First Principles - The role of Government part 2

Yesterday we had a short discussion of the social contract, and I suggested that this concept is quite a bit wider than Hobbes or Locke ever used.  In short I suggested that the social contract, in its broadest sense, covers all our expectations of how we (and everyone else) should relate to society.

Let's think about that for a moment.  For I feel this notion can explain a lot of the things we find hard to comprehend about our society.  

Each of us carries about a social contract.  Every one of these contracts is different.  Maybe greatly different, maybe subtly different, but every one is different.  These social contracts include our expectations of behavior, both our own and others.  It defines how each of us relate to society and how we expect everyone else to relate to society.  

Now I'm not suggesting that this is a well-written document floating around in your brain, with sections and sub-paragraphs.  This idea is simply a metaphor for our expectations about society.  If it was a document, a real contract, it would be hundreds of pages long and full of special clauses, exemptions and plenty of contradictions.  

Some of these special clauses are probably hard-wired into our brains.  For example, most of us have a clause which prevents us from feeling sexually attracted to children, which is a trait we share with other animals.  This clause is very likely hard-wired into our genes, which regrettably doesn't prevent a few people from creating personal exceptions to that clause.  

Some of these clauses are contradictory, many a bigot will proclaim that all men are equal then complain about the laziness of men with a different color skin.  This hypocritical opinion is so deep in the psyche that the bigot won't see a contradiction.  If we put it in terms of the social contract, there is a general statement about all men, then a clause which creates an exception about a particular race.   Which may lead to the next exception for personal acquintances, i.e. even though their personal friend has a different color skin, they are not themselves lazy.  An exception clause to an exception clause. 

Nor is this social contract static.  It changes every day as we are exposed to new information about acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior.  Surprisingly, however, there is a part of everyone's social contract which doesn't seem to change that easily, although there is still wide variation among people.  This section is concerned with the other side of the social contract; that is, what a person expects society to do for them if they fulfill their side of the agreement. 

Which relates, in a big way, to the functions of of modern government, and brings us back to Hobbes and Locke.