In today’s spotlight I wish to focus for a moment on the issue of trust. Who or what are we to trust, when, under what circumstances and for how long? Think about that for a moment.
I saw a T-shirt this week with this on it: “Trust the Government” printed in black bold lettering, but underneath, printed in a shade of gray just slightly darker than the gray shirt were these words, “ Said No Founding Father Ever!”
What’s True?
We have hosted a number of professionals on my radio show, Provocative Enlightenment, who have offered evidence of extra terrestrials, early hominid life as existing here well before the dating given us by modern science, life after death research, remote viewing experiments, and clandestine undertakings by different governments of the world ranging from the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to many of the forms and branches of MK Ultra experimentation. We learned that the US Navy used the fog in San Francisco to test the distribution of a biological agent on the trusting population of the Bay Area. I could go on, but the question again: Who do we trust?
Everybody Lies
There are many people today who no longer find it easy to trust much of anything or any one. We’re all aware that the media lies to us, our politicians lie to us, our leaders lie to us, and so forth, so we assume that everyone lies and we seem to accept that. We reviewed the studies with Professor Dan Ariely, as published in his book, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, so we know for a fact that everyone lies—but is there a qualitative difference to these lies?
The answer here is a resounding YES! There is quite a difference between the person who exaggerates their prowess and someone who makes stuff up like coming under gunfire, when no such thing ever occurred. There is also quite a difference between the so-called little white lie and the rapists deception intended to cause you to let your guard down and trust them.
Trust
It turns out that the word ‘trust’ has almost become an introduction to suspicion and perhaps even paranoia. And yet, as Eric Hoffer once said, “Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.”
The fact is, we must trust! We cannot distrust everyone all of the time! We need to be able to trust to survive. Societies are built on trust even when not every brick of the foundation is as solid as we’d like it. Frank Crane is credited with this reminder, “You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don’t trust enough.”
I know that to be true for, when I retired as a detection of deception examiner, I was pretty jaded and paranoid. However, a dear friend of mine was able to convince me that you are better to trust too much than never to trust at all.
Provisional Trust
Today I see trust as something provisionally granted. I will listen to others but that does not mean I go away believing everything I hear. No—I believe it is incumbent upon all of us to offer a form of provisional trust guarded by our discerning intellects. That said, when the intellect informs us that we are being deceived, we need to heed its warning despite our sometimes emotional attachments and desires. My thoughts anyway.
As always, thanks for the read and I appreciate your feedback.
Eldon Taylor
Provocative Enlightenment
NY Time Bestselling Author of Choices and Illusions
www.eldontaylor.com