Last week I was out shoveling snow on the sidewalk in front of my house. I thought to myself, “I could just clear one shovel’s width down the sidewalk and call it a day. Most people could walk on that, and then I would have shoveled and won’t get fined.”
I didn’t do that, however. Instead, I worked to widen the walkway, thinking about the cute family down the street with their two toddlers as well as the neighbors who walk their dogs by my house. It would be nice if they could all use the sidewalk and not have to detour into the road. I’ll admit that shoveling snow is not my favorite activity, but since we have a house on the side of the street with the sidewalk, shoveling is just something we know we have to do.
While I was out shoveling, I found myself in that meditative state that comes with repetitive activity and, because I am a bit of a nerd, I started thinking about snow shoveling in the context of political philosophy and the idea of the social contract. Social contract theory has its roots in ancient Greece but mostly it came to prominence during the mid-17th to early-19th centuries, as people began to doubt the absolute power of kings and started to think about the rule of law as a human creation.
Philosophers like England’s Thomas Hobbes believed that by nature people were self-interested and weak. They were ruled by their own desires and not much conscience and therefore were prone to violence and selfish acts. Because of their “natural state,” human beings needed to come together and give up some of their individual rights to establish an authoritarian state that would create laws to regulate society.
John Locke, another British philosopher and political theorist, took Hobbes’ ideas even further. Rather than an authoritarian state, Locke suggested that a legitimate government is one that is supported by individuals for the public good. Locke’s writings had an important influence on the founders of the United States. From these thinkers and others emerged the idea that, as a society, we give up some of our rights and the urge to do whatever we want in order to protect each other and our possessions. We have agreed to live in this democratic society that is entrusted to preserve the public good. At the very least, we participate in this contract by following the laws that we have created.
However, the political philosophers of the Enlightenment were not writing about the rights of women or people of color. In fact, their writing pertained only to white men who owned property. Something else that I think about when I consider the Lockean social contract is the fact that it seems purely transactional. I give up some rights so that in return I can have protection. There isn’t really much in that equation that takes relationships into consideration.
When I think about what I’d like the term “social contract” to mean, it includes all people and it takes into account the fact that we are connected to each other. Our individual rights have to be set within the context of the larger society. This is a social contract with a heart.
I’d like to think that people will intentionally act in ways that help each other, not just because they hope that doing so means that no one will come steal their stuff, but also because this will make society stronger as a whole. In my world, the social contract means that as a community we care about the rights and wellbeing of all people. We do things like shoveling snow and driving courteously, not just because we’ll get fined if we don’t, but because it’s part of taking care of each other.
A final point to consider is that Locke and French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that when a government fails in its obligation to preserve the social contract by acting against the best interests of its citizens, those citizens should replace their government, removing leaders from power through elections, or if necessary through other means.
This past month has had me thinking about issues that are more damaging to our nation and the world than whether or not I’ve shoveled my sidewalk. We live in difficult times, and lately I feel that our leaders have willfully pushed aside the social contract in service of their own egos and personal gains. Now is the time for us to begin to think about what we can do to ensure the safety and rights of all, and particularly those whose voices are being ignored.
Jackie Brousseau-Pereira, of Easthampton, is the academic dean and director of first-year seminars in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.