Social Contract

I'm sure most of my friends know what's a social contract. Essentially, its a broad class of theories that explain the ways in which people form states and/or maintain social order. The notion of the social contract implies that the people give up some rights to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order.

But the question is whether the same applies to relationships. By that, I mean relationships we willingly enter into, i.e., not those of the familial variety. The more I think about it, the more I think it does. Every relationship involves giving up some rights to the other person. By partaking of a friendship, you essentially agree not to disagree with, discourage or diss your friend. Not only that, you've to be supportive and sensitve to him or her. If not, we shouldn't be surprised if he or she stops talking to us.

However, if you watch 'House' the series, you'll realise that he doesn't believe in a social contract. While we can understand his callous treatment of his colleagues, we would be hard put to excuse how he treats his good friend, Wilson. Instead of being a supportive friend, he does everything most of us wouldn't do, such as invade his privacy, insult his sensitivities, and induce his worst fears, just to mention a few. But Wilson admits that he's okay with House' brand of friendship, if you can even call it that. This is because he tiptoes around everything and thinks thrice before saying anything to anyone. As least with House, he needn't have to because House doesn't give a rat's ass what people say to him. There's symbiosis in this relationship, which says a lot about why different people come together as couples and friends. So the next time we feel inclined to ask why 2 persons are together, we should do well to consider some of our more idiosyncratic friends and why they're in our lives.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Being A Dad in My Fifties

After many years of trying, both naturally or through artificial means, we finally welcomed our boy in January 2023.  It had been a tough journey, spanning more than a decade, both physically for my wife and emotionally for both of us.  We almost became parents in 2017 and 2020 but it was not to be then.  The anguish of our loss still lingers within our hearts and looms over us whenever we think of them.        While we were elated with joy when we found out that my wife was pregnant last May, there were trepidations because we have had 2 unsuccessful pregnancies previously.  However, with much prayers and perseverence, we managed to have a somewhat uneventful pregnancy.  Perhaps "uneventful" is an overstatement as we did have a scare in the first trimester that had caused much consternation and concern.  But by God's grace, the baby developed well and each visit to the gynaecologist watered our hope.    Our boy made his entrance into the world via a planned caesarean sec
Read more

Good Friends

Like most people, I've had my share of good friends from school and from work. When I was younger, they tended to be more guys than gals. In fact, my best friends in secondary school were 2 guys; one was my fellow classmate Chee Peng while the other was his friend in another class. We spent a fair bit of time, including getting our monthly hair cut, together. After secondary school, we parted ways and headed off to different paths. The guy from the other class attended the same JC as I and we touched base intermittently, but I lost touch with Chee Peng . The fact that he was the bridge between the other guy and I meant that we also didn't talk much thereafter. I saw him once in a while in uni but nothing more than the obligatory "hi" transpired between us. In JC , my good guy friends were Adrian and David. Adrian was your typical ACS boy and we all know what mischief these boys can get up to. Of course, they are also charming and suave, as Cheryl my friend from w
Read more

Another First

This is turning out to be a year of many firsts. In Jan, I started a blog after toying with the idea for years. Then, I bought a digital SLR, again after many years of thinking about it. Now, I'll be trying my hands at baking. Come this Friday, I'll be making tiramisu , among other delectable desserts. It's one of the many welfare events that my company organises and I was inspired to go for it after seeing the email. I also promptly roped in my colleagues, who may have obliged because I also happened to be their boss. But I'd like to think they also look forward to learning how to bake too, and perhaps not to the same extent, spending some quality time with me - ha ha . I must say I'm looking forward to learning how to bake. I've always been amazed by how chefs can whip up the most dazzling and delicious dessert. I'm sure its both an art and a science. An art because it takes an artiste to create new recipes and present their creations in a way that is both
Read more