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Do you ever despair at the apparent lack of regard for the "social contract" by so many? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 1 year ago by wilberfan to c/asklemmy

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In this case, I'm referring to the notion that we all make minor sacrifices in our daily interactions in service of a "greater good" for everyone.

"Following the rules" would be a simplified version of what I'm talking about, I suppose. But also keeping an awareness/attitude about "How will my choices affect the people around me in this moment? "Common courtesy", "situational awareness", etc...

I don't know that it's a "new" phenomenon by any means, I just seem to have an increasing (subjective) awareness of it's decline of late.

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[–] cynar 6 points 1 year ago

It's definitely gotten worse due to the dispersion of our social groups.

It used to be that we would interact with the same people for a large chunk of our lives. The guy you shoulder checked on the path was your dad's coworker etc. The social contract was a lot more reciprocal.

Now, we bounce around the city/country/world, almost on a whim. This breaks alot of the connections that reinforced the social contract.

In scientific terms, the Nash equilibrium has changed. The social contract is close to a classic prisoner dilemma situation. It used to be iterative, and so favour a "tit for tat" response. It is now closer to multiple random individual interactions. This favours "defection" more, since the other person will never get a chance to respond.