Whatever happened to the social contract?

Reading about the reluctance of otherwise intelligent (or at least educated) people to have their children vaccinated for measles and the like brought into highlight a major and increasing shift in our civilization.  Less and less do people recognize that the goodies we get are paid for by our willingness to carry out our part of the social contract.  These people act as if they were entitled to the benefits of civilization and owed nothing in return.

This is the exact equivalent of expecting running water and electricity without paying taxes.   But such benefits as roads and running water are only part of the social contract.  We owe each other certain considerations, even though they are not as specific and clear as city services.  Living in a group requires that we consider the rights of others and can expect them to consider ours. We make some laws to exact consequences when  basic rights are not respected.  We try not to step on someone's toes or touch strangers unnecessarily.  We try to keep our voices down in public space, such as theaters and busses. We understand that an article in a bag in someone's lap "belongs" to them and we expect not to touch it or take it.

Living together demands that we give up some freedoms in order to live with some comfort and consistent expectations.  In a word, we all owe each other.  Without that social contract life in close contact with others would be unbearable. that is, "nasty, brutish and short".

It seems clear that the social contract is weakening.  People live more and more as if there were no other people on the planet.  They talk loudly on their smart-phones about intensely personal things and they do so in public places.  They spit on the sidewalk, they pick their noses while driving their cars and talking on their phones, as if they were exempt from the requirements of the social contract.  They apparently do not realize how dependent they themselves are on that contract for any kind of  survival.  They apparently do not care about our mutual obligations, though they are quick enough (and loud enough) when people do not respect theirs.

The examples are, unfortunately, endless and apparently increasing in quantity and volume.  The refusal to allow their children to be vaccinated is an excellent example.  Younger people who have grown up without worries about infectious diseases don't seem to recognize that the reason they have not seen them is vaccination.  So they think of these illnesses as unimportant.  When somebody raises the question that it might be possible for vaccinations to cause an illness, they see that risk, no matter how small the data indicate that risk is, as easy to avoid.  No vaccination to their children.

They don't recognize that our protection from infectious illnesses is a group protection, depending on the vast majority of the members of the group being immune and thereby not carriers of an illness.  The non-vaccinators benefit from this protection without recognizing any corresponding obligation to the others in their groups.  Once the number of non-vaccinated  individuals reaches a certain percentage, the disease can and will spread.  Not recognizing the social contract and relying on the universe to continue to treat them as special will have its cost.

The same idea applies to the social contract.  As the number of "entitled people" who consider themselves excused from  obligations to others reaches a certain percentage, society will collapse rapidly as the percentage of entitled grows.  No obligations  to others?  Just look out for what I want and the hell with the rest of you? Civilization is  not unlike a herd immunity which protects against savagery and other uncivilized behavior.  When enough members are no longer immune to savagery, the herd loses its protection and civilization (like health) will fail.