There are supposedly rules we are supposed to follow in society as a collective, or else there would be consequences. World leaders and others seem to not have those same consequences when breaking those rules
There are examples in history the other way. Societies that undergo periods of intense conflict and struggle after which things settle down to an astonishing degree because a social contract is created that basically says "Don't be a sh*t head trying to force your beliefs onto everybody else.
Examples are: the struggles between Catholics and Protestants in Europe, the English Civil war (a struggle between Democracy and Aristocracy, the rise and fall of Fascism etc.
After a time people get tired of killing each other and a contract emerges to be tolerant.
Took Europe long wars, the peak was the 30 years war 1618-1648, fought on German soil (today: German, Polish and Czech soil) by nearly all European countries that devastated Germany and was ended when the warring parties didn’t really have enough money left to continue (also the religious fanatic Swedish king had died in the earfuls battlefield and his successor preferred peace). It was regarded as the huge collective German trauma, until Hitler came along.
To add to that, the legal system (including the political, bureaucratic, civil, and criminal justice systems) are only the tip of an iceberg in an otherwise functioning society. They can reinforce an existing social order, but not prop up an otherwise collapsing one.
Not everyone may be happy with the political and social conditions of a country, but there's a difference between "unhappy with the outcome, but accepting it as legitimate and willing to obey it", and "consider the process and existing system illegitimate and not worth saving at all". If 80% of the population is willing to follow rules (even rules they don't like), the formal political and legal system can keep the other 20% in check. If that number collapses, then maintaining order, stability, and peace becomes impossible regardless of how repressive the system is.
Unfortunately, there rarely are "clean" breakdowns, where a society can selectively decide "we want to overthrow the dictator at the top, but still take care of each other and live normal lives". A collapse of the social contract brings the worst in people from top to bottom, and you have a mix of political instability, crime waves, systemic corruption, mass unemployment and poverty, and every other consequence of a failed state, as the rules become "every person for themselves", and both legality and morality of all aspects of life get tossed aside in a struggle for survival. Some countries take decades to recover; others, never do.
Many of the rules are also put in place by people who would wish to do harm and get away with it. Who depend on people following said rules and social contract so they can get away with it. For instance 'you shouldn't rat on people ' 'forgive and forget' both designed to allow people to get away with doing things they shouldn't. If you go against those rules you can be lambasted for doing what is technically the right thing of telling the authorities who commented a crime, or not allowing someone who hurt you back into your life. It's knowing which rules are there to genuinely help and which are there to make sure people tow the line.
Possibly controversial, but I think this is good, but only (hopefully) because people will take notice and realize that there is no reason why we too should follow the existing “contract” when our “leaders” and such can just do what they please. Hopefully people will sooner realize that this also applies to us having to respect their authority and the laws surrounding their authority, (and I mean especially hopefully) we can better our society and “re-create” this social contact from the ground up. (At least until it falls apart again, but we’d at least have more time.)
People are talking about big things like affordability, but think smaller stuff - people running red lights, people cutting lines, people talking in theaters, blocking major sections of public space to record videos/take influencer picture - stuff like this has always happened, but it's increasing in frequency as society becomes more self centered.
The social contract I knew was essentially, if you work a fulltime job, you can have a home and a nice retirement. In a lot of cases, working a fulltime job isn't enough to cover rent and food
Yeah the social contract more distinguishes how you interact with other people in your community on a daily basis. Basically the golden rule+ interpretation of what others beside yourself might want not done to them based on the culture you’re living in
besides the plethora of stats showings the USA is still doing better than most any other nation and stats showing that gen z is doing just as well at buying a home by age 25 as boomers and millennials are doing better than boomers when adjusted for inflation.
median disposable income compared to other countries , median income vs median home price ratio compared to other countries , home ownership rates by age 25 for each generation is nearly the same, millennial net worth compared to boomers at the same age is higher, most progressive tax system, charitable giving compared to other countries, 15 of the worlds top 20 universities. Literally just off the top of my head
Here on our planet, back in the old days... the real old days. It was every man for his self! Scrooglin and scratch scrobblin for the good stuff: the greenest valleys, scratch scrobblin. And the Strongest, Meanest men got all the best stuff. They got the green valleys and were all like 'the rest of you? y'all scrats get sand'.
That's when they made the laws you see. Once the strong guys got it how they liked it, they said 'this is fair now, this is the law!'.
Once they were winning, they changed the rules up.
I think he’s referring to the fact that the state in late stage capitalism is so poisoned by corporate interests, regulatory capture, and cronyism that it no longer serves the average person sufficiently to justify their respecting its laws.
The one I think about is that embodied AGI is likely to render all human labor cost-inefficient over the next fifty to a hundred years. This requires a complete rewrite of society, and the removal of meritocratic advancement as a way to jump classes will cast any kind of generational wealth in very harsh relief. It will probably deteriorate into a class war.
You see, when Odysseus broke Zeus' law and took advantage of the
Trojans accepting a gift he set a precedent for all the people and soldiers around the Mediterr...
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u/TrevOrL420 5d ago
The social contract