One of the most interesting concepts of civilization is one in which it is viewed not by its art or architecture but as a completely social structure of laws and customs, commonly thought of collectively as 'The Social Contract'. If we don't like the one we have now, its up to us to define a new one, but before we get to that, let's just brush up on the meaning and implications of the social contract.
The U.S. Constitution is often cited as an explicit example of part of America’s social contract. It sets out what the government can and cannot do. People who choose to live in America agree to be governed by the moral and political obligations outlined in the Constitution’s social contract.
The first important implication of the Social Contract, is that we choose where we live. Now, we do not choose where we are born, so this might be non-obvious, but I see two sides to this. On the one hand, it might seem to take away power 'if you don't like it, you can leave' sort of attitude. On the other hand, the explicit option to 'vote with your feet' is a powerful freedom that people express all around the world, when things get rough or tough, they move.
A growing population is good for a country, while a shrinking population leads to a variety of vicious cycles. So favorable societies should, over time, receive the flow of immigrants, and result in growing and more prosperous communities. We can apparently see that going on right now within the US.
As George Costanza angrily shouted - 'We are living in a society!'
And now I'm reading about this from Millenial perspective, who have largely 'voted with their feet' by moving into their parents houses. Looks like things got tough.
I am a Millennial, as they say, Millennials remember 9/11. We were the generation to bridge the technology gap, having in our lifetimes gone from nothing, to dial up internet and beyond, and in many cases are giving our babies 4g smart phones today so they can play with.
As a millennial, I can fully understand how we are 'drowning in insecurity'. And for all of you out there who understands this, let me tell you - its not about family money, its about the social contract.
See this Financial times survey goes on to prompt Millennials into claiming that the problem is based on '[people who] always have an advantage'. They have already jumped the shark on logical thinking, they are already focused on who's to blame. So take all this with a grain of salt, but don't ignore these feelings because they are quite real, and represent a lot more people than some would like to think:
There are real problems with the social contract, and one way to try and fix it is to stir up a class war and break things and make sure the whole country and all of our communities get a lot poorer.
But that seems like a bad strategy to me
"We are living in a Society!"
Perhaps we indeed have degenerated. For so long, we were riding on the coattails of our ancestors, tougher, ruder and cruder, capable of surviving in a more difficult time, under stiffer conditions, and through it all build and grow a civilization.
Of course, as Billy Joel beautifully said, 'We didn't start the Fire'.
Take a look at this and tell me this is Millennials Fault. I'll go to the most recent section so some of you millennials have a chance to know about some of this suspiscious shit that has been going on since the dawn of time:
Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK – blown away, what else do I have to say?
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law
Rock and roller, cola wars, I can't take it anymore
We certainly didn't start this fire, but it is time that we start to seriously consider what are the axioms and underlying assumptions of this social contract that we are living under, to take the few bits of gold from the original and try to forge new cooperative arrangements with our local communities.
This is what is so important about crypto and crypto-tech. ZeroHedge's conclusion to the Financial Times article:
Without dwelling too much longer on the generational aspect of it, I will say that we cannot choose when we are born, we can only choose our reactions to it; like voting with our feet, we must also vote with our hands (what we choose to do) and with our heads (what we choose to think).
And it is not an option to go live in the woods, we are indeed 'living in a society', and I think you will find there are people in those woods already, and no matter how far away you go, everyone has neighbors!
In order to propose changes to the social contract though, Millennials will need to get their minds in order and take responsibility for themselves and their actions, even while living with family.
And at this time, there are many forces that want to make us more dependent that ever. You see, if you feel like a victim, then you are a victim. You have no power if you accept your powerlessness. But people, including millennials, have great power to take responsibility and improve conditions if only slightly.
In a future article, I hope to start working on some of the basic principles for a social contract - this is not just idle words from me. Here is a joke from Joe Rogan's that I find particularily on point:
If you could go back in time and grab Thomas Jefferson and bring him to [today], his first question would be:
"You guys didn't write any new shit????"
"I wrote that with a feather!! .... You lazy fux!"