The common good can seem a very milky-tea concept — too bloodless for the real world. That suspicion might grow when we realise it is central to Catholic Social Teaching, even if it now more often appears under its more martial name of solidarity.
But for all that it is an important idea, one which we need if we are to make sense of phenomena as disparate as the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) findings on corruption in the awarding of mining licenses, the initial report of the NSW chief scientist on coal seam gas mining, and the daily alarums and excursions in the drugs and footballers epic.
Behind the notion of the common good lies the conviction that human beings are not simply individuals who choose to opt into society, but are social beings who thrive only through their relationships with other human beings. A consequence of this insight is that society needs to be ordered in such a way that the good of each and all of its members is secured, especially of the most disadvantaged.
It follows that all human organisations have social responsibilities that extend beyond the members and shareholders to all whom they affect by their actions, and so to society as a whole. In a word they must serve the common good.
Although the social responsibility of business is often dismissed as a utopian principle, its importance can be seen when it is flouted.
The ICAC report describes corrupt dealings in which a government minister acted to benefit a colleague and a friend in granting a mining license. Four businessmen were also found to have acted corruptly in concealing, for personal gain, relevant information about a company in which they were major investors from the director of a company of which some were also directors.
The heart of this affair is the assumption that representatives of government and members of parliament will not serve their private interests when carrying out their office. Nor will officers of public companies for their individual or group interest conceal information to which others have a right.
People's trust in government and in commerce depends on the respect that their representatives show for the common good. If that trust disappears society will be fragmented. For that reason the corrupt behaviour of business people and of government ministers is seen as a betrayal of trust and is held in public opprobrium. It undermines the common good.
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