The Organisation of Freedom: Conflict and Cooperation

 
To talk about citizenship automatically suggests talking about coexistence. We

have already seen the complexity of human life in the previous units; to set out the

citizenship issue cannot be undertaken of the entire person. And a person is basically

communication, society, and being present with and for others. The human being is, as

the ancient Greeks once said, a "social animal".


Referring to society is not making an allusion to something unknown. In the

previous unit we already learnt that the fundamental constitution of society is family,

friends, neighbours, etc. Therefore, society is the group of relationships within which we

move, which allow us to develop and live, even though they may, at times, cause us

difficulties.



We can live in society thanks to the effort of all of its members. Each of us has

a function in society, and we are able to live, and even enjoy, thanks to society and its

social, political and cultural institutions. Society works thanks to rules or laws; they are

not merely tools of oppression, punishment or sanction. Thanks to rules we can do

many things, thanks to rules we can be free as rules give us possibilities. Rules (or

laws) can be compared with paths in the jungle; it could be said that it is annoying that

one should go along these previously drawn paths, that they are inhibiting us, but if it

weren’t for those paths we would not be able to reach the other side or move inside the

jungle. To live our lives immediately suggests that we use the paths and rules that are

given to us and that we give ourselves. Imagine what might happen if every day when

we woke up we had to invent the rules that might be useful for that day (from the most

elementary to the most complex)! Surely we would waste a lot of time (and we wouldn't

get anything done), and even moreso if we imagined that the next day we would have

to invent them all over again. Therefore, it is useful, good and very healthy to use the

rules or paths that are at our disposal. And this does not stop us from questioning some

rules, as nothing guarantees that a path is always valid or that there are no alternative

paths.



On the other hand, human coexistence is not always harmonious or friendly.

There are times when conflict arises. It also happens that there are persons who, by

using the freedom and the possibilities that coexistence offers, act for their own benefit

or interest. They are people who want to impose their point of view and their lifestyle.

Imagine, for example, a thief who steals money from a person, or a terrorist group that

wants to impose its criteria on the majority by using weapons and violence. This is

precisely why the existence of rules and laws is necessary, as they do not only attack

this selfish, unsupportive or violent behaviour, but also, and more importantly, they

guarantee everybody's freedom. This is precisely the function of law: to guarantee

everyone's freedom. The lives of citizens cannot do without rules. We can call this "the

normative dimension of civic responsibility".