Il politico, un modo fondamentale di essere

Wisława Szymborska’s poem in a subtle ironic way attributes “political” to everything in our life. But is the political the interpretative category of our existence, indeed? Why is the politics so often associated with the negative aspect of reality? The main reason is that the language we use is polluted by various ideologies and the political as the adjective becomes contrasted with social or civic, thus loosing its original meaning. The person, that is ideologically biased, should translate Greek politikòn as relational rather than social or civic. Everyone has his/her indispensablerelational nature: has some relations with himself/herself, with the others – persons and groups; as a person open to the transcendence – has relations with God; and with the nature – the environment where he or she lives. One can be an integral person only if he/she was aware of the possible relations: fulfill them and harmonize them, understanding their interdependencies. This is not only reason that controls our relations, they are also controlled by emotions which are very complex phenomena. Pascal would say: “The heart has its reasons, whereof reason does not know.” Emotions arise because of the way the event is perceived not because of the event itself. In a political sphere this is not the institution that determines the emotions, rather the way the institution is experienced and perceived. The human being is something bigger than we can explain. It is inexplicable because it is a mystery. Therefore, when we talk about the human being, the language of a specialist is not enough-we should use other forms of communications, taken from poetry, art and spirituality.