...i voted for some change/ and it's kinda strange/ now it's all i've got in my pocket...

[myurbandream]

I've been reading In Defiance of Reason, and there was one particular part that really struck me just now:

"For the most part, people are all playing the same game, playing by the same rules. Basic politeness, not pissing in the street, not killing everybody who irritates you, that kind of thing."

And I actually think that's a pretty good definition of what society is really about. It doesn't matter what the rules are, so much, so long as everybody agrees that they're the right rules, and proceeds to follow them. Social outcasts ("criminals") and civil unrest are what happens when one of those things breaks down - when people start to disagree about the rules being right, or they just straight-up stop following the rules. (I think that's why a lot of monarchies died out, over time - not that there's anything wrong with monarchies, in and of themselves, just that one or another part of the population decided it wasn't so thrilled about these rules after all, and decided to make a fuss about it.)

It's very Lockean of me, but that's really how I feel about government, society, civilisation, clubs and gangs, any kind of human social grouping: you, as an individual, agree to abide by the standards of the group, and in turn you should be able to trust that everyone else will also abide by the same standards. You give up certain things to the group (whether these things are seen as a sacrifice or not), and in return you receive other things from your membership within the group (whether or not these returns are taken for granted).

I feel a bit very fatalistic about the current political situation here because I think we have become two very divided groups of people in one country, each group wanting to promote a very different set of rules. That can't end well.

Shutting up now.