Symptoms of ROL Failure within Plain Sight
An em-dash publication
Rita Felgate | January 2026
ruleoflaw.science
Something unprecedented to modern times has become increasingly visible worldwide: the failure of reason, rationality and logic (RRL) across and between entire state governance systems.
THE SYMPTOMS DEMAND ATTENTION
Putin: “I’ll take Ukraine in 3 days”
Trump: “I’ll stop the Ukraine/Russian war on day one”
Trump: “I’m Chairman of global ‘Board of Peace’” – while threatening Greenland invasion
Piers Morgan: “UK could take USA back”
Public: “We believe lies to our faces, not factual verification”
Legislature: “We can’t stop Executive transgressions of power”
Judiciary: “We issue orders the Executive flouts”
Superrich elite: “We fix government by destroying institutional knowledge and build and run our own city states”
What escapes attention is why this is occurring simultaneously, across all components of state and across multiple states, leaving people in various stages of disbelief and puzzlement, wondering how the world got this way.
THE PATTERN
Expressions of unreasonable, irrational and illogical exercise of power are treated as inexplicable random examples of behavior driven by the instant—the onset of dementia or psychopathy of leadership, greed of the superrich, irrationality of the public, compromised integrity of officials and so on.
As a pattern, however, they’re expressions and indicators of a broad failure by states whose complexity makes separation of powers necessary, to maintain that separation based on reason, rationality and logic necessary to continuity of state governance.
Those accessing, exercising or influencing power within or between the various components of state (the Public, Legislature, Executive and Judiciary) in ways that fail the test of RRL make the patterns we are observing inevitable.
The critical insight which acknowledging this brings:
Acknowledging the pattern, rather than isolated instances of unreasonableness, irrationality and illogicality. brings a critical insight: failure of the Rule of law (ROL) both explains non-compliance with the ROL and shows the direction to take in preventing further failures.
A further critical insight is that the global superrich and elite within the Public component play an increasingly disruptive role in the emergence of ROL failures—not because they’re uniquely evil or have twisted personalities (although that might be true), but because they have the power and resources to operationalize their defective judgment at scale, beyond the jurisdiction of individual states.
THE DANGEROUS BLINDNESS
Putin commands Russia’s military. He has every resource to verify his “I’ll take Ukraine in 3 days” claim. He apparently genuinely believed it met RRL requirements.
Trump commands billions, tech platforms, and political power. He has every resource to assess Board of Peace structure. He genuinely thinks it passes rationality tests. Does it at the expensive of reason?
Tech billionaires own AI, control information architecture and have every resource to evaluate the outcome of institutional destruction of the state. They genuinely believe their logic is sound.
Musk partners with super-rich elite to build experimental city-states, assuming governance can function without established structures or operational definitions. He genuinely believes states can exist without coordination mechanisms—because information architecture failure prevents him recognizing what makes states work.
They are as blinded by their own RRL failures and ignorance of the ROL as conspiracy theorists and demented leaders are by theirs.
When coordination mechanisms between components of state fail, those with means to operationalize ideas that fail RRL tests become most dangerous because they have the resources to act on defective judgment.
WHY IT’S HAPPENING NOW
Information architecture necessary to operation of the ROL has broken down, prejudicing the fundamental separation of powers of the state:
- The Executive self-authorizes (no Legislative oversight)
- The Public cannot verify the law and their rights and obligations (information systems compromised)
- Legislature checks fail (oversight mechanisms broken)
- Judiciary cannot enforce (boundaries between components of state ignored and Judiciary starts making law)
Result: No reality-testing. No verification. No correction when ROL systems go wrong.
Putin’s generals couldn’t tell him “3 days is impossible.”
Trump’s advisors can’t say “peace chairman while threatening invasion is contradictory.”
Legislature can see DOGE problems but cannot stop them.
When no component can check others, RRL failures compound.
