Reflections on Trust and Security
Phyllis Palmer
As a new grandmother I’m totally captivated by the little miracle
we call Mira, and seeing the world freshly through her trusting
eyes. As I hold her, sing to her, feed her, and do all the things
loving caretakers do to meet a baby’s needs, I find myself reflecting
on how vulnerable and totally trusting babies are. Psychologists
such as Erik Erikson have long maintained that Basic Trust is the
absolute bedrock of security upon which a child’s healthy
emotional development depends. Her capacity for close,
trusting relationships in the future is dependent on experiencing in
infancy the care of loving adults she can count on to nurture and
protect her, meet her basic physical and emotional needs, and never
deliberately hurt or abandon her.
It struck me
that the same principle may hold true for citizens of a country as
well. In order to have that all-important sense of basic
security, people need to be able to trust that their government is
looking out for their best interests and not trying to harm or take
advantage of them. I remember back in the 50's, despite the
nuclear threat, we enjoyed a fairly secure sense that most of our
public servants and institutions were generally working for the common
good, doing their best to protect us and improve the quality of our
common life. We had a relatively high level of trust that if we
worked hard and met our obligations, our company and government would
in turn meet their obligations to us. We generally viewed our
fellow man as benign and walked the streets in comparative safety with
little concern that we would be attacked or robbed.
Compare that to the level of insecurity, distrust and hostility
that pervades our world today. We seem to exist in a constant
state of fear of all those people who are out to get us or our money,
who want to harm us in some way. Every day the news warns
of new ways malicious people have found to steal our money and
even our very identity! We feel alienated from our fellow man and
interpersonal violence is epidemic. We can no longer rely on the
structures which used to protect us and we have to live much of our
public lives in a tense, defensive mode to avoid being victimized.
Unfortunately, in a highly competitive
capitalistic society where it’s each man for himself – survival
of the fittest (or the most privileged) – the ordinary person
cannot trust that the system will look out for his best
interests. We used to trust our government to oversee the safety
of our environment, our food supply, our prescription drugs, but that’s
no longer the case. Many of our elected representatives have sold
out to powerful corporate interests who finance their campaigns, so we
no longer can count on them to look out for our well-being. The
system now serves the interests of the rich and powerful, rather than
those who are most vulnerable, and we are rapidly shredding the safety
net that used to stand between the poor and total disaster. Trust
is further eroded by the pervasiveness of deceptive advertising and the
rampant greed and crime, until it seems there are precious few people
we can really trust, especially among our politicians.
Americans seem to have concluded that
their only security lies not in working together for the common good,
but in accumulating as much money as possible, so they can buy immunity
for themselves and their families from the terrifying vulnerability our
system inflicts on the poor and the dwindling middle class.
The American Dream has become the hope of winning admission to the
Cushioned Class, who are sheltered by their wealth from the indignities
and hardships that afflict the casualties of our unjust economic system.
The false sense of security of America’s affluent was shattered
on 9/11 by terrorism, the great leveler, which brought down the high
and mighty along with the rest, and revealed that no one is safe in
today’s world, especially those whose “security” was based on other
people’s poverty and insecurity. Then we turned frantically to
our powerful military in which we place our ultimate trust to keep us
safe. All we have to do is bomb all those countries who shelter
terrorists, and kill all those who hate us so desperately they are
willing to give their lives to hurt us, and then we’ll be safe again,
right? Wrong! For every one we kill, many spring up to take
their place.
It seems the more uncertain and
frightening the world is, the more powerful becomes the very human need
to place our trust in someone or something outside ourselves which
appears strong and protective. This helps to explain the dramatic
resurgence of passionate fundamentalism of all stripes in these times
of desperate insecurity. So strong is the need to trust that
people will often resist seeing the most obvious evidence that the
object of their trust is not trustworthy, and they will follow the most
misguided and corrupt leaders to the death, rather than admit their
trust was misplaced.
Life in our times seems to
be deteriorating into a war of all against all. How then can we
ever hope to regain the basic sense of security so essential for the
quality of life we all crave?
To maintain a
modicum of sanity, most people manage to build a circle of trusted
family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers around themselves with whom
they have friendly relations, people they can count on. I heard a
Canadian writer say he does not resent paying his taxes because he
feels that is his just contribution to the common good, his share in
the cost of meeting the common needs of the whole community, the great
“WE” that is the Canadian people. That sense of “WE” our country
experienced under FDR in the 30's and 40's – and recaptured briefly
after 9/11 – seems to be missing in our polarized society these
days. We Americans need to reclaim politics as the system by
which We the People join together to provide for our common good,
ensure that the basic needs of all our citizens are met, preserve our
environment, and protect against unjust accumulations of power by
corporations or government entities. In other words, we need to
secure our democracy, which is rapidly eroding.
But we cannot hope to be secure in our own country as long as
America is so hated around the world. It is said “the universe
pays each man in his own currency,” which I think means that you get
back what you put out into the world. Our country has a long
history of using our military to dominate and take what we wanted from
other countries. We have probably caused more deaths and
suffering around the world, directly and indirectly, than any other
country, with our exploitive economic policies and our fondness for
using devastating weaponry on people whose leaders we don’t like.
It is not surprising that our violent tactics would eventually be
turned against us.
How different might be the
world’s attitude toward us if instead of sending bombs and troops to
troubled countries, we were sending massive shipments of food,
medicine, school supplies and armies of peace corps volunteers, doctors
and teachers, well trained in the local language and culture, to help
establish hospitals and schools, engineers to build water treatment
systems? If we were actually using our vast wealth and expertise
to help, rather than exploit and destroy other countries, I can’t
imagine they would still be spawning terrorist groups willing to give
their very lives to get back at us. Of course, it would take
time, humility and patient commitment to change the world’s suspicions
about our motives and allow them to finally trust that we mean them no
harm and genuinely want to help with no strings attached. No
longer could we give lip service to wanting freedom, democracy and
justice for oppressed peoples while secretly supporting their
oppressors, and profiting from their exploitation.
But I think the biggest challenge would be to persuade Americans
that earning the world’s trust and love rather than fear is worth the
effort, and that winning hearts and minds is a far better way to regain
our security than “winning” endless wars. There is profound
wisdom in our peace movement slogans: “Peace is our only security” and
“If you want peace, work for justice.”