For the most part, though, people only behave out of fear of legal complications, not out of a moral (heartfelt) obligation. Such a society is only waiting for the monitors to go around the corner.
I have found that what is legal is seldom correlative with that which is moral, albeit with a broad brush you can paint it thus. It's the fine print in that 'social contract' that screws you--it looks good from a distance, but up close and in focus, its ugly as sin.
Me, I'm d@mned picky about the people around me, and if they aren't one to run the river with, they need not apply.
Not at all. Calling it a contract is just acknowledging that on some level there’s an agreement. When we form a society we agree that certain types of behavior are encouraged in the public square, and some are discouraged. All the social contract is doing is attempting to codify the rules, and the rewards for following those rules, that most of us already know if we stop to think about.
For the most part NOW people only behave out of fear of legal repercussions. A major reason for that is we’ve lost the concept of the social contract, because the social contract included a major form of punishment: ostracizing. Society is your shield against a cold and cruel world, getting kicked out of society is a major thing. We don’t do that anymore, because we’ve lost the idea of give and take, we’ve lost the contract. Just look at this, these jerks were abusing this business for 2 years before the owner finally had enough. If people still believed in the social contract they’d have had 2 visit, first time they behaved that way they’d have been “reminded” that we don’t act that way here, second time out.
What’s treacly is that we’ve allowed ourselves to devolve to the point where malls need to write down these rules that we just used to follow. What’s treacly is NOT believing in the social contract and wondering why people have no manners anymore.