We often hear of well-known people declaring what they wish to leave as their legacy, including some of the worst criminals in the world. A much more interesting question is to ask ourselves what each one of us wishes to leave as his or her legacy. Some well-known persons make thundering declarations on the subject while still young, rather like the autobiographies written by youthful pop-stars, whereas others leave it until they have reached a reasonably advanced age.
The question came to me when realising that my age and state of health mean that I am clearly not much longer for this world, and my preliminary answer is perhaps excessively simple.
Having spent most of my life as a lawyer, absolutely devoted to justice as the foundation of any form of society, I would personally like to leave a legacy of action of any and every sort in favour of justice everywhere and for every single human being. This inevitably led me on to the next question which is to work out how can I do this. I do not yet know with absolute precision, and I am constantly working hard in the hope of finding better answers, but it is clear that we must speak out whenever we come across injustice to condemn it without hesitation. Every single one of us has the possibility of having some effect on someone else. The constant reiteration of such condemnation thus becomes necessary in the hope that this message might eventually get through to those who otherwise refuse to take the slightest interest in justice or who, as in so many cases of which we are all far too well aware, consider that justice is in specific cases either inconvenient or impracticable. This latter is the worst situation, but many of us have almost given up hope of overcoming this terrible desire to avoid justice where it does not suit someone's greed for money, property and/or power. In any case, our efforts in favour of justice should always lead us on to actions in every field of life.
Having satisfied myself that justice is a most useful and essential means of achieving the best for all, my mind then moved on to consider what should happen in politics, and it is obviously easiest for me to relate this to our situation here in France. Firstly, every person seeking political office should be a true republican, in the sense that he or she should be prepared at all times to act for the benefit of the res publica, which can best be described as being the genuine interest of all those whom he or she wishes to serve and rule (two concepts which should always go together). Secondly, every such candidate should accept the need for a real democracy within which the demos includes everyone without exception, discrimination or exclusion, and this should lead to unwavering support for government of the people, by the people and for the people (as is stated in the last paragraph of Article 2 of our Constitution). Thirdly, each of these hopefuls should do what he or she can to promote freedom, whereby the ordinary person remains sufficiently free to make such choices as enable him or her to make the most of every opportunity in life, but, in every civilised state, every person should also be as fully as possible protected from sickness and other unexpected and undeserved mishaps.
Unhappily, we hear many politicians mouth the words 'justice' and 'freedom' while meaning the opposite, since what they really want is to make those under their rule conform to the ruler's idea of how their subjects should behave, and even believe. The examples of this are so obvious that I do not need once more to give the names of the worst criminals.
I therefore hope that my legacy will be to have brought at least some unthinking persons to realise the need and value of justice for all, with the resulting advantage of helping to bring all peoples everywhere in the world closer to genuine freedom and democracy, which latter may well take different forms in different countries and societies. If I can manage this, I might thereby have led some persons to escape from the enslavement of materialism, the terrible curse which comes to us from the worship of that evil thing known to the ancients as Mammon. I much prefer to trust in a loving and merciful God, as do not only true followers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but also followers of many other faiths. It also cannot be denied that many men and women who have not found any such belief have managed to break away from subjection to this slavery, but it seems to me that this must require much more effort on their part.
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