Enrique Miguel Sánchez Motos
Senior Civil Servant
Probably many of us were sensitive to the well-known motto of the French Revolution, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, which the revolution itself failed to comply with, in a tragic way, when it used the guillotine as an instrument to eliminate liberty, equality and fraternity, during the biennium of the Terror.
That slogan, which sounds so good, has become outdated as inaccurate and inapplicable. It is necessary to replace the word Equality by Justice, in order to avoid the crimes that, in the name of it, have been carried out. The new motto would be Liberty, Justice and Fraternity. Freedom is inalienable as a starting point. If human beings are deprived of the freedom to think, express their opinions, communicate, move or make their own decisions, they cease to be human. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is based on the recognition of the inherent dignity of the human being, which is manifested in a series of specific rights. This Declaration, which was not supported by the USSR or by the countries of Eastern Europe, already under the Communist yoke, was in our era the true social philosophical starting point for the society of the future.
Freedom is a key principle, but as we live in human society it is clear that our freedom as individuals leads us down different paths, depending on our personal and social circumstances. We do not have the same freedom as children as we do as adults, which is so obvious and natural that we all assume it. Moreover, freedom, and the degree to which it is exercised, can be expanded and developed as we grow up. It will also be influenced by the circumstances that surround us and by the circumstances that we ourselves create. It is not, nor will it ever be, an absolutely defined and limited package because each one, depending on his own characteristics and decisions, will develop it in one way or another in his life.
Equality is a value that is often misinterpreted. The only equality that fits is the respect to Freedom and Justice, as well as to the social equality of opportunities, but beyond that, Equality is impossible. To pretend otherwise would lead us to oppression and would be contrary to Freedom. The exercise of our freedom leads us to be unequal since almost our childhood. We are not all Pavarotti, Messi or Einstein. Our different qualities, and the use we make of them, make us unequal. Equality with those around us quickly disappears even within our own family. Some live in the city center, others near their place of work, others choose to live outside the city, others telework, others have a car of a certain make, others have given up on having a car and prefer to rent one, etc. All this creates, for us and for our descendants, inevitable, logical and acceptable inequalities. What is unrenounceable is Equality before the principle of Freedom and the principle of Justice, but it is not possible to demand equal results and therefore equal material or moral rewards. The use of Liberty and the application of the principle of Justice make us different.
The value of Justice has a very simple and clear definition, to give to each his own. But what belongs to each one? We start from something natural common to all how is the fact of being human, but from there the use of our own freedom, the circumstances that happen to us, whether by natural causes or accidents or coincidences, derive in inequalities in height, beauty, intelligence, the ability to sing, to play soccer, etc, and from them in different social circumstances such as where we live, what car we have, what work we develop. Therefore, it can be said that the principle of Equality is subordinated to the principles of Freedom and Justice. From this point on, the differences between human beings are and will be inevitable because we are not robots, all made equal, but we have and develop personal specificities that give color to life and make it different and special. Freedom is a principle inherent to our human nature. Justice is a principle that recognizes the correspondence between actions and results, that wants to give to each one his own, and that works both at the individual and social level, in that it recognizes our possessions and properties and, sometimes, our personal development (profession or career that we are developing) and that, at the same time, demands from us what we should contribute to society according to the social norms that are in force
Regarding the value of Fraternity, it is worth mentioning that it has a special nature, because although it is embodied in the social plane, fraternity has the special characteristic that it is not demandable to the human being, nor regulable as the norms of social justice can be. Fraternity is a manifestation of the human being of a higher degree, of voluntary character, characterized by a loving action that begins in the family and that extends to the family, in a broad sense, that surrounds us. If the value of Fraternity is assumed voluntarily, and cannot be assumed in any other way, human society begins to be perceived as a context in which it is possible to experience harmony, beyond the rules and norms. The value of Fraternity reinforces the sense of permanence and, instead of leading us merely to a world of obligations and rights, it makes us members of a great family that transcends the ties of kinship and that can and must include neighbors, the people, the nation and the whole world. This is the great key value to be developed in the Aquarian age and which, in essence, coincides with the revolutionary message humanity received 2000 years ago.
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