Society & Politics

Lightbulb's Guide to a Renewed Social Contract and Better Human Relations for All

Time has come for a renewed social contract and changes are required on all sides. This contract spans cultures...it isn't just one race/culture, but it is identified and championed by the group most impacted ...black people and those effected by oppressive power.

This situation is much like a bad marriage with emotions aflame, perspectives not aligning, justification of retaliatory behavior, finger pointing and repeated violations of trust. Resolving the matter will be somewhat like marriage therapy...God help us!

Lightbulbs Guide to a Renewed Social Contract and Better Human Relations for All

We all want to live our best lives, that's the dream of the USA and humans in general...live to our full potential. To do that we must feel secure, valued, live to attain our best abilities and be free to attain wealth, family, career aspirations. Oppression from society and power comes in many forms and must be dealt with.

Step 1: Create a Vision for what life will be like when we get to this better place. A vision needs to be crafted and communicated so that all see themselves in a better future, they can buy into and embrace. A vision is important so as to avoid being impacted as strongly when negative events occur. I leave this as an exercise for you to formulate.

The vision needs communicated by citizenship that owns it and supported by political leaders... not delivered by political leaders.

Phase I (De-escalate)

Cops turn small issues into tragic ones that result in social upheaval. Eric Garner, George Floyd are recent examples of petty crimes turned to death.

* Cops need a de-escalation process when engaging low severity situations. That may be letting petty issues go and referring to community relations boards or engaging community relations police (required just like jury duty!). Citizens responsible to community boards, in alignment with social contract expectations, with reinforcement by Police. Such groups would handle petty issues and work with offenders to cease errant behaviors.

* Black people have a right to request a black officer, at least in the short term.

* Corruption of police - strict adherence and penalties for failure. This is a global issue.

* Only keep the A and B players on police force. This means hiring and firing. Not everyone can do this job 25 years til they retire. Some are likely staying on the lines too long.

Phase II (Improve cultures which have been traumatized)

There are serious problems in areas which highly impacts black people dis proportionately. Globally this is true wherever poverty is rampant, such as Phillipines, parts of India. Gangs and corruption lead to cycles of poverty, crime, and despair. Crimes of all kinds from petty theft to human trafficking become justified and embraced as survival and idolized in culture. Cycles of poverty, lack of stable family units, lack of nutrition, loss of hope, lack of integration in law abiding society creates friction. Wealth from illegal underworld activities (drugs, trafficking, theft rings) lures many into the vices highly violent crime. There are cities where the ethics have eroded to where police don't intervene to stop criminal behavior due to risk. The level of crime perpetrated needs to decline and the severity of those crimes needs to decline within given cultures.

* There needs to be a concerted effort to formulate a new culture that values their right to be and which they accept responsibilities. Respect of property, life, human rights needs to be upheld in society, across cultures.

* Ownership mentality. When someone owns, they feel valued and responsibility...they are more inclined to value the thing. Business ownership, property ownership including stock/bond etc.. is important for social buy in.

* The flip side of this is enforcement to standards of acceptable behavior and correction. Correction requires intervention, therapy, and retraining, not necessarily encarceration as the only solution.

* Train citizens on emotional control, de-escalation, negotiation, legal rights, confidence when handling confrontations. All people need better training in confrontations. Laws need updated so that those who incite situations that result in death are held accountable for creating the scenario (Trevon, and Aubery killings).

Phase III (Education and training)

* Clear understanding of the relationship between citizen and police. Training to understand laws, rights, best practices in behavior when engaged with officers to provide consistency and reduce fear. A reduction in violent crime and training helps to eliminate situations like the "Castile" shooting and ensuing "justification" by police.

* It's essential that the races and classes do not separate, but engage more deeply over time. The natural reaction out of conflict is withdrawing from each other... fear. Actions must be taken to ensure positive communication and engagement. How that is done yet to be determined for Police and as well between cultures. There are disconnects in perceptions, experiences and we need to be able to hear each other out and feel save that there is a better future.

* Trauma Therapy - should be available for all, not just service but basic education. Mental health is essential. A new generation will need therapy.

All of this is in the face of political tensions, ongoing videos. It will be a challenge to not be torn apart.

Phase IV (Set a new vision for the black culture)

Black people feel targeted by police and are often mis-identified, falsley accused. An underlying problem is the high proportion of crime within a color/culture exposes others of the same culture to discrimination by association. The perception of black people as lesser, mistreated and treated differently than others needs to be addressed in reality and in media. You do not see this message regarding chinese, indians, most white people. You might see it for American Indians, black people, and some various sub cultures (Appalacia). Set a new standard for human development and behavior (including globally) and bring up more people into this standard. The social contract to include: Family values, work ethic, school/education/vocational skills and self actualization is important. Respect of property, responsiblity, love of country. Too many within society are disenfranchised, feeding a culture of violating the assumed social contract (e.g. criminal behavior).

Failure to do this means the cycle of poverty, crime continues causing the continued impact to people of comparable cultural identity.

* Black community to embrace a level of standards and ethics that ellavate their culture and more people so they are not targeted for crime. A reference point would be Indians in USA, who have no fear of police, achieve high standards of education, run businesses, value education, respect property, eat healthy.

* Get to the root issues of crime regarding drug abuse, theft, trafficking and pimping, etc. These faulty behaviors must be eliminated from the culture. In essence, they are related to sense of value, hope, self sufficiency, and purpose...agreement with the social contract.

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I've cited recent examples of black victims. There are other cultures/races which are victimized as well and so are police in essence. It's a relationship, it's a dysfunctional one. We cannot force everyone to care about each other, but we do need agreement upon what is acceptable behavior in society, healing from trauma, and a vision that all people (not just Americans in the end) that people can live together with.

It's a start...

Lightbulb's Guide to a Renewed Social Contract and Better Human Relations for All
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