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.
Oh, that still exists. But what we see now is the dark side of that. Where people are ostracized and worse for not fouling their nest, preying on their fellow humans, etc. There are racist undertones to that as well. The crab basket mentality prevails in some circles.
Frankly, FRiend, those who know God will behave well, those who do not will go by some codified set of rules, or write their own for themselves and whatever social microcosm they inhabit, for good or ill, reflecting whatever motivations are important to them.
As for the business owner, if he'd had a problem, letting it go on for two years hardly seems like he was notifying someone of their 'breach of (the social) contract'. I reckon that if you're going to have something like that, then some responsibility for the problem lies with the owner for not piping up sooner.
Religion was at one time considered far more important by a greater proportion of the population than it is today, and the expectations engendered thus were reflected in the rest of society. That has changed, and now the mass media seem to be racing toward the bottom of the behavioural scale, rather than striving for better.
Hence, people have become more crude, more vulgar, and less considerate.