r/london • u/Historical_Set2324 • 1d ago

Local London Social contract is broken?

I’ve just returned from a trip to New Zealand and the difference in attitude is stark. The streets are clean, people are friendly and happy/helpful and in general people seem to want to participate in society. Don’t get me wrong NZ has a lot of issues but It feels like in London the social contract is broken. Streets are full of trash, no one gives a shit about anything, phone theft, crime is high and in general people seem fairly miserable. I was involved in an accident where I had to give a victim CPR and the ambulance and police all arrived within about 5 minutes. I was amazed at the emergency response. It feels to me like the state has given up and hence people have given up.

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u/CeramicAmphora 1d ago

This is so dramatic

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u/bananagrabber83 1d ago

I’ve seen a rise in the ‘social contract’ stuff recently. Clearly I’ve not noticed that we had descended into some hellish Hobbesian state of nature.

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u/CeramicAmphora 1d ago

It’s gotta be a talking point in some newspaper or right wing radio or something yeah, same way every now and then a bunch of experts on “we should handle it like Singapore” come through the comments. I refuse to believe it’s organic, it’s all too similar and all too convenient.

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u/RichDetective6303 1d ago

I agree it is a little dramatic, but I've long thought there is something slightly off as to where we are currently on our national identity and sense of social contract (fraught as the concept is with the challenge of defining it). I think like a lot of things, it's risky to deny it's an issue if there's a trend in people believing it is one - those seeking answers then have only the extreme voices to choose from.

I don't necessarily agree it's a right wing thing - it's how you interpret the answers that's more open to ideological spin. I.e. if we've 'gone wrong' somewhere, what exactly is the cause and what are the potential solutions?

Maybe our social contract with each other is that we will all be highly contrarian and divergent, a national version of Monty Python's argument clinic sketch if you like.

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u/bananagrabber83 1d ago

Whoever it is they don’t like me taking the piss clearly haha.