Speaking of ecology and politics we often think about how to protect the environment and that’s fine. But not enough thought is given to how politics, ideology and power affect our human ecology, the environment in which we live.

In a society, different individuals, families and groups have common interests such as quality of education, air and water, safety from violence and not be swindled or be unjustly deprived of property. The set of institutions that structure legal, civil, political and cultural aspects of social life is ordered to those interests, that is, to the Common Good. A key part of this is that there is a rule of law based on principles of justice and respect for the dignity and fundamental rights of every human being.

Because people also have particular interests and needs, they usually group to pursue those interests. The set of interest groups competing and interrelated in complex ways nourishes much of politics. They generate ideologies, seek to lobby and use all mechanisms of power to achieve their goals. Habermas says that political differences should not be solved simply by majority vote but with discussion sensitive to truth; and Rawls insists that we should not arrive to mere transactions between competing interests but rather on principles of justice.

When the political debate ignores the truth, justice and the common good, it comes down to power struggles or the law of the strongest as well predicted Nietzsche. This trend is increasing, not only in our country but as a global phenomenon. Lying, manipulation and corruption become common and politics is discredited to citizens. This raises a climate of cynicism and distrust. We no longer expect anything good from government.

Interestingly, the same Machiavelli who said that politics and morality have no connection, opens a way to a solution: “A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead such a life contrary to his example.” Again, the core of the answer is the free man, you and me, choosing the demanding path of being a good man.