THE NEW NORMAL - A SORT OF SOCIAL CONTRACT

The current news informing us of the reported success of the vaccines - leading to a reduction overall in new cases of covid 19 and reduction in numbers of reported deaths - is turning minds towards a return to life without the current restrictions, a life beyond the end of the pandemic. Getting back to normal seems to be the order of the day. But just what will be the new normal?

Rousseau

The idea of ‘The Social Contract’ has hardly moved on since Rousseau’s writing of 1762, and the argument that only the people, who are sovereign, have the right to legislate, is still very much in existence. Some monarchs, dictators and authoritarian regimes still have a problem with the concept of democracy, but even within some democratic nations, how legislation is conducted is not always so clearly democratically arrived at. Owing to the conventions historically arrived at in the various nations, leadership often finds it difficult to deal with criticism and opposing views of its performance. 

 

The primary concerns of most groups of humans are still food and shelter and being able to provide or procure those two things in peace and freedom. There are the self evident truths that all people are equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  We have evolved into a complex network of different social groups, living in very varied circumstances. For reasons of health and safety, for the ability to pursue life, liberty and happiness certain basic conditions must be put in place. Given the way we have evolved into rural, urban and nation states, we have also essentially become traders in goods and services, as well as being the consumers of those goods and services.

We expect our rubbish to be collected; our waste products washed away through sewers, treatment and recycling plants; our roads, rails and aircraft to run smoothly and to schedule; our shelters provided with water, decent plumbing, heating and electricity.  On top of that we want our wellbeing and health to be cared for and our safety secured. These are the very basics. In order to achieve this minimum foundation various administrative institutions have evolved to oversee the implementation of the required elements. Educational departments, agricultural departments, health departments, judicial departments, administrative and economic affairs departments, planning and general departments are created to cater for the varieties of goods, services, health and safety required. Within that structure numbers of individuals train in a variety of ways to help supply those necessities by becoming teachers, doctors, lawyers, law enforcement officers, architects, sanitation engineers, farmers, food suppliers, technicians of all sorts and planners. The list is almost endless. This is a world wide enterprise. Every single nation or group of people living together and sharing a space has some form of modus vivendi.

Varieties of individuals then choose which part of the enterprise they want to take part in. How and what they do, provides them with the necessities of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Each individual exchanges whatever it is they have or do for a fee, and uses that fee to exchange for whatever they feel they need from another individual who is willing to exchange what they have or do for that fee, and so on. Fees and exchanges vary, as do individuals. Some save up their fees and others dispense them as soon as they get them. Still others accumulate fees just to accumulate fees. Whatever the exchange there is always a fee, and that fee goes around.

What holds it all together is the civil agreement we have with each other, the social contract that we have a duty of care towards one another, that we do no harm. We have effectively made that the rule of law. That’s what makes and keeps us all equal. Humans however are volatile, inconstant, even whimsical, so there are differences of thought and opinion and it is not always easy to achieve equilibrium. That is why there are judicial departments to see to it that some form of equity is achieved between disputing individuals.  Judgements are given, for a fee, to render parity to a situation which has reached an impasse, to enable the parties concerned to move on. Judgements are sometimes not sufficient to the task on all occasions, which is why individuals from time to time, seek a second or even third opinion, but there is an agreed upon point at which there is a final decision. There are varieties of tribunals within the judicial department of every enterprise, and the members of the enterprise have agreed, through their very membership, to abide by the enterprises’ rule of law.  

This is all very basic stuff. Each nation has its own rules, but the rule of law, that which holds out the duty of care between individuals, and respect for the integrity and equality of every individual is universal. We know this to be self evident. We have been made to know this in particular because of the pandemic and the lockdown. It is a universal problem requiring a world wide solution to bring it to an end.  We all know this to be true.

One of the features of the lockdown is the varying mechanisms by which we have diverted ourselves from melancholy, boredom and tedium. The pleasures of Netflix, Amazon Prime and a variety of devices have given us programs and entertainment from all over the world. We have German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Mexican, American, Scandinavian you name it films and television series, all of which demonstrate that Police Officers and serial criminals, lovers and haters, clowns and dramaturges exist in every part of the world and that they all tell the same basic plots which are understood by all, because we are all human.

Living on the street, without a home, or falling in love with a girl or boy, has no geography. It’s as good or bad in London, New York, Mumbai, Shanghai, Tokyo or Seoul.  We are all so much alike and require the same essential necessities, that discrimination of any kind is bewildering. There should be no need for a Civil Rights Act. There should be no need for a Sexual Equality Act. There should be no need for any Anti-discrimination Act of any kind. These are truths that are self-evident; and yet dogma, prejudice and ignorance prowl and infect the earth more virulently than any pandemic. Why is there not a fast tract vaccine program for that? Just what will be the new normal?