Opinion articles

The traditional concept of nation, which refers to a cohesive human group, entails the presence of some elements that are inherent to it, such as sharing the same ethnic origin, historical and cultural references, territory and a language.

We have not managed to build that emotion or feeling of belonging and connection with shared foundations. Our story is one of separation and mutual exclusion. The long-awaited unity, latent aspiration of all of us who inhabit the territory of the State, escapes us due to our traditional inability to look at the collective and build a social, political and economic identity from the diverse point of view, which manifests itself, on the contrary, spontaneously in certain circumstances, such as when we celebrate the international successes of compatriots, and in others in which the pride of being Ecuadorians shows haughty when they want to offend us.

But, if we want it to be, of course we will turn to them, manifesting ourselves as we do not in other spaces. This possibility is assumed by many, especially by those who use it to exercise their desire to say what they want without reservations or reservations of any kind and rather from anger and the need to shout their disagreement, their rebellion, their complaint against the system and against the people. There are almost no limits and for this reason, the expression in networks is for many the summit of freedom and must be lived because the norms and containment, for them, is the imprisonment of the individual that as such should be the ultimate and greatest objective of any model of coexistence and not the grouping, nor the responsibilities of each one in front of the others, derived from the organized coexistence.

In some Ecuadorian law schools, the final year students of that degree must take a workshop or course on professional ethics and deontology. It is a wise decision of the university authorities because the future lawyers, in addition to their practices in the free legal offices, reflect on the behavioral references of the profession and understand them in light of national and foreign cases and circumstances. It goes without saying that these references point to the highest levels of ethics, such as notorious honesty, loyalty to clients and the search for justice in all cases in which they intervene. The profile defined for lawyers requires exemplary behavior against all the norms of coexistence: moral, social treatment, courtesy, cultural and, above all, against the legal ones that are the quintessence of organized human sociability.

Criteria and ideas that are positioned and consolidated socially without analysis of their foundations and consequences. Humanity, here and there, dazzled by what acquires media coverage, which is never neutral and responds to the interests of those who do know what they want by proposing approaches-truths that become dogmas that add followers who become hostile, aggressive and thoughtless, who defend them to the last consequences. For the fulfillment of this objective, all action is legitimate, such as being aware of those who think differently to attract their attention, make them see their error - of course, because those ideas do not coincide with theirs - and, if they do not rectify, eliminate them by the health and validity of the unique thought, the maximum expression of its stubborn dogmatism that devastates its opponents regardless of the damage that is caused in the lives of these individuals and their families. All totalitarianisms have proceeded in the same way. It has always been like this.

The devastating corruption in societies and civilizations is related to many factors. Some are constitutive and others are part of nearby scenarios that allow it to manifest itself in its different forms and gradations. The fight against dishonest actions perverted by coexistence systems has the same complexity of the phenomenon itself and must be conceived and implemented considering this broad dimension. Immediately I mention three social areas related to corruption and which are objectives of citizen action in their desire to counter civic dishonesty. From the legal perspective, the issuance of adequate laws is required, with sufficient and appropriate sanctions so that the typified transgression is punished in a timely manner and fully by the system of administration of justice. The social perspective requires policies and actions that seek equity and justice for all, at the economic, social security, health and cultural levels, among others. Education, as a specific and essential area, should be directed to training for coexistence, respect for others and the environment, to strengthen the collective understanding of the importance of connecting citizens with the duties inherent in themselves and with the search for personal transcendence as a way of contributing to the collective good.