Jerome Joe Najem                                                                                                 Najem 1

Prof. Dania Adra

English 203 Section 43

13 October, 2015

        

                                                          Nature vs Nurture

                  

            Beirut, what a wonderful city. Anyway, lets get back to our topic. One may look    at a skyscraper and actually see a skyscraper, but today, looking at this breathtaking tower, I saw a whole different thing. That "thing" that you barely glance at represents in my opinion integrity, hard work, commitment. The combined work of engineers, architects, masons, businessmen, painters, and so on amounted to this delightful creation. I can now say that I am well and truly fascinated by the way society works and delivers the goods on a spoon of gold.

            Let's be realistic : the opinions I vocalized in this past paragraph didn't spring to mind randomly. I wouldn't have purposely stopped the car and took a picture of a skyscraper on a cold October night had I not read Rousseau's "The Social Contract" : I'm not that artsy. Rousseau's text symbolizes one's duties towards society and illustrates the fine line between acting on instinct and actually abiding by the rules and regulations. Moreover, Rousseau emphasizes the profits society makes by following a certain social order.

            The fact that I stopped and took the pictures means that i actually established a specific relationship between my supposedly plain picture and Rousseau's dense text. It may not show on the photograph, but before, during and even after the skyscraper was built, hundreds and hundreds of contracts were signed. Starting from the workers' work shifts, going through the engineers' codes of conducts and ethics, looking at the masons' dress codes. This perfectly fits with Rousseau's description of a social order as to being "based on agreements" (Rousseau, 114). In both cases, those agreements will undoubtably lead to some discomfort (i.e. difficult working hours for the workers, rainy days...) but most notably assure the happiness of the whole lot (salaries, comfort for the building's residents-to be). Furthermore, by following certain codes of conduct, every single soul benefits from "stimulated faculties, extended ideas and ennobled feeling" (Rousseau 115). Thus, we come to the conclusion that Rousseau's main idea (That some kind of social order should "govern" society) blends in perfectly with the symbolic meanings of the photograph.

            But then again, a communist would ask : is the Social contract fair? Are the same human beings that are abiding by the same rules receiving the same treatment? Are the goods on the spoon of gold distributed rationally?

                                               Works Cited:

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "The Social Contract." Shifting Narratives. Ed. Zane Sinno, Lina Bioghlu-Karkanawi, Dorota Fleszar, Najla Jarkas, Emma Moughabghab, Jennifer Nish, Rima Rantisi, and Abir Ward. 1st edition. Beirut: Educart, 2015. 113-15. Print.