The Social Contract

Several forces have converged to make me think about the social contract. In my one history class as we study the Enlightenment, my focus for the class is to have them understand the social contract. Briefly the social contract posits a tacit understanding between the government and the governed so that that an orderly society might ensue.

I googled "social contract" and came up with a variety of videos. Most captivating was the wacko anarchists who appeared to be the only ones to truely understand the concept. But I felt that they railed against a theory which really has changed since we had kings. They point out the inherent contradictions in social contract in that citizens really have no say on whether to sign on to this contract or not. Perhaps the idea is only an idea to put into nice words the reality of governments relationship to the governed. If you are happy with the government, then one will feel good about the "contract". If you are discontented with government as most anarchists are, then the social contract is unfair.

The Internet shows various ways that activists use the term social contract. A left leaning group uses the concept to reevaluate the relationship between workers and a company. What obligations does a company have towards its workers? Another tries to evaluate the success of a government in the way that it provides services to the people. In the health care debate, many are calling universal health care part of the social obligation of the government within social contract theory. Although the terms seems to have lost its relevance in terms of its use by Hobbes and Locke, the public uses the phrase to boost its particular take on sociopolitical problems.

We come to English and I have a choice of books. Lord of the Flies seems to fit the bill in terms of developing an idea of social contract or lack of it. We are reading from the afterward in the book that tells of all the deeper meanings in the book. I am trying to give them some background to understand the forces at work. So first we deal with the Freudian concepts of Id, Ego and Super-Ego. Then we take on the social philosophers of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau.