“Returning to a religious image, we can read in the Book of Job that: “In the elderly is wisdom, and in the breadth of days the understanding”. In other words, wisdom is with the “older ones” – with those who have greater “age”, and thus greater capacity of the Soul. (Job, 12:12)
Of course, it is an allegory to those of greater inner maturity, or Soul’s maturity, and not to the mere chronological age of the body, as we can read in the Book of Wisdom: “Venerable old age is not longevity, nor is measured by the number of years; the gray hairs of man are intelligence, and old age an immaculate life”. (Wisdom, 4:8-9)
But this can only be judged in a dignified, fair and competent way by the community if there is the necessary freedom and the necessary equality of opportunity. Other than that, where can we find dignity and justice? And without dignity and justice, we can forget about harmony and peace. In the Bible, among other passages, this is also implicit in the teaching of the Perennial Philosophy contained in the passage that says: “Seek therefore, first, his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew, 6:33) Of course, this phrase has many levels of meaning, but it also applies to the fundamental conditions of social organization, the political organization of societies and, therefore, of a fair process of how to choose the leaders.
In this process, I repeat, it is important to take into account that the electoral college needs to be small – if it is large, the money, goods and material power, the electoral machine, the mass communication and its sellers will always speak louder.
The electoral college must not harm the justice of equal opportunities, and must be adapted to the level of conscience of the people, that is, the problems and issues to be examined and decided must not go beyond the scope of the level of understanding or the scope of the consciences of that electoral college. And this cannot be achieved outside of small and gradually scaled electoral colleges, where this adequacy can be maintained, along with freedom and equality of opportunity. Apart from that, that is, without justice, we can forget about social harmony.” [Arnaldo Sisson Filho; with Viviane Pereira. A Roda e a Cruz: Uma Introdução ao Cristianismo Budista – Segunda parte do sexto capítulo (The Wheel and the Cross: An Introduction to Buddhist Christianity – Second part of the sixth chapter)]