Since humans lived in a society, they have implemented some kind of political system, in order to regulate their way of living. Over the millenia there have been dozens of different kind of political systems, ranging from forms of autocratic goverment to other kinds toanocracy to democracy to even anarchy. But even though the political system has changed , it has done so on pair with the enviroment it had to regulate and was sourrounded by. This brings up a question: is politics even necessary in such a profoundly changed world?
I think that, altough someone could argue that politics is unnecessary, every form of social living needs a system to regulate interactions between people and their enviroment and so, unless someone is living on his own, and therefore out of society in a way that doesn’t need any rule to regulate interactions because they are non-existent, politics is a cornerstone of society while also being a byproduct and a necessary component of society itself. Having now made clear not only the importance, but also the inevitability of politics in a society, I’m asking to myself: why does such a foundamental part of our lifestyle feel so distant and unnecessary? Is it our way of doing politics too old for our ever changing world?
We now see, with few exceptions, a political world dominated by a vast majority of senior people. In the past the elderly were a precious element of preservation for culture and customs, and they still have this critical role today, and also a necessary step to explain and introduce to world the younger generations via their deep knowledge of the way the world and society and enviroment work. But, even though in the past this social function of the elderly was a necessary step of society, nowadays the older generations generally feel very detached form the actual ever-changing present world. This is, most probably, a consequence of a even more connected world that, by having more and more different and always new influences coming every day, making the socio-political and economic situation always shifting and changing never been able to settle for a long, stable and univocal way of perceiving the wolrd and so being able to direct policies accordingly. This inability of the older generations to adapt to our new world has made their societal view of the world stale and by consequence also their political frame. So what are the solutions?
One may simply propose to overthrow our current “ruling” class and put in place a new, and younger, plethora of politicians, but will this solve our problems with modern day politics? Probably not. Of course , it would be anacronistic and utterly insane to promote systems that have already done their time and are now a relic in the way of progress but, as politics has always evolved, changing in time , according to changes in society is only obvious to predict the need of a new way of doing politics. A new deep change of direction in purposes and goals is needed to bring politics back from a dead point again in society , in the place it has always and should always hold: a tool created by people for people and in service of everyone’s greater good.
By Alfredo Maria Falletti VCC
