Summary: We’ve frittered away the 2016 election talking mostly about personalities and trivia. But this partisan sniping, each side seeing only its own version of America, reveals the breakdown of trust that social scientists have long warned about. Deteriorating for decades, it has become one of our core problems. It makes solutions to other problems almost impossible.
“Mankind are not held together by lies. Trust is the foundation of society. Where there is no …trust, there can be no society.”
— By Frederick Douglass in “Our Composite Nationality“, 7 December 1869.
“The Decline of Trust in the United States“
By Josh Morgan at Medium, 20 May 2014.
“A Look at the Trend and What Can Be Done About It.”
“Trust is the glue that binds people together. …Trust is correlated with —
- increased civic participation (Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
- decreased corruption (The Quality of Government: Corruption, Social Trust, and Inequality in International Perspective
- increased resilience to disasters (Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery
- decreased economic inequality (The Moral Foundations of Trust
- and decreases in illegal activities (“The not so dark side of trust: Does trust increase the size of the shadow economy?“).
“…Data from the DDB Life Style Survey indicates that trust began to increase throughout the country after World War II, and rose steadily through the 1960s. According to the data, trust peaked in 1967–1968, when roughly 56% of survey respondents agreed that “most people can be trusted.” From there, trust began to decline, and the trend has continued ever since.
A poll published by the Associated Press and GfK found that only 1 in 3 three Americans would agree that “most people can be trusted.” …Pew found that less than 1 in 5 adults trusted the government in Washington. In the workplace, the American Psychological Association found that roughly 1 in 4 adults did not trust their employers. …The Pew Research Center recently found that less than 1 in 5 adults between 18 and 29 years old believed that most people could be trusted, which is lower than the general population. Harvard’s Institute of Politics also found that political trust was low among Millenials {sic}.
“…Using the 2012 edition of the General Social Survey (GSS) data set, I was able to compare how groups in different categories responded to the variable “trust”, which asks, “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?” This was the variable used by Pew and the AP-GfK to determine trust among the general public and among Millenials. {sic}”
—————————– Read the article in full! —————————–
We don’t trust each other, but we really distrust the government
Gallup has been running its confidence in institutions poll since 1972, giving us another perspective on this problem. The trends are terrifying, with confidence in our key institutions falling — especially in our governing institutions, except for the military and police (which is terrifying, in a different way). This is among our greatest problems, and makes solutions to our other problems far more difficult.
Conclusions
Social cohesion is the essence of politics in a Republic, which we’ve forgotten. Historically it was America’s great strength. We rely on it as the foundation for our key social and political institutions. And we’ve lost it. We fractured into tribes, each with their own tribal truths and mistrust of other tribes. This makes collective action — even communication — difficult. It makes us easy to rule.
It’s also unnecessary. We have stopped listening to each other, become too trusting of propaganda, and lost respect for each other. Fragmented we are weak. All our wealth and military power means little if we cannot stand together to face the myriad challenges of the 21st century.
November 8 is a good day to think about this — after you vote — and you can take a first step to fix it.
For More Information
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- Examples of blind allegiance to tribal truths, keeping us weak & ignorant.
- Gallup warns us to prepare for fascism!
- Government officials’ lies erode the Republic’s foundation. Do we care?
- The essence of politics in a Republic, which we’ve forgotten.
- Much of what we love about America was true only for a moment.
