Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
I'm trying to understand what you're saying here. Are you implying that a social contract can't exist without a distinct, identifiable, and universally-shared nationalist identity?
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I understand why it read that way, but it's not really what I meant. What I meant is kind of the inverse: in the absence of a distinct, identifiable, shared-identity with our neighbors, we need strong and robust institutions that prop up the social contract. Canada's institutions are becoming weaker and not making the task, and Canada already lacks and seemingly has no desire to form the shared identity mentioned. As a consequence, it's my belief that the general basis for a social contract is weak or non-existence in the resulting environment, and is why we are potentially seeing larger societal tears forming (e.g. more homelessness/ drug use, more violence in public and especially on transit, more obvious social stratification, formation of foreign gangs.)
I think the void gets filled by other stronger sub cultures with pre existing identities. The post above mine is a great example, where immigrants hold on to their birth cultures ferverently. Well, this is pushing even into 2nd generation landed and born canadian immigrants. This opens the door to foreign cultural institutions (like gangs) taking route in the void as well.