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2 Movies - every Friday Night Mount Tabor Plavhouse Is this History or What? According to the Funk & Wagnells Canadian College Dictionary, the word con- tract means to arrange to settle by agree ment; enter upon with reciprocal obliga- tions. | mention this because the word has been used to describe a piece of Provincial Legislation the Social Contract Act, and the process leading up to it. Itwould bore you to death at this point if, in this editorial, | were to tell you that a Social Contract has various definitions. That it can be the unwritten agreement be- tween the members of a society to behave with reciprocal responsibility in their relationships under the governance of the 'State' which, in social contract theory is presumed by the existence of that society. This idea being of ancient origin, having been found in the various teachings of Plato and Lucretious, etc., and was chiefly used as a tool for criticizing established, traditional authority, when a state was seeking both autonomy and just internal constitutions. | couid then tell you about Thomas Hobbes, and English philosopher who caused much comment in the 1600s, when he argued that the social contract created mutual obligations which did not exist before the constitutional state. I could tell you then about John Locke, another English philosepher who died in 1704 and to whom we in this country and the folk of the United States owe much. it was his writings on government that were influential in the writing of the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, and is so far as these were something of a blueprint for later constitutions, the Constitution of Canada as well. As | have mentioned this gentleman, | might as well mention some of his beliefs concerning government, such as the notion that governmental authority is something delegated by the sub- jects for the creation of a state through a com pact (con- tract) that carries in itself the principle of obligation, or that individuals have rights to life, liberty, and property. He also had things to say in favour of the right of revolution because of the usurpation of authority, but that view might be seen as seditious. Suffice to say, that Locke argued that moral principles and obligations existed before the creation of the State, so that men could change the State if it failed to uphold these principles, But you don't want an editorial that is as drv reading as itwould be if | told you all that. And in any case. that was HiSay s LICAL TY all in the dim distant, and this Social Contract is now. If | were really trying to criticize the present assemblage on their passing of an act euphemisticaily referred to as a Social Coniract, | would bring to your attention the Labour Government of Great Britain's attempt, in its term in power to secure voluntary Trade Union agreement to restrain demands for pay increases, in exchange for an increase in the social wage (ie. increase in welfare provision and social security and restraint on price increases), in 1974 - 79. The direct result of these policies by the British Government was referred to as the "Winter of Discontent*, in which Great Britain was hit by numerous strikes, particularly among Public Sector workers. Anti-union and anti-government sentiments which had been simmering for some time were brought almost to the flash point and resulted in the election of a radical Conservative government in 1978. Now were | to point all these things out to you, and provide this little lesson on political history, you might think that | am suggesting that there is a parallel between all that is past and what might be to come. Or maybe what | am suggesting is that persons in political office, should do some cramming on the basics of political philosophy. Or maybe --- ch never mind. Draw your own lesson ifany, from the past and remember that a vote for vengeance tends to come back on us with a vengeance.