Now, as men cannot create any new forces, but only combine and direct those that exist, they have no other means of self-preservation than to form by aggregation a sum of forces which may overcome the resistance, to put them in action by a single motive power, and to make them work in concert. Since no man has any natural authority over his fellow men, and since force is not the source of right, conventions remain as the basis of all lawful authority among men. This ambiguity emerges in the fact that the general will requires no support from history, tradition, or custom (such as monarchy), but it also "is always right" that is, there are no checks on its power. Rousseau’s concept of the "general will" can be, and has been, interpreted as simultaneously providing the origins of democracy and of totalitarianism. Rousseau believed that life in society was essentially corrupting, but that men (it is not clear whether women figured in the social contract) could achieve true morality by joining in the social contract and living under laws that they themselves made. He wrote on an astounding variety of topics, including a best–selling novel ( Julie or the New Heloïse, 1761), a major tract on education ( Émile, 1762), and the work selected here, The Social Contract (1762). Unlike Voltaire and Montesquieu, both of whom came from rich families, Rousseau faced poverty nearly all his life. 1778), he had to support himself as a music copyist. Jean–Jacques Rousseau was the maverick of the Enlightenment.
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