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The national and international initiatives – including the effort to overturn the election previously to current actions and statements – undermine both national and global legal frameworks. However, the issue goes deeper.

These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of civilization itself.

A guiding principle of any advanced culture is to forestall the dominant from attacking and exploiting the less powerful. Without this, we risk being trapped in a brutish war where survival of the strongest could survive.

This principle is central of America’s founding documents. This is also the foundation of the global system established after WWII championed by the America, built on international cooperation, popular sovereignty, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

Yet, it is a vulnerable construct, easily violated by those who choose to misuse their power. Preserving it necessitates that the those in charge have enough integrity to refrain from seeking temporary advantages, and that society ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Unchecked strength does not equal right. It makes for instability, disruption, and war.

Every time people or corporations or countries that are advantaged attack and exploit those that are weaker, the structure of civilization weakens. Should such behavior are not contained, the system fails. Allowing it to persist, the world can fall into disorder and conflict. It has happened before.

Our current reality is a global community marked by extreme inequality. Authority and resources are more concentrated than ever before. This invites the privileged to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they feel untouchable.

The wealth of a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals is almost beyond comprehension. The power of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace extends over much of the globe. Artificial intelligence is could further concentrate resources and influence to a greater degree. The military might of the major powers is unprecedented in the annals of time.

Supported by a compliant faction and a sympathetic high court, the executive office has been transformed into the supreme and answerable-to-none agent of the state in the modern era.

Put it all together and you grasp the looming crisis.

An unbroken thread links past transgressions to present-day threats. These were founded upon the arrogance of invincibility.

You see a similar pattern in the actions of other powers: in military conflicts, in expansive ambitions, and in the worldwide exploitation by powerful corporate entities.

However, unfettered might does not establish right. It makes for uncertainty, upended order, and war.

Historical evidence demonstrates that frameworks designed to check the influential also safeguard them. Absent these limits, their relentless pursuit for increased control and resources eventually lead to their downfall – along with their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten world war.

This blatant disregard for rules will haunt international stability – and indeed civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.