Political Health: What Is That?
Here I explain what I mean by political health and what ethical principles and values I believe it is based on.
Political health is an integral part of my concept of holistic health. It stands alongside the other dimensions of health, such as physical health.
Where physical health is about the body, political health is about power.
Just as there can be physical unhealth and disease, there can also be political unhealth and disease.
Just as physical health is based on principles and values, so is political health.
In my experience, political debate almost always skips the basic principles and values of political health. It ends up becoming a power struggle of 'us' versus 'them' instead of a common front for a set of ethical principles and values.
Therefore, allow me to start the debate on what principles and values political health is (or should be) based on:
Truth
Human equality
Justice and righteousness
Freedom and liberty
Peace
Transparency
In my opinion, a person is politically healthy when they have developed sufficient awareness of these principles and values and when they translate ethics into concrete action, i.e. go from being an observer to being an actor. If many people do a little, it can add up to a lot.
The middle step is to develop insight into the concrete ways in which visible and invisible power and authority play out in society today. It is particularly important to raise awareness of invisible power.
The different values and principles interact with each other. Example: The obvious consequence of the principle of human equality is democracy. But democracy is useless if it is not genuine (i.e. violates the principle of truth) or if political information is controlled by the government or rich people.
What do you think?
