Getting Buy In

Maybe it is a mistake to read the newspapers, the news feeds and to watch TV newscasts.  It seems as if a greater part of the society we live in has failed to agree to the implied social  contract that makes our living and working and enjoying possible.

I was thinking recently about the knowledge required to become a U.S. citizen.  Then I thought about the probability that most American born folks don't know even five percent of that material.  We are exposed in school, but don't really learn it.

That got me thinking about the young man in Marysville, WA, and the two kids a Columbine, and the troubled teenager at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, CO, and a host of others who seemed to never buy in to the social contract that keeps our world functioning.  Perhaps parents, teachers and other trusted adults never exposed these kids specifically to the idea of a social contract, and never got any formal agreement that they would buy in to it.

Socrates gave voice to the idea of a "social contract".  A former police commissioner for the city of New York expressed it this way (and I paraphrase):  If more than 90% of the citizens fail to obey the law voluntarily, no number of police can keep the city safe for it's citizens.

In other words, we all have to buy in to terms of the social contract or we function as savages, in defense mode most of the time, ready to rip out the throat of our adversaries before they rip out ours.

The terms of the social contract are pretty basic:  don't murder, don't steal, don't cheat, do learn, behave politely, make way for others.  I suppose we can add things like drive between the lines, stop for traffic lights, and so forth.  I summarize it simply:  live in a trustworthy way.

In some ways I was taught to participate in the social contract by being punished for lying, told to never steal, etc.  But I don't remember people helping me learn that my society would stop working if I failed to buy in.  My school would not work if it was a jungle.  My Scout troop would be of no value if we didn't behave in trustworthy ways.  Our larger social setting would become more like that of the Middle East where extremists blow up their own families to make a point.  (Talk about failing to buy in to the social contract!)

I want to develop this idea in future blogs, but first:  what thought come to your mind as you read this?  Leave your comment and let us know.