As members of society, we have all implicitly agreed to an unwritten contract with the specific community in which we live. This social contract states that we exchange living a semi-secure, semi-livable, semi-carefree existence for turning the other way to how society makes this happen. We turn a blind eye to the gray boundaries in this contract. And it terrifies us that shining a light on these border areas may collapse the entire enterprise. If awareness and sensitivity were to occur, we dread being overwhelmed by the negative forces we imagine surrounding us. One of the very purposes of our social contract is to keep “true” reality hidden from view.
Crime, marriage, food production, and economic development are but four sectors of society. In each, the price we pay for maintaining our safety and happiness is being exposed and challenged. We realize, perhaps for the first time, just how much we have been willing to give up in terms of liberty, safety, and honesty. This unwitting unbundling of our old social contract will prove either too scary or motivate us to undo and revise it.
The advance of technology and video cameras in the hands of everyone in the 21st century makes hiding from the truth an impossible task. And what we are experiencing at the moment, which is having a light shone on it, is the injustice toward minorities by law enforcement. The compact with those who maintain order in society is we will give them power as long as we feel safe. When we don’t feel safe, we challenge the contract. The same could be said for women and the power structure; corporations and the general welfare, etc.
Who doesn’t understand or recognize that George Floyd is not an infrequent occurrence? Cruelty, whether made worse because of race, is the outcome of the power we have handed over to authorities. We expect them to keep us safe from those who interrupt our peaceful existence. The recipients of this heavy-handed method live and remain in those gray borders, so we have ignored them. These George Floyds, we repeat to ourselves, are expendable consequences of maintaining the world safe. Until now. For now, we realize George Floyd is us, and that we are abusing the authority handed over to police. It is not what we expect or yearn for.
This moment feels different. It is another unbundling moment and exposure of a social contract we do not like. But how do we respond? What will resolve the problems? Asking to defund the police is a first step in renegotiating the contract. But before we get there, let’s take a minute to fan the spark bringing us to this unique moment. And that is the awareness of what life is, not what we wish it to be. Videos capture reality, won’t let go, and won’t allow us to avert our eyes. Imagine what is not being captured by video. Many of us, for example, clamor there is a climate crisis, but the rest avert their eyes because it’s too painful to contemplate. Until we all become victims of it. But why wait until these crises are at our doorstep?
Become aware and recognize what is real in contrast to what is imaginary or wished for. Awareness is the light we shine on the gray areas of our lives and leads to unbundling the old, inadequate things, like social contracts. It will also bring with it the needed solutions. It is a matter of trusting ourselves and the intelligence guiding it all. If we become aware and sensitive to our own nature we will discover, to our surprise, that what surrounds us is not a negative, evil thing but a positive, loving force.