A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

ical up to the point of accepting human practices more in keeping with
Jesus Christ’s evangelical proposal than those practiced in Christian
churches? If we do not have the capacity to perceive and celebrate the
presence and acts of God, – prior to the arrival of the preachers of His
Word –, in the ways of life of the millenary peoples of America, as well
as in the peoples that preserved the wealth of African cultures and of
other peasant cultures, it turns difficult, if not impossible, to accept what
has been lived and proposed through the concept of Good Living.
THE COMMON GOOD OF HUMANITY AND GOOD LIVING
Which are the connections between what one seeks in the Common
Good of Humanity and Good Living? Would Good Living be a result of
the validity of the Common Good of Humanity, or would it be a path to
guarantee this Common Good?
If we take into account the four basic characteristics of the world focused
on the Common Good of Humanity, as elaborated in François
Houtart’s text: 1) to redefine the relations with Nature, of the exploitation
of respect as a source of life, 2) to reorientate the production of life, favoring
practical use over exchange value, 3) to reorganize collective life
through the generalization of democracy in social relationships and in institutions,
4) to institute multiculturalism in the construction of the universal
Common Good, we can declare that these values are already
present in the life of indigenous peoples and that they are part of what
those peoples continue seeking for their lives.
Through this we want to emphasize that Good Living has been the standard
practice of indigenous peoples long before it became a proposal of
society for the 21 st century. At the same time, we want to highlight the
concrete processes through which the peoples practicing Good Living
enter through the door of Western democracy and modify it through the
progressive introduction of the values present in their ways of living.
Therefore, on carrying out changes in the environment of their territories,
they create new conditions in their ways of Good Living.
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