Hi, I’m Jacqui and thanks for joining me!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Quite right, Izaak Walton. I’ve never heard of you but those are very wise words. Good company, is what I hope this will be. We shall see…
Thanks to WordPress’ automated theme template, I’ve got a snazzy quote at the beginning of my very first ever blog post accompanied by a snazzy shot of the sea and a beautiful sunset (or rise, depending on your perspective). The quote is not too bad at all and neither is the stock image above, so I’ve decided I’m keeping them.
Anyway, anyway, anyway, it’s the first of November 2018, this is my first blog post and the view out my window is nowhere near as pretty as that sun-set-rise above. In fact, it’s a very rainy day in east London where I live. Actually, if I was trying to be all artsy, I probably should’ve started the post with the following image…
But whilst art is one of my passions, art this blog is not.
So if this isn’t about art or my general interests then what is it about? In other words, why have I set up a blog? In short, I’ve set up a blog because I have something to say about society. How broad, ambiguous and inconspicuous is that, ay? Very. So to be specific, my answer is…I’ve got something to say about the state of our society. Still too broad? Right, well to be extra clear –
I’ve created this blog to house my thoughts on the state of our society as it relates to an invisible concept that we all live by: The Social Contract.
Something tells me that I've gone back to being all broad and ambiguous again. Hopefully I've not lost you. Sorry if I have...
The Social Contract is something, well actually it’s a school of thought and a theory, that I’m quite vested in. I’m not entirely sure why but I’m just very interested in the idea that our society is founded upon the belief that we (i.e., members of society) have given up our natural rights to be part of something bigger, better and safer (i.e., society). The odd thing is, we’ve given up our society to the control of democratically elected bodies (i.e., government) to rule over and protect us from harm. Sounds pretty straightforward but for some reason, within that definition of society or the contract that allows us to live in it, I’ve got so many questions. Not just questions, but thoughts too. Such as: does our government hold up it’s end of the bargain? OR, does the social contract need to be rewritten? etc…
This blog is just my little part of the internet from which I’ll ask my questions and leave my thoughts.
This blog is where I’ll talk about the state of our social contract, the state of our society and the state of our consciousness about our society.
This blog is where you can disagree, agree, argue, criticise or just observe my thoughts and questions about all things: ethics, liberty, power, class, race, greed, hubris, equality and the current affairs of society. So vague! But whatever, I’m not deleting that line because I like it. It tells you about the things I like to talk and think about, so it’s staying put :).
I hope you’re staying too. See you in the next post, if you are.
Cheers,
Jacqui
P.S., I’ve got a degree in Business Management and Accounting. In my third year, one of my modules involved the study of Corporate Collapse, within which we looked at ethics and the causes of business failure. In one of the more memorable lectures, we were introduced to this concept of the Social Contract from the perspective of 17th century philsopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau. So yeah, that’s where this 20-something year old, London mum who works in the City got all this society and social contract spiel from.
Jacqueline Courtenay 