The Industrial Revolution, with its hunger for
raw materials and resources, energy and speed,
standardization and novelty, set in motion a flow
of technological and social innovations which still
drive much of the world today. Social Darwinism,
influential in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
puts ‘fight or flight’ against ‘tend and befriend’
and believes social contracts are for the sake of
each other (because of man’s worst nature).
More recent thinking about societal contracts
resulted in the modern welfare state as it evolved
(emerged) in northern and Western Europe.
Intended as a bulwark against the kind of socie-
tal unrest that resulted in the Second World War
(8) , it took different forms in diverse countries.
Among the many examples: the Swedish welfare
state (folkhemmet) was all about education,
health care, modern housing and equal opportuni-
ties -- “do your duty, demand your rights”. Another
example from Western Europe is from the Nether-
lands, where living and working together and so-
cial bonding was historically seen as essential for
keeping everyone’s feet dry. Their welfare state
is still based on the need to provide all residents
with “bread, bath & bed” – also for refugees. Best
known is perhaps the welfare state in the UK: a
form of government in which the state protects
and promotes the economic and social well-being
of the citizens, based upon the principles of equal
opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and
public responsibility for citizens unable to avail
themselves of the minimal provisions for a good
life .(9)
These examples all had the same overall goal:
the creation of a more affluent society, suitable
for the modern democratic society. All over the
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April 2019
world the same systems suiting the local cul-
ture and context came into effect. We have seen
conceptual leaps before: the Renaissance, the
Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution; and
what we see now, in the naming of modern times
as the Knowledge/ Information Society, Digital
era, the Anthropocene, or other emerging notions
we still don’t have a name for. In the emerging
iconic marketplace, safety, comfort and luxury
can be bought (if you have the money). Communi-
ty must be actively practiced, and reinforced and
reaffirmed on a regular basis in a world where
Individualism is so highly valued, where people
are told by media to believe that bureaucrats are
ineffective, crowds irresponsible, women are
helpless, every setback is a crisis, failure disrupts
instead of teaches, and is therefore ‘impossible’.
While the intention was to protect the weak, today
they favor the strong: or have they always done
so. Noblesse oblige. We have accepted this for
the common good. But values change, along with
the times. And appetites too. We need to keep
asking the Keeper’s Questions.
There was a general consensus in these coun-
tries that this was important. But consider Angela
Merkel’s “wir schaffen das”, a recent example
which turned out to question the consensus she
assumed it was based on. In 2018 the French
gilets jaunes continue to pose these keeper’s
questions in ways that cannot be ignored: ac-
cording to commentators, “Protests like the gilets
jaunes movement occur, in part, because the
French feel that, to be seen at all by their highly
centralized government, they have to take to the
streets.” (10)
Our societal institutions no longer seem to pro-
vide the value they were created for. Some are
outdated, others dysfunctional, and some as-
pects are more or less obsolete. (11) But repair is
easier than renewal, rhetoric easier than rethink-
ing. And who is willing to point the finger at their
own institution and say: we are obsolete, let’s
pack things up and make room for something
new.
can only get what the market offers. As street
artist Banksy put on a wall in London: “Sorry, the
lifestyle you ordered is currently out of stock”.
Is this a building block for thinking about a new
societal contract?
Lifting capacity
Past contracts had the fundamental goal to lift
society, and people living together in that society,
to a higher level, to the next phase. First from
sometimes appalling poverty, into a new society,
where the citizen was thought of as an important
part of creating a more productive society, state
or corporation. This lifting capacity was a product
of economy, ideology, ethics and education.
It does indicate, of course, the need for a concep-
tual framework of its own: a new societal con-
tract.
At the same time, libertarian thinking (as iconized
in Donald Trump’s America) demands (argues)
that everyone can – and must – realize his/her
own individual happiness; in fact, is compelled to
(and responsible for) achieving this. There should
be no centralized support for this; those who
don’t achieve it are losers, and must bear the con-
sequences of their incapacity to lift themselves.
In all things, the market rules; but of course, you
There was once a time where education was
designed to keep people as dumb and as obe-
dient as possible. The shift from the second
industrial revolution (12) to the third industrial
revolution meant that there was a higher demand
for a healthy, educated workforce. The societal
contract could fulfill that need for that time, in
a balanced program between state, corporation
and citizen. This led to the rise of human resourc-
es – and seeing humans as resources. For many
years, this worked out to the benefit of the many,
and was one of the most important parts in the
success of the third industrial revolution. (13)
Now, we are already embarked on a 4th revolu-
tion, where we must acknowledge that humans
8 Judt, T, Thinking the Twentieth Century (2012), Penguin Books
9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state
10 https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-yellow-vests-and-why-there-are-so-many-street-protests-in-
france
11 Expressed in diverse presentations by senior European civil servants in Brussels, from 2016-2018
12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Industrial_Revolution
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