What They’ve Done to the Social Contract – Broken Trust, Broken Systems
Week 1. Part 2
By: Dr. Chris Jones
In Good Faith with Dr. Chris Jones – Week 1, Part 2
You did everything right.
You worked hard. Paid your bills. Played by the rules.
And still, the system didn’t hold up its end of the bargain.
On Monday, we talked about the idea of the social contract – that invisible agreement between people and government, neighbor and neighbor. It’s the understanding that if you do your part, the system will protect you.
But today, we need to name the truth:
That deal has been broken – not by accident, but by design.
Not with a bang.
But with quiet substitutions, backroom edits, fine print, and strategic neglect.
This isn’t a glitch. It’s a feature. And millions of us are living in the aftermath.
🏥 What a Breach Looks Like
Let’s get specific.
In West Memphis, Arkansas, Crittenden Regional Hospital closed its doors permanently, leaving residents without a nearby emergency room, forcing them to travel considerable distances for urgent medical care. The shutdown also led to significant job losses and economic challenges for the community.
In Jackson, Mississippi, families who paid their water bills turned on the tap and watched brown water pour out.
In rural Iowa, white family farmers – whose roots go back generations – are losing land, not to drought, but to corporate takeover and consolidation.
In cities across the country, Black and brown children sit in freezing classrooms while wealthier zip codes debate upgrading football fields with synthetic turf.
These aren’t isolated failures.
They’re signs of a system that’s been systematically restructured to exclude.
⚖️ How Power Rewrote the Deal
Here’s the hard truth:
Power didn’t destroy the social contract. It rewrote it.
Strategically. Quietly. Legally.
A lot of us were never meant to benefit from the original contract anyway.
We were told the rules were fair.
But that was a lie. Fairness was never the point.
This isn’t about victimhood. This is about the facts:
“I played by the rules. But the rules moved.”
— A grandmother in Pine Bluff, Arkansas
They say “religious freedom” – but use it to deny emergency contraception to women experiencing miscarriages.
They say “economic liberty” – but use it to slash taxes for billionaires while cutting hospital funding in the Delta.
They say “protecting family farms” – but channel subsidies to agribusiness giants and leave small farmers bankrupt and invisible…and suicidal
The language stayed the same.
But the meaning was hollowed out.
You thought you were living under one contract – but without telling you, they changed the terms.
🧠 The Spiritual Weight of a Broken Deal
This breach isn’t just structural. It’s deeply personal.
It shows up in your blood pressure. In the tension in your jaw. In the quiet resignation at the end of a long week.
It shows up in the tragedy of children shot to death in their classrooms, and politicians offering “prayers” instead of protection.
People aren’t disengaged because they don’t care. Or because they’re not heartbroken.
They’re exhausted because they’ve cared for too long and gotten indifference in return.
This isn’t apathy.
It’s betrayal.
“They keep telling us it’s working. But my life says otherwise.”
The breach is psychological. Spiritual.
And it’s generational.
✍🏾 So What Now?
Before we fix it, we have to face it.
Before we dream about a better contract, we have to name how the old one was broken – and who broke it.
So, here’s the truth:
The social contract wasn’t just ignored. It was quietly redefined — by people in power, behind closed doors.
And we’re still being told to believe in it.
No. No more.
No more pretending.
No more gaslighting.
No more blaming people for losing faith in systems that never kept their promises in the first place.
“You’re not asking for too much. You’re just asking the system to keep its word.”
— In Good Faith
📌 What Comes Next
Ask yourself:
• When have you done your part – and still been left behind?
• When did you show up – only to find the door already closed?
• When did the rules change – without notice, without consent?
On Friday, we’ll turn the corner.
We’ll explore how we start again – how we write a new contract, with new terms, led by new voices.
Until then:
Keep speaking truth.
Keep asking questions.
And know this — you’re not imagining things.
The breach is real.
But so is the possibility of repair.
Let’s reclaim the promise — together.
Dr. Chris Jones
In Good Faith with Dr. Chris Jones