Question

Joe Moxingo wrote an article about chuldren growing up in a run down motel in San Bernadino. This perosn wrote to him.

We read often about the horrors throughout the world, but reporter Joe Mozingo’s pieceLinks to an external site. on the horrors faced by so many children from birth focuses on a group of kids closer to home in San Bernardino. We, as a society, have failed terribly. We ignore the growing poverty in our dense and expanding population, the huge drug addiction problem and the lack of protections for these vulnerable people within our own country. Billions of dollars are spent on worthless politicians, endless wars and more, and corporate greed causes business leaders to evade their responsibility to enhance communities. Furthermore, what was once a successful public education system has become a disaster. To begin with, we must curb population growth. We need to teach sex, health, drug and alcohol education starting at an early age. Next, we can give humans a feeling of worth through vocational training, bringing back a focus on the arts and allowing educators to control the curriculum again. I have touched many lives over my 34-year teaching career. We all need to contribute to a better, more humane world. It starts today with each one of us.   DEE WHITE, Dana Point

Question: How would John Locke of answered or solved this?

Answer 1

Answer.

John Locke is associated with the theory of the social contract. The social contract is an Enlightenment concept referring to how people agree to give up some of their freedoms in order to create a government that would protect their other freedoms and privileges. Thus, the commentator’s solution of working at the quality of education to reduce social malaise would be refuted by Locke as he would argue that crime and deviance can be controlled not by educational reforms but by stricter laws and regulations against drug use, sex trafficking, etc. to ensure protection of the weaker sections. A greater welfare programme using tax money of the working middle and upper middle class is a more likely solution which may be supported by Locke.