Ever since I'm consciously aware of my place in society, roughly the late 1970s, I've been witness to the slow death of the common good. I'm not even sure if younger people are aware of its meaning or existence...
source: Wikipedia
Today I got news that two major hospitals in the capital of the Netherlands are bankrupt. Patients treatments will be postponed, they are all being transported to other hospitals, all employees lost their jobs and new patients are being sent back to their general practitioners. This is something that would be unthinkable in this country back in the 1970s and 1980s; back then, hospitals, schools, universities and children's playgrounds were seen as part of the common good, property of society as a whole, as opposed to private goods, property of individuals.
In philosophy, economics, and political science, the common good (also commonwealth, common weal or general welfare) refers to either what is shared and beneficial for all or most members of a given community, or alternatively, what is achieved by citizenship, collective action, and active participation in the realm of politics and public service.
source: Wikipedia
Now, let me ask you all: when children need a safe place to play, when someone needs to be healed, or when our children need to be educated, is the first question to pop in your head "who benefits from this?" Do these tasks need to be performed by individuals that want to make a profit first? Should a children's hospital or playground even be allowed to go bankrupt, to be written of as a liability?
Apparently many do believe this, as we've consistently voted for politics that advocate for ever more privatization. The free market was the answer to all questions we had and politics that tried to defend the common good were laughed of the stage. "What, are you a bloody socialist?" No, I'm not, but I do believe all men (and women) are equal, created or evolved. And the ultimate safeguard for this commonly accepted fact of nature should be the law of the nation. In every language there's a way to say that "no one is above the law." But the crisis of 2007 / 2008 has shown us that even that safeguard is lost to us; some sociopath filthy rich grab-a-lot banksters obviously are above the law.
This is one of the hospitals in Amsterdam that were declared bankrupt. source: Wikimedia Commons
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country, and a thousand sayings that basically mean the same are a clear and simple reminder of the fact that each and every one of us owes the society they are part of. That's what "common good" actually is; it's the unwritten and unspoken realization in each of us that some things are just not done, and some other things are mandatory. When you visit a public meeting in a public place, no one has to write you a note saying that you should not write on the walls of the auditorium, you just know you're not supposed to do that. At least I hope you still do; times are changing fast.
It's frustrating to know that we as a species are capable of true greatness; paradise on earth is within reach people. No one has to suffer poverty or hunger. Everyone on the planet can own a color tv and an internet connection. Fresh drinkable water is a right, not a good for sale and there's no rational reason why not everyone on earth has fresh drinkable water. If you believe the planet is overpopulated, then your first goal should be to make an end to poverty; birth rates are lowest in the richest regions.
It is in all our best interest if we start believing in the common good again, if we start to rediscover the whole we're part of, so we can see that what is good for the whole is also good for us individually. Everyone wants and needs doctors, teachers, food and drink. All of us need a place to live and we all need a community of people around us, unless we want to return to our days as hunter-gatherers. I would like us all ti strive for a world in which hospitals can never again go bankrupt.
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