The trust factor

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

(8/2019) Trust is the glue of life. It is the most essential ingredient in communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships. Stephen R. Covey

"Do you trust Donald Trump?" This is a question a reporter asked a Trump supporter, a well educated, high profile one who should have been be able to give a considered answer. "Have a think about it before you answer," he continued.

The supporter considered, looked thoughtful, nodded his head a few times then walked away without answering.

The reporter took a deep breath and sadly shook his head. It had been the sixth supporter today to respond the same way. How could they vote for someone they didn’t trust? He knew the stock answers – the economy is growing, he’s taken it to the Chinese, the Iranians, North Korea – he’d actually gone there to show Kim Jon Un the error of his ways – and he was making the country great again. He said he was the greatest president in history and they had to believe him. He said it with such conviction.

The reporter knew they ignored the Russian link, the depredations of the environment, the total amorality, the dying middle class. They couldn’t be bothered to hear what his opponents were saying, they were too proud of their own set of beliefs. All their friends shared them. Talk of impeachment was nothing more than the Democrats running scared. They refused to be concerned with the churn of staff, the lack of respect to anyone who ventured to say something he didn’t like, (or had the smell of non-Trump about them). Indeed the lack of manners to everyone at home and abroad was understandable – how could he run the country if he was soft and gracious to them? That’s not what they wanted or expected.

And the reporter thought he knew why: They’d forgotten how to think, to analyse, to put logic in the place of tweet. They accepted that truth was variable, that electronic news was much better than print, and big business cared about their product and services. The strange feeling of an angst that seemed to intruded into their dreams was caused by overeating, nothing more. Why worry – they’d get through like they always had.

Having studied sociology the reporter knew that what they had given up in order to wear their rose-coloured specs was their fundamental decency– do unto others as you would be done by, help those worse off than you, respect your neighbor. They’d become part of the selfish culture, the me first you second, the greed is good mantra that they’d been brought up with. They weren’t bad people, and Trump wasn’t either.

He wondered if America would survive the bread and circuses society that pervaded the land, knowing that Aldous Huxley had been right. The future would be undone by diversions, that his Brave New World would be filled with cowering sycophants who existed in an artificial world of self-absorption. It was a scene that filled him with dismay. Death by a thousand cuts. The frog looked like being cooked as the water got too hot.

He hoped that the responsible media would be brave enough to be a sufficiently powerful voice to push back the black tide, that educators would join the revolution and help cut the bonds of ignorance. Above all, he hoped a leader would emerge that was proof to the fire-storm that would fall on anyone brave enough to shout the truth. Someone who could unite the voices of reality and reason, a figure on the hill with a flaming sword.

He doubted it.

Without trust we would never have progressed from being part of a pack where it is instinctive and essential for survival. Early groups had little else to use; cooperation meant being able to depend of your neighbor. It enabled them to unite and develop their culture, arts and stories.

But when someone took over, ruling and becoming king, priest or president, it became possible to choose whether we aided others or not, when we could put ourselves above the rest, it also became possible for us to not give such help when it was needed and to prevent others doing so too.

Trust, therefore, is one of the most fundamental requirements of a successful society; we cannot actually live without it; no family can last, no children survive without it and no country progress beyond having warring factions.

Today, when there are so many competing forces, so many alternative needs, so many people asking us to trust, bewilderment is the norm. We were brought up to believe we could trust doctors, we could trust priests, and we could trust politicians more than lawyers. Today that is so often untrue; self interest and self-indulgence has taken precedence over honesty and ethics, emperors and megalomaniacs have inserted themselves into government and become our masters

Sure, we can go to a different doctor, we can avoid priests, but unless we migrate was cannot avoid our politicians. They are everywhere because we have been glad to elect them into our system of government, which we label democracy, but which it isn’t: Capitalism is not government by elected representatives, it is government run by capitalists.

And, except for making profits, capitalism is the death of trust. "Trust me" is the jingoistic nonsense they spout, and we take it with shrugged shoulders because we know it’s a lie. When the president adopts it we accept it (well, some do) because he’s honorable because he is the president. Heard that before?

In a land where everything is paid for, everything is reduced to a commodity. Yes, we buy and sell goods and services, but it is impossible to put a price on morality. Decency, honor and trust are not things. They are values. They form the basis of a wholesome society, one that is there for the well-being and protection of the majority. One where the government and the president can be trusted to deal with citizens and foreigners fairly.

So how come so many trust Trump?