An obsessive theme of our incoming federal administration is distrust. Everybody’s out to get you, don’t believe a word you’re told. Justice isn’t justice but nefarious plots, science isn’t science but self-serving lies, elections are stolen, teachers connive to corrupt your kids, tax collectors are fleecing you, the news media falsifies, nothing you think true is true, existence is rigged against you! And their solution to this fearsome predicament? Trust a proven liar – arguably the lyingest politician ever (and that’s saying something) – to put things right.
Give these guys credit for originality. This belief stands conventional morality on its head. What an experiment in human relations! Trust no one! – except a flagrant liar. Now what?
“You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible,” said the playwright Chekhov. “If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost,” said Obama. Were they right – or bullshitting? If absolute distrust is the right rule to live by, how does society function?
Community depends on trust. If my neighbor’s lying to me, why listen? Likewise if my leader’s misleading me. I’m alone in the world, hunkered into my bunker, with no reliable informants except my senses (which AI et al. readily gull) – how to survive, thrive, laugh, love in such a wasteland?
The dissolution of community gave rise to distrust. When everybody lived together and knew each other’s business, lying was harder to pull off and more severely punished. The boy who cried wolf could wreak havoc. In the city, folks hardly know each other, so fraud’s easier. Online one can become a fictional character, a predator disguised as a prelate. Capitalism is predicated on selling, which is a form of lying.
Detection fiction – our most popular genre – is an urban innovation, which commenced with the rise of metropolises in the mid-nineteenth century. In a village, everybody’s a detective and knows whodunnit.
“It is impossible to go through life without trust: that is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself,” said Graham Greene. “It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust,” said Dr. Johnson. My feelings exactly. Trust is not a nice-to-have, a decorative flourish, but the essential integument of society. No one tells the truth entirely – no one would want to in every instance. It’s permitted to lie to kids about Santa or flatter moribunds on their ghastly pallor. It may be OK to insist one’s feeling “fine” when one isn’t. But to relax into love one must dwell in an atmosphere of trust. I err plenty, omit frequently, but never, I’m pretty sure, lie maliciously, to mislead. Once is enough to break our bond. “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters,” said Albert Einstein.
Trust, like a crystal vase, is easily shattered and impossible to restore. If cynicism becomes one’s mental habit, how do you snap out of it? If institutions lied to me yesterday, why believe them tomorrow? Distrust is viral, contagious, and survives its immediate cause. I shudder to live in the nation our new President describes.
Yet I must. How? By trusting a few – cautiously – discriminately – fiercely. My word is my bond as yours, I trust, is yours. And I will abominate and vilify liars, no matter their oath or office. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright,” said Pascal.