In Trust We Trust
Trust is a little word and a big concept that’s taken a genuine pounding across America in recent months. We trusted that evil was far away, airlines were strong and airliners were safe. We trusted that skyscrapers didn’t collapse, quarterly corporate reports were true, the stock market and economy were recovering and even hate had limits. We trusted that baseball was a game, Olympic judges and Little League coaches didn’t cheat and adults--even strangers and especially priests--wouldn’t hurt children.
Given such apparently contrary evidence, perhaps it should not be too surprising that we so easily find reasons to ponder distrust these days. It’s amazing how important something as transparent as trust can be in our lives. And how frazzled most feel when any trust is betrayed, even the simple trust in a once-reliable car to start. Distrust throws everything into doubt. Even suspicion of betrayal corrodes the bonds that link family, town and nation.
Trust, according to Webster, is a “firm belief or confidence in the honesty, integrity, reliability, justice, etc. of another person or thing.” As invisible as it is, trust, it turns out, is an essential ingredient in a successful society, especially a democracy. We trust in trust in so many ways each day. Trust that our elected representatives will be honest and representative, if not infallible. Trust that our justice system will be, if not perfect, at least fair. Employers trust employees to work. Employees trust employers to pay. Customers trust the products they buy and sellers trust their payment promises. Trust is even printed on our money.
It takes a long while to build trust and only seconds for it to melt away. But before we get too suspicious of trusting people and things, as terrorists hope we will, let’s recall some important facts. We trust that firemen and police will do heroic things in a crisis--and they did. We trust neighbors and volunteers to help each other--and they have. We trust our governments to run and our way of life to survive--and they have. A recent CNN/USA Today poll found that more people trust others today (41%) than two years ago (38%). Teachers were the most-trusted segment (84%) and HMO managers the least (20%).
Perhaps it’s presumptuous of journalists, trusted by 38%, to suggest this, but trust has been a historical hallmark for Americans. Who has trusted more and longer in the collective wisdom of a free, majority vote and trusted so many million strangers to join them? We’ve sometimes paid a price for misplaced trust, but we’ve always returned to trust as a behavioral girder. We will again. We trust.
