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Javier Gomá, Director of the Juan March Foundation, PhD and counsel to the Spanish Council of State, recently delivered a lecture at ESADE on the concept of privacy. “The artificial compartmentalisation of public and private life in terms of morality is abhorrent to the concept of exemplary," declared Mr. Gomá. “We’re led to believe that we need only be ethical in public, whereas in private it is enough to be authentic." Mr. Gomá argued that this belief is mistaken: “The problem arises in the moral realm: how to make socially responsible use of this broad area of privacy and how to coexist." He concluded that “it is impossible to separate public life from private life, since mere compliance with the law – as required in public life – is not enough. There is something more, without which we cannot coexist: exemplarity."

Mr. Gomá spoke at length about exemplarity, calling it “the concept that shapes all premodern culture, and which means ‘reliability’". Exemplary, he said, is “something we demand from politicians, above and beyond legal requirements and the division between public and private life". He added: “The truly important thing about a politician is his private life, because if he is exemplary in private, he will be in all other areas, as well.¿ Mr. Gomá characterized any attempt to escape from the network of mutual influences as impossible. “We all set an example for each other", he said, before adding: “Excellent examples cause a guilty conscience, and faced with that, we have three options: first, imitate the example; second, explain why a particular rule does not apply to us; or third, resentfully discredit the example."

Mr. Gomá also addressed the excess of rules in today’s society: “Individuals are bombarded with so many rules from so many different sources. You either have to be a little tolerant with yourself or you have to spend your whole life following rules, without thinking about anything else." Instead, he argued: “Be yourself, be an individual, be different, contrary to every rule. If we do that, then reaching adulthood and choosing the lifestyle we want, without public interference, is a huge moral conquest."

The session was also attended by economist Elena Pisonero and José Luis Álvarez, Professor in the Department of Business Policy at ESADE.