ON COMMON GOOD, VIRTUE AND THE MARXIST UTOPIA: FROM POLITICAL MIMESIS TO THE SACRIFICIAL CRISIS

Abstract

This paper proposes a philosophical-theological reflection on the concepts of virtue and the common good in contrast with the disintegrating effects of the Marxist utopia in modern society. It observes that the twentieth century was marked by a crisis of political and civil structures, caused by ideological adherence to forms of political messianism that fragmented the social fabric and obscured the understanding of the ethical and metaphysical foundations of human coexistence. Longo argues that, in order to avoid a merely ideological or moralistic reading of these concepts, it is necessary to return to a gnoseological perspective that recovers their original and transcendent meaning. The analysis thus proposes a path that unites the philosophical and theological dimensions, guided by two central questions: how is it possible to love one’s enemies and do good to those who hate us, and what is truth? These questions function as hermeneutical keys for understanding the collapse of political mimesis — in which collective desire turns into rivalry — and the ensuing sacrificial crisis that characterizes modernity. The study therefore seeks to reconstruct a vision of the common good grounded in virtue and the recognition of otherness, overcoming both moral reductionism and the utopian illusions that replace the ethical and spiritual dimension of political life with ideological simulacra.