Chapter 16 4. Towards equality

The Greeks, who had independent personality and free will, were liberated, but also encountered difficulties. The problem is how to deal with relationships. This is not a problem in clan society.Blood relationship is the most natural, true, tender and harmonious.Father is kind and son is filial, brother and friend are respectful, husband sings and wife follows, isn't that what the Chinese people have always pursued and it has been effective?However, the Greeks at this moment have become Zeus-style "king-killing heroes" and Oedipus-style "father-killing sinners".What do they rely on to form a society and form a group, so that the world will not be in chaos because of their own ways?

contract. It was not at all surprising to the Greeks to govern society by contract.As a business nation, they have long realized that things are better than people when dealing with affairs and relationships.The "things" are currency and contracts.Currency is clean and neat; contract is convenient for both people and me.As long as everyone abides by the contract and pays according to the price, everything will be fine.And, since it is equally binding on all parties to the contract, it is just and equitable. The first kind of equality in human history came into being—everyone is equal before the contract.

Such a good thing, of course, can be released all over the world.For example, the methods and rules used to formulate research questions and discuss questions.These methods and rules, such as logic, are the contract between man and nature, as well as the contract between man and man.Among them, what is self-evident is called "axiom", the process of derivation is called "reasoning", what is derived is called "theorem", and the final conclusion is called "truth".Whether a certain conclusion is the truth is not up to Zhang San, nor to Li Si, but depends on whether it conforms to a series of agreed "reasons".It's the same for everyone.

Science was born, and everyone is equal before the truth. As the contract can be used in nature, it can be used in society.The social contract is the law.It's just that it is not signed one-on-one like a commercial contract, but is agreed upon by all citizens.Because it is about social issues, it is called "social contract"; because it is signed by all citizens, it is called "universal contract".The so-called "National Covenant" means that everyone and others are each other's party A and party B, just like democracy is "self-government".Such a contract must of course be complied with, and legislators and law enforcers are no exception.It is not the sorrow of the legislator, but his glory and success, to kill himself by the law.

The rule of law was born, and everyone is equal before the law. However, there is a problem here. Everyone is equal before the contract, so there is no problem.Because Party A and Party B have equal personalities and equal rights.If there is no agreement, it is not necessary to sign; if there are circumstances, it can be revised; if it cannot be implemented, it can admit compensation and break the contract.In short, the contract is negotiable, and as long as both parties discuss it. Can the law do the same? Disaster.All citizens come together to make a covenant, and it is impossible to agree on every clause.If neither the left nor the right can agree, what should we do?Do not need the law?

Of course not. You can only make two agreements first.First, the formulation of laws can only find the "greatest common divisor", that is, what everyone can accept or cannot tolerate.For example, you can't kill, you can't set fire, you can't rob, you can't steal, you can't rape, you can't enter private houses.Everyone agrees on these, and then write them into the law.This is the "principle of the rule of law".Second, if you can't even find the greatest common divisor, then sorry, vote, the minority obeys the majority.This is the "principle of democracy".

Obviously, the rule of law and democracy must be twins.What the law can manage must be the bottom line.Higher requirements, such as being brave in doing justice, saving lives and helping the wounded, supporting each other, helping others, etc., are beyond the control of the law and can only be relied on morality.That led to yet another signing by the Westerners.It's just that this time they signed a contract with God. The content of the contract is-God promised: good people will go to heaven, and bad people will go to hell. Religion was born, and everyone is equal before God. Of course, the signing Greek was not present this time.Their page has been turned by history.

strangeness!An independent and free Greece, a scientific and democratic Greece, a sunny, youthful and glamorous Greece, how can it be gone?