Social Contract

contract: n, an agreement between two or more people, esp. a written one enforceable by law.

Webster's New World Dictionary

I believe a contract is an agreement between people. This being said, it's essential that all people involved agree on the contract. There cannot be a contract between people if one person is not in agreement.

Not everybody has the same social contract. Certainly, some people do, but a social contract is really a contract with yourself. You create rules for how to act - other than laws and rules already established. I bind myself to my own social contract. My social contract is based on how I'd like other people to be treated. One of my rules is to be polite. I'm not going to go screaming in the movie theater. However, other people have different social contracts, and they might not mind being extremely loud in a movie theater. My social contract involves what people think of me. If there were people in the movie theater screaming, I'd think to myself "Wow, those people are so annoying!" I really do not want to be thought of as extremely annoying. Many people have the same base. Everybody has to respect the law, although some chose not to. All in all, there is not one single social contract around the world. Every person has his or her own.