This picture is of the most used, popular smoking area on campus at The American University of Beirut. Most areas in AUB are smoke free zones, so how ironic is it that this beautiful representative of nature is chosen to be abused by the toxic chemicals of mankind. The laws of AUB restrict society's ability to smoke anywhere other than a smoking area, so the social contract made by AUB Is stripping the environment, and the campus of their natural right of a healthy environment. The pressure of social acceptance plays a big role in the reasoning behind the popularity of these smoking areas. Most students see 'the zoo' as a 'cool' hangout, and if you aren't smoking then you don't belong. You so as much pass by and you are engulfed in the smell of smoke that surely will need more than one round in the washer to rid of (been there done that). "Here’s one who thinks he is the master of others, yet he is more enslaved than they are" (Rousseau 1) in this case, the main occupants of the smoking area feel like they are inferior to the rest of the AUB students, and as if they have ownership over the area, but they fail to realize that they are just pawn pieces of social demands and being in that area is our own natural right as well as civil. In "The Social Contract" written by JeanJacques Rousseau he exclaims that In order for a government to exist, society must come to a mutual agreement and metaphorically 'sign' a social contract. He starts the text by saying "Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains." Because these chains constrict our natural rights and are structured by what society believes is ethical. The text "The Social Contract" highlights how once a duty is placed upon us, we tend to forget our natural physical instincts since they become "taken over by a sense of justice" (Rousseau 9). the social contract is made by mutual agreements of society in order to benefit man, however concentrating many smokers in one beautiful natural surrounding, intoxicates the environment which is crucial for our survival, and creates an invisible line of hierarchy, wiping out the rights of equality. This picture further expands the topic of civil and natural rights by showing how one can mesh with the other, and how giving in to peer pressure in order to fit into what society feels is acceptable, enslaves us to their demands as well as shames the social contract we apparently 'signed'.
Work cited
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. “The Social Contract” Shifting Narratives. Ed. Zane S. Sinno, Lina Bioghlu-Karnakawi, Dorota Fleszar, Najla Jarkas, Emma Moughabghab, Jennifer M. Nish, Rima Rantisi, Abir Ward. Beirut: Educart, 2015. 113-115. Print.
moodle
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