability – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.