The dangers of unchecked power

Throughout history, many leaders have used their influence to bring about positive change and improve the lives of those they serve. Figures such as the late South African freedom fighter and President Nelson Mandela and the late United States President Jimmy Carter, can be counted in that select group.

 

Conversely, history is replete with men who used their political and financial power to destroy and exploit. One stark example is the colonial rule of Belgium’s King Leopold II over the Congo, which remains one of the darkest chapters of European imperialism.

 

Leopold’s personal exploitation of the Congo for its rubber and ivory resulted in untold suffering for the Congolese population. Under his regime, millions were subjected to forced labour, violence, and mutilation, with many losing their lives to punishment, malnutrition, and disease. His actions, driven by personal greed, remain a sobering reminder of the capacity for abuse when power is unchecked.

 

Of course, on the world’s most evil leaders list, you will find Adolf Hitler, a charismatic but deadly, despotic politician. His regime precipitated one of the deadliest conflicts in human history and instigated horrific crimes against humanity, including the systematic murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust. A 2024 blog listing the five worst leaders in history aptly noted: “Humanity has inflicted countless instances of unspeakable cruelty, madness, and horror upon itself. Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany from 1934 to 1945, is among the worst single-person disasters to befall the world. Had he never been born, millions would have escaped an untimely cruel death, and history may have taken a radically different path.”

 

Today, the world continues to witness the dangers of unchecked power as it undergoes one of its most unstable periods in recent history outside of the COVID-19 global pandemic. People are exhibiting significant anxiety and trepidation about what is likely to befall masses of people and the global economy with the actions of a newly elected president of the United States.

 

People have had very little time to adjust to his presence in the seat of power before his domestic policy agenda collided with America’s previously stated foreign policy. At this point, it is difficult to discern who is a friend and who is a foe of the world’s largest economy.

 

The new president holds tremendous power—power that has come from a United States Supreme Court absolving and insulating him from ever being criminally accountable; the power of a trifecta of electoral victories in the White House, Congress, and Senate; and, most importantly, the power that comes from being in control of the world’s largest and most influential economy.

 

His administration has swiftly enacted a series of far-reaching policies — many of which align with the controversial Project 2025 right-wing manifesto — leaving citizens and analysts scrambling to keep up. The sheer volume and sweeping nature of these orders make it difficult to assess their implications before new ones are unveiled.

 

Some of the most striking executive actions include: pardoning and freeing all individuals convicted of participating in the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack; pressuring Colombia to accept military planes full of deportees from the US; prohibiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from issuing public communications; ending all diversity hiring programmes in the federal government; revoking birthright citizenship, a constitutionally protected right; withdrawing the US from the World Health Organisation; ordering the Justice Department to halt all civil rights cases; and suspending and later firing federal workers hired under diversity programmes, except military veterans.

 

In addition, made-for-television raids have been conducted to arrest undocumented individuals—not in border states but in Democratic-led cities like New York, Chicago, and across California.

 

This flurry of actions has left citizens bracing for what may come next. As was the case in his previous administration, the world is left to go to bed each night wondering what the next day will bring. The unsettling reality is that this is only the second week of a four-year term.