TRUST : SYDNEY WILLIAMS
Like all species (or, at least, those of which I am aware), man is born with an innate trust for the female who gave him birth. We would not survive, without the care and feeding by she who gave us life. As we age, caution grows. As Sophocles said, “mistrust blossoms.” Nature has instilled in most animals a sense of wariness of danger, be it predators, fire or some other peril. This allows the rabbit to avoid the coyote, the mole to avoid the fox, or the deer to run from man. We have the same instincts. It is why the hair on the back of our neck stands up when unseen hazards lurk, or why we become suspicious when someone says, “trust me.”
Trust is akin to a sixth sense, like echolocation that allows bats to fly in the dark. It is defined as a belief in the reliability of someone or something, be it a spouse or an automobile. It reflects both emotion and reasoning, as in the faithfulness of a relationship, or the trust we have for an old car. Trust in the business world, according to a December 2021 article in The Atlantic, is about two things: competence and character. Once lost, it is hard to re-build. The article suggests three steps to help recover lost trust: the use of humor, sharing one’s vulnerabilities and promoting transparency – lessons for those who govern us.
A September 2021 Gallup Poll found trust in government near record lows. It mimicked a Pew Research Center survey published last May. The Pew poll saw trust in government at 24% as of April 2021. That could be compared to trust in government at 68% during the height of the anti-War movement in 1968. The Gallup poll showed that a lack of trust in government extends to all branches; it is lowest in the legislative branch and highest in local governments. In the Gallup poll, a mere 7% of respondents had a great deal of trust in the media. As recently as September 2018, that number stood at 14%. Distrust in government and the media may manifest wisdom on the part of the people, but it reflects poorly on those judged.
It is ironic that in the mid 1960s, amid Civil Rights and the early stages of the anti-war movement, left-wing rioters protested a government more trusted than today’s. Then, the establishment was the enemy. Today, those weed-smoking, long-haired, unwashed hippies of the ‘60s have become the establishment – in academia and Washington. They still profess to be of the left yet are now elites who champion conformity and dependence and have become censors of what they dislike. Can we trust them to select and train the best future leaders of this country based on an equitable distribution of race, ethnicity and gender? What does it mean for the United States if they ignore traits that built this nation, like character and merit?
Trust among individuals is pervasive or should be. Love of a spouse is based on trust. We learn to trust that our children have learned and adopted the values we taught them. We trust that our computers will start when turned on, that the mailman will deliver our Christmas cards and that the supermarket will stock the milk we want. When approaching an intersection, with the green light in our favor, we trust that unseen traffic coming at right angles will obey the red light they face. But trust without skepticism, leavened with common sense, permits scammers, con-artists and swindlers to work their magic. In his 1991 horror novel Needful Things, Stephen King wrote: “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” But his next three sentences – all questions – put his observation into better perspective: “So, is it wrong to love from the bottom of one’s heart? Is trust now forbidden because cheats and liars are on the prowl? What if we were all too wise to trust anymore?” Good questions not easily answered.
Trust can be good or bad, depending on the situation. In dealing with the Soviets in the mid 1980s, President Reagan borrowed an old, commonsensical Russian expression, doveral, no proveral, “trust, but verify.” On March 3rd, 1865, Abraham Lincoln signed a bill that allowed James Pollack, Director of the U.S. Mint (who apparently did not trust mortals for the health of the U.S. currency), to place the words “In God We Trust” on all gold and silver coins. Given our current crop of politicians and bureaucrats, it was a sensible decision.
Trust must be earned, whether one is speaking of individuals or institutions. We cannot live civilized lives without trust, but neither can we exist as naïfs. In Ideas and Opinions, his 1954 collection of essays and letters, Albert Einstein wrote: “Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust, and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.” But those institutions, too, only function when they radiate trust. Trust is critical to happiness, yet it must be accompanied with agnosticism. A combat soldier is naturally anxious of the enemy and the unknown, but he must trust his comrades, his instincts and his weapon. The United States has survived as a democratic republic because the people have had trust in its institutions and for the individuals that work within them. However, when a political party chooses to rule, not govern, trust is lost. In 1775, it was distrust of the British government that allowed revolutionaries to sow seeds of independence, fight for liberty and let freedom flower. Trust is critical to our survival, but so are caution, common sense and wisdom.
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