I take ten pills daily, five prescribed, five over-the-counter recommended by my docs. I purchase the pills from our local pharmacy, which is part of a national chain. I sort of understand the purpose of each pill but trust my providers to treat me as they would themselves. Will the system err? Inevitably. Ignorance, inadvertence, malevolence, greed may corrupt any link in these long verifying chains: “attention must be paid!” I trust it is being paid. Records are monitored, results reviewed. On average, diseases are disarmed, hale years added to our spans. From lab to pill case, the system has wrought miracles. Bless all its moving parts.

                  Now elect leaders who insist the system is rigged. Nefarious scoundrels are screwing us to enrich themselves. Drain the swamp! New brooms sweep clean! Distrust! Don’t be confused by scammers – choose your own regimens and cures!

                  Is my health improved by this new unease? Hardly. Incompetent to assess competing claims, I’m susceptible to being suckered. Besides, who has the time for radical doubt? Researching the advisability of ezetimibe, to pick one, and of this brand, would gobble hours I might have devoted to missive-making, leaving me none the wiser. Distrust corrodes our calm and sense of safety. And – guess what? – these supposed leaders are deliberately misleading us to advance their own interests, degrading the quality of our lives to embellish their own.

                  That’s what’s happening in America today. With pills, laws, taxes, justice, international relations, public safety – with pretty much every responsibility we’ve entrusted to government – we’re now told things are not as we think, we’re living a lie, beware. And in each case the asseveration is a lie, true only if the facts fit our misleaders’ malign intent. (Only inconvenient truths are truly true.) 

                  Trust like a crystal vase, easily smashed, is impossible to repair. God willing, we will throw these miscreants out, but it will take generations of responsible government to convince Americans government is capable of good. Cynicism will continue gnawing public confidence, no matter who’s in charge.

                  Democracy is a system predicated on trust. Citizens, though we may disagree, desire what’s best for most and rely on facts and reason to steer them right. Remove that axiom from our scaffolding and the system crumples into a mess of warring interests, where only force prevails. The people now become a problem to control not a power to be released. We fear one another, keep our mouths shut, and hunker down to keep safe.

                  And our health deteriorates. The tyrant picks our pills – for his benefit, not ours. (His ne’er-do-well second son owns a pill factory.) A pall descends on spirits forbidden to frisk or romp. We may continue to exist, but existence is hardly life.

                  Trust is the only remedy for distrust, but its development is slow. Once hurt, twice shy. Humans, like other creatures, having been traduced, avoid the risk. If one politician is a blackguard, all must be. If our medical establishment is screwing with us, to hell with it (and die of quack medicine, like poor Steve Jobs). Assume the worst of strangers – you can’t be too careful!

                  As a boy, insecure, I lied to beat the band. I claimed accomplishments I only aspired to, abbreviated travel times, stretched my height (by an inch!), fibbed my way out of embarrassments, then sizzled with shame at my timidity. OK, I was no great Shakes, but feigning otherwise made me worse.

                  I tiptoed my way to candor. Sincerity, it turned out, was a sensual satisfaction – and a turn-on. Here I pray we warm ourselves by the fire of truth.