The American government’s reaction to the Los Angeles protests has been alarming. There are better alternatives: cooperative, peaceful, and mutually beneficial solutions. Ones that seek to de-escalate confrontation rather than enflame a needlessly violent process.
The protests serve as a microcosm of how the unspoken social contract operates in the United States. The government’s insistence on deploying troops against its own people, and against the wishes of the Governor and local law enforcement officials, speaks to how twisted that social contract in the United States has become.
At the end of the day, the role of governments is to serve the people. Their role is to provide people with a safe and supportive environment in which they can live good lives and flourish. In my book, the Power of Wellbeing, I write about how far governments have strayed from this primary purpose. I argue we should consolidate the wisdom of long-term strategy with an approach based on wellbeing: to be concerned with the human element, not just the positional profits or political ‘wins’ or worse, an overtly transactional, even predatory, approach to politics. I argue that we need to rewrite the social contract, stop focusing on shareholders and GDP, and instead look long and hard at the wellbeing of the populace.
General wellbeing is not a catch-all solution. It requires a re-prioritisation of where a government’s goals would be immensely useful. With a focus on general wellbeing, the issues that serve as the impetus for the protests can be addressed before or even after the protests erupt. General wellbeing requires an assessment of education, housing, and the broader health of a populace in addition to orthodox concerns like the economy. I discussed these issues in a recent post on Jacinda Ardern’s recent book “A Different Kind of Power”.
Returning to Los Angeles, the protests are largely a reaction to much broader and more concerning infringements on the rule of law and the norms of due process. But in the law and policy or government, circumstances arise not just from one event or one individual, but from a cumulative erosion of the basic principles that underpin a just and equitable society: fairness, access to justice, equal protection under the law, and institutional accountability. When policing becomes threatening and overly militarised, when housing becomes unaffordable, and when healthcare and education are treated as privileges rather than rights, people begin to lose faith not only in government but in the rule of law itself.
Though the governmental response to the Los Angeles protests is an extreme example, the United States is not the only social contract that needs rewriting. We can’t afford to be complacent. The Wellington riots and occupation of Parliament’s grounds in 2022 remind us that everything is not well in our own backyard. Across the world, material concerns often override many other vital societal needs. While wealth and GDP are important, they are not the only important values at stake.
💬I would love to hear what everyone thinks.
If this piques your interest, check out The Power of Wellbeing. It is available online at Amazon and independent bookstores such as Time Out Bookstore.
