Common good and human rights

To a very large degree, one of the most important issues that we have to address in the larger society is what constitutes a Common Good and if there even is such a thing.  When understanding the different intercultural and social relationships that are embedded in the society, I do come to see and consider the very existence of a common good.  This to me is attributed as a property or an element that benefits the most members of the society rather than just a very few.  This very discussion of what comes to constitute the common good is based on the very notion that there are a number of values or elements of our society that should benefit everyone.

A good example of such a common good property is ensuring that all members are given or assigned equal rights, liberties and freedom.  During times of elections, the common good principle could be seen or invoked when all members of the eligible society would have the benefit to cast their vote and then to decide for the political candidate that they would want to have.  With the same token in mind, another example of the common good is when the government would want to allocate some sort of a resource or benefit that will permeate to the entire society.

This could be seen if and when the government provides free education to all the children rather than those that stay in urban versus rural location.  Therefore, from this ongoing discussion, we can see that yes, there is such a thing as the Common Good and this is that factor that will take into account yet rightfully address the needs and the demands of all the members of our larger society.  When we are speaking about human rights, we can address that on the basis of the sort of a contract or a relationship that the society has with the elected government.

When people vote and select the government of their choosing, they also seem to be engaged in some sort of a contract with the government.  The citizens are asserting that they are selecting governmental members of power but on the other side, the government should then sort of take the oath of ensuring that they would pass the right laws and legislation to be able to protect yet conserve the essential rights of all of the citizenry.

Human rights therefore, has a very strong and proportional type of a relationship that could be found with the common good.  If and when common good issues are addressed which benefit everyone in our larger society, there should also be an incremental benefit to upholding the fundamental human rights of everyone.  For example, if the common good is to provide basic education for free to everyone, that also entails that it should be the basic human right of every single member of that society to earn that education and to use that in creating a prosperous future.  So both the common good and having human rights should be considered as basic yet fundamental principles in our larger society.  Citizens should be made aware of the very notion that there are a number of basic and fundamental human rights that they are all entitled to.  These could be the rights of freedom of religion, freedom of speech and so forth.  If and when such rights are allocated to all the members of the larger society, we then also come to assume that it is also benefitting the common good because now everyone is treated on the same page and in the same equal manner.