Political values – between contradiction and compatibility

The existence of community has always had an ideological support – placed in the social imagery and in the practices of government – which evokes (and invokes) supreme human goals: freedom, equality and prosperity. Each of these – seen as political values – lives its own tense history, from moments of glory to anthropological failure, seemingly certifying the fact that the limits of the human go way beyond the politicians’ imagination. Each political value may be presented as belonging to the weaponry of the left or of the right, as (absolutely) necessary, sufficient and unique or, on the contrary, as possible, alternative and compatible with the others. Freedom, equality and prosperity seem to share between them the historical ages and the areas of civilisation, building specific identities for them. At the same time, they transcend time and space, claiming “the human” in its deepest meanings.