Protecting ones self-interest at any cost

Civil society is a social contract that is meant to protect all of those who live within it. One must sacrifice one’s right to rule one’s self in order to receive the social security that civil society offers. This means that one must place a certain degree of trust in one’s government to lead the society as a whole and ensure that the rule of law is enforced. Thus the government has a certain amount of power over society and this power is often misused to benefit the interests of a minority.

If the government of a land abuses the social contract between it and its people, then the social contract that they were once bound by is no longer valid. John Locke said, "whenever the legislators endeavour to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience". (LOCKE, 1690).

Locke’s argument is that when government infringes on the rights of its people; the people it governs no longer need obey it. He also speaks about the “state of war” (LOCKE, 1690) that should arise when government fails to honour the social contact between it and its people. This is very interesting because Locke is saying that the people should revolt against their government and use violence as a tool for change. Locke’s argument had a tremendous effect at the time and was a true turning point in history.

Today we take liberalism for granted, but at the time monarchism was the prevailing form of government. For hundreds of years, monarchs had ruled Europe. Loch denounced their right to govern the people and accused them of enforcing social slavery as well as stealing the wealth of the land from its people. This is what ultimately led Lock to the idea of a social contract between government and its people. Loch’s arguments ultimately brought down the monarch and paved the way for a more liberalistic politically based society.

Loch believed that people had the right to property if they worked on it. This aged in a new culture of self-interest. This culture of self-interest is still with us today. Our economy is based on self-interest within a civil society that is regulated by the rule of law. This concept of self-interest is what governments are supposed to protect. I agree with what most of Loch is saying. I do think that war is the only way to resolve conflicts between government and people. The government is only acting in their self-interest.

Reference List:

· LOCHE, J, 1690. Second Treatise on Government.