Trust is possibly the most important thing to have in an advanced society as ours. Trust in other people to do their part, trust in the knowledge that others have. Trust in our society to help those who need it. Trust is absolutely essential to the continued growth of the human race, and its absence is also why I believe our modern society is devolving.

Technological advances have helped us become more self centered, (how many selfies did you take this morning?) and “self-reliant”. I put the last bit in quotes because it is not real self-reliance, we have learned to trust our phones and computers more than other people around us. It is truly sad. We need people to help society. Computers don’t need a society, they have networks.

Last week, for an example, I was sitting at the bus stop and someone had just left the doctors, they had a prescription of something in a bottle. They were staring at their phone, which they had looked up the medication online. I heard them say something along the lines of “I don’t need this” and they tossed the medicine. Now I know that your body is yours and you get to choose what you put into it. However, while you’re at the doctor, why not ask them questions about the meds? If you disagree then the doctor can explain why you need it or if there is alternatives. Doesn’t that sound better than waiting 20 minutes, googling it, reading the first article you find and throwing away something that could be beneficial?

We used to trust that people could do their jobs, whether it was Lawyers, Doctors, Plumbers or Electricians. We would recognize that these people went to school for years to learn to do more than what I find in a 15 minute google search. Now we view these people as greedy. Why trust a lawyer, they’re just going to steal your money. (Hollywood has not helped in this) I’ll just do it myself and fail. (You can replace any profession with this).

We are taught nowadays that everyone is out there just for personal gain, nobody does it for the benefit of others. Well I was raised differently. It is not foolish to believe that someone who has more knowledge and experience in a subject is better than I am at doing things. Admittedly these are still people and I trust that some mistakes will be made, but I trust that they are just that, mistakes. Doctors misdiagnose people a lot less often than plumbers do, and plumbers misplumb houses a lot less often than doctors do.

I know this can be hard for a lot to do, but – If you cannot trust someone, then don’t associate with them. I refuse to be friends with people I can’t trust. If I believe a mechanic or lawyer is not trustworthy, I’ll find a different one. I can’t stand to even hold a conversation with people who mistrust everyone, the conspiracy theorist. The seriously paranoid theorists mistrust everyone, but want everyone to trust them when they tell you things. Trust is a two way street, if I can’t trust you, I’m sure you don’t trust me.

It is important to find people that you can trust, if you cannot trust someone to be honest with you, don’t give them your business. Find an alternative, and if you feel you can’t trust anyone, then maybe the problem isn’t external it’s internal. In which case doing some soul searching might be a good idea. Keep your eyes peeled for signs that someone is trustworthy or not, they are there. Most of the time we ignore the blatantly obvious signs. But don’t kick yourself for it, just pick yourself up, move on, find someone you can trust. Not everyone is trustworthy, but if you can’t tell the difference and believe everyone is untrustworthy, then you will suffer from a very lonely life. Keep your eyes open for these scoundrels and fraudsters. If you can see them coming you can avoid using their services.

I hear a lot lately “Honesty is the best policy” If that were true we would have a lot more wars. There are a lot of times that I need to trust the people around me to keep my secrets, or to say what needs to be said. Honesty tends to destroy self-esteems, and cause depression. You need to trust that people know when to say the right thing, and that the right thing is not always the stone cold honest truth. Honesty is a good policy, but it’s alright to bend the truth for the sake of empathy.

I was thinking of the old adage “Trust has to be earned.” And I disagree. I feel that trust and respect should be given upon 1^st meet. After that it is the recipient’s job to keep both. Don’t trust someone that has proven themselves untrustworthy. Proven to yourself or to a friend. We don’t work for people that don’t trust us, or at least I don’t, and won’t again. We also don’t give jobs to people we don’t trust.

Mistrust has run rampant the last 2 decades and I feel it has gotten out of hand. If we can’t start to trust each other again as a society, and prove that we are worthy of trust, we have no future. It’s that simple.