The Trump Administration’s actions in Venezuela overnight are a clear violation of international law, and a distillation of the era we now live in: the age of lawlessness.
We see this with his capricious exercise of military force,1 the abrogation of long-term commercial contracts,2 and personally enriching deals.3
There is a temptation to argue that this age of lawlessness is specific to Trump and his coterie. That when (/if) elections happen, there will be a restoration of decorum, fidelity to the Constitution, and a revivification of the rule of law.
That is misguided.
The balance of power has proven to be a mirage at all levels.4
The biggest revelation for me in recent years has been the unveiling of American institutions as hollow—a balancing mechanism as weightless as air.
The people who work within them have proven to be feckless in resisting illegal diktats and self-dealing.
It is a vacuum all the way down.
A playground for power.
How does one rebuild a society based upon the rule of law in this environment? One that champions and adheres to rules globally?
I don’t think one does.
Necessity will compel it someday. But not before cataclysm, I fear.
The notion that broad-based, grass-roots movements will reinstantiate the rule of law and a balance of power strikes me as delusional.
In part, this is because corporate power lies outside of democratic accountability. Corporations continuously increase their legibility of citizens and influence legislation in ways citizens can’t.
But it’s also because…what are we even talking about?
What is the Schelling point that will organize an atomized society whose attention is factory farmed? Collective action requires collective attention.
Agreeing upon a menu of policies that ducks the most important question—power—continues the kabuki dance of modern democratic politics, with its extraction from the many to the benefit of a few.
The defining characteristic in this age of lawlessness is well known: the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
Actions have consequences, and it is growing harder to make long-term decisions.
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- Venezuela, Iran, &c. ↩︎
- See, for example, offshore wind ↩︎
- e.g., $trump coin ↩︎
- See, for example, Entropy: The Defining Characteristic of Global Affairs ↩︎