It is strange that while philosophers like Jurgen Habermas, a modernist sociologist with a neo Marxian bent, who however does not like the vicissitudes of post-modernism, are trying to laud Christian virtues, others in Malta and other parts of the world are trying very hard to build a society with no foundations at all except those that allow everyone to do as they please without any responsibility towards themselves or society at all. This travesty of reason and natural law is the result of so-called existentialism where man tries to break free of his own essence and live a life where he does what he feels pleases him. St Augustine says that man is everywhere and in everything, seeking to be happy even by constantly doing that which makes him unhappy.

Imagine that you are looking at your image in a full-length mirror. Imagine that your own image now decides to say that it no longer wants to follow the template of your own real self, your essence! Of course what the existence the image will reflect and will then follow does not have the least bearing of what your real self is. It becomes alien to you and one can no longer say that what your image is doing now corresponds to the essence of itself, to you. The image becomes an existence separated and devoid of its own essence and may never reflect the true self. It is destined to become inconsequential, to reflect nothing being itself just an image of the truth, not truth itself. It is like the existentialists! This is the mistake that existentialists make. They try to do things and be happy in ways that do not reflect the real essence of man and, consequently, they may never be happy or as happy as they should really be.

I mentioned last week that Kierkgaard and Dostoyevsky are existential exceptions to this rule because the image in the mirror, in their case, empties itself of the essence of the imperfect man only to conform itself to God and his laws or word. However, since imperfect man is but an image of God himself, the image which now conforms itself to the image of God does not in any way detract from the image’s essence of man himself, but in effect can only strengthen this essence. However, all other existentialists only really create a sense of the false freedom essential for man’s ultimate unhappiness.

Habermas states quite crudely that in all the sociological experiments that man has carried out in society especially in the post enlightenment period, nothing has ever come to compare to or replace the Judaic virtue of justice and the Christian virtue of charity or love, agape love that is. This in itself coming from a man who has spent his life looking for philosophical answers and seeking the solutions in Marxism, is quite a turn. Maltese society ought to learn from these experiences because if it does not, it will simply be condemned to repeat the same mistakes man has done in the past. No amount of human rights parlance and clamour is going to stop man from ultimately breaking the most fundamental human rights issues like that of the absolute right to life, unless we find our true essence. We have seen this in the recent past in Auschwitz and Birkenau; we see it today in the unfettered destruction of human life in its most vulnerable stages.

Political parties in Malta are seeking to change with the times, to become more open to new thinking, to remain attractive to the majority of the electorate. This is a natural process and is not wrong in itself. However, in seeking this openness they must not make one fundamental mistake. To accommodate sections of people who feel excluded and discriminated is good; to create new structures in society to respond to the needs of people who are what they are due to no fault of their own, to make society more inclusive rather than exclusive are all in themselves very good things. However, to try to do all these things by losing the real essence of man, as described in Etienne Gilson’s and Jacques Maritain’s books, and fall into the trap of opportunist progressivism, would in effect lead simply to the establishment of an existentialist philosophy in government, which contradictorily is finally there to serve the essence of man. What is the image of man without its real essence? It is just a limp caricature of real essence leading to a limp caricature of man in social politics.

A real political party should seek to open its doors to the participation of all people regardless of background, colour creed or situation. It should ensure the same membership rights for all regardless. It should build on the concepts of justice as understood in its many ramifications of fairness but always accessible to natural reason. It should be constructed on the virtues of love and solidarity; it should be built on the freedom of subsidiarity; it should shoulder the proper stewardship of creation; it should engender a communitarian economy respectful always of the third sector in society; it should build on credibility, on reality, on respect for the truth and, not least, it must engender trust which could be progressively lost over the years. By the time this article appears in the press, the PN would be well on its way to choosing a new leader. If it wants to be elected as quickly as possible to govern, it has to rebuild these values, which have successively been watered down over the years due to the onus of government. It has to show that it really is a People’s Party; it has to show that its real motivation is to build a society with the foundation built on man’s real image of which there is only one. Reason shows us what this image is, often with the help of revelation. It will be a great party only if, in the final analysis, it is true to the man it has to serve.

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