The Social Contract

To me, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract presents an idea that is too good to be true. Today we see the so-called social contract in the form of constitutions, laws and policies, but to what extent does the government abide by the rules, the same rules it has set. Nowadays democracy is spoken of as a myth, with issues in countries like the United States where democracy seems to apply only to a certain few, it is hard to truly define what is autonomous. My picture of a slogan often chanted, “Gay is ok”, represents a social ordeal that a lot of people in Lebanon and around the world often face, which is the illegalization of homosexuality. I chose this image because it symbolizes the people’s voice, where its almost like they are screaming the words out of loud, and pleading for the government to provide the oppressed of their civil rights. Rousseau claims that unlike freedom, civil order doesn’t come about naturally, but is generated through an agreement between the people and the government, like when he said, “But the social order isn’t to be understood in terms of force; it is a sacred right on which all other rights are based,” yet here we are, living in a supposedly democratic country where there is a minority that is deprived from the basic right of marriage; therefore, we see that just like democracy, sovereignty is also a myth. “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains,” (Jean-Jacque Rousseau), our parents imagine a certain future for us to achieve, and often they include marriage, but when this basic right is deprived, can the person still be called free? To the government, freedom is subjective.

Works Cited:

Sinno, Zane S., Lina Bioghlu-Karkanawi, Dorota Fleszar, Najla Jarkas, Emma Moughabghab, Jennifer M. Nish, Rima Rantisi, and Abir Ward, eds. Shifting Narratives: A Reader for Academic Writing. Educart Center for Educational Consultation and Research, 2015. 113-115. Print.