TRANSACTIONALISM AS SYMPTOM
The “Board of Peace” has emerged within this picture of chaos and reveals a pattern towards transactionalism and away from rules-based governance under the ROL:
Its structure reveals:
- Chairman has sole approval authority
- Members vote but chairman decides
- $1 billion buys permanent membership and influence
- Governs foreign territories
It claims to:
- “Restore dependable lawful governance”
- “Promote stability and peace”
- “Depart from approaches that have failed”
The blindness: Advocates of the Board of Peace cannot identify it as dictatorial colonial-like structuring of sovereign independent states in the name of peace, and they genuinely believe “strongest decides” what equals peace.
This belief is an expression of defective judgment operationalized at scale. Treating it as calculated exploitation or pure evil is a misdirection.
THE TRAJECTORY TOWARDS TRANSACTIONALISM
Stage 1: Coordination mechanisms break (information architecture compromised)
Stage 2: RRL failures become visible (across all components)
Stage 3: Transactional “solutions” emerge (Board of Peace)
Stage 4: These accelerate breakdown (bypass remaining coordination)
Stage 5: Catastrophic reconstruction or system collapse
We are at Stage 3.
Those with means—such as the super-rich elite and the knowledge-empowered—are proposing “solutions” that worsen problems. Not from malice, but from blindness as to what needs fixing.
ROL AS PATH TO PEACE
Why transactional approaches fail:
Putin tried transaction: “Ukraine is mine because I’m stronger.”
Failed because reality doesn’t correspond with claims that fail RRL tests.
Board of Peace tries transactional approach: “Peace because strongest will decide.”
Will fail because coordination requires RRL verification, not power assertion.
Why the ROL works:
- Power of the state is limited to established domain and authority
- Coordination of powers of state governance is through verification (not assertion)
- Jurisdictional boundaries between states are maintained, minimizing the risk of interstatal conflicts
- Reality-testing is baked into the ROL DNA (RRL requirements)
- All components can check and must respond to RRL failures by other components
The difference:
Transactional: Putin genuinely thought “3 days” met RRL requirements → failed
ROL: Verification would have revealed impossibility → prevented failure
Transactional: Trump talks the language of a peace chairman by threatening invasion—passes the rationality test → fails the test of reason
ROL: Internal contradiction would be detected → and prevented proposal
Peace between states requires coordination based on reason, rationality, and logic—not on power of those blind to what needs fixing.
THE VISIBLE CHOICE
Two alternative paths lie ahead and they are now clear:
Path 1: Transactional (Board of Peace, “strongest decides”)
→ More actions by the powerful blind to their RRL failures
→ More coordination breakdown and conflict
→ Catastrophic deconstruction and reconstruction
Path 2: Rules-based ROL (RRL verification requirements maintained)
→ Reality-testing catches RRL failures early
→ Coordination mechanisms restored
→ Systems return to functional
It is the symptoms that enable us to visualize which path we are on.
When:
- billionaires propose dictatorial colonial-like governance and call it “peace”,
- the Executive destroys institutional knowledge and calls it “efficiency”,
- the Legislature recognizes obvious RRL failures but cannot check them, and
- the public cannot make sense of what is going on,
that is the transactional trajectory.
But when:
- the Public component (including billionaires) cannot over-influence what laws the Legislature passes or how the Executive applies them,
- the Executive maintains and builds institutional knowledge, preserving capacity across transitions,
- the Legislature successfully checks Executive RRL failures through oversight and power of purse, and
- information architecture enables the public to verify claims and understand what is happening,
that is Rule of Law-based coordination at work.
The Board of Peace meets this week to establish transactional “peace” as global norm. But the choice between paths remains visible.
Those with the power and means to fix things are blind to what needs fixing—because they too have lost reason, rationality, and logic. They are not immune, as we can see..
The ROL is the path back to governance systems where reason, rationality, and logic function, where RRL failures get caught before they compound into state capture, and where peace comes from coordination, not from power.
|The choice ahead is visible now. Completely visible.
Contact: ruleoflaw.science
An em-dash publication responding to current developments through Science-based Rule of Law framework analysis.
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