I see the present wrangling over pandemic-related issues (both epidemiologic and economic) as an indicator that we are strongly trending from a high-trust to a low-trust society.This is a very good point. It's also easier to trust when the government is asking rather than telling. I 'went in' on the seventh of March, long before there were orders to do so, because it was clearly the right thing to do. I voluntarily agreed to what were still only recommendations, and did my best to think of ways to make it work more effectively.
At the (admittedly not-achievable-given-human-nature) upper bound, a high trust society would look like this: public officials and other experts would clearly lay out what they know (and don't know) about the public health threats, and the best-available understanding of how to address them -- all while trusting the public will neither ignore the possible risks, nor panic over the information. The public, on learning of the risks, would voluntarily agree to the official recommendations, even if the burden was heavy, understanding that the response required a significant public cooperation, but with the understanding that they could trust the public officials and experts to not extend those burdens any longer than necessary (and likewise trusting that no public official would make a temporary expediency into a permanent restriction on freedoms).
A low-trust society looks a lot like what we have today: Public officials and experts withholding information to avoid public panic. (Also, withholding information about mask use to protect the supply for their own use.) Using emergency declarations to further political agendas. Spreading rumors to discredit other public officials or experts. Regarding any discovered uncertainty about facts or data as proof of intentional deceit.
In short, IF we had reason to trust each other, we wouldn't need to worry that pandemic-response measures - even extreme measures - were the death knell of personal liberty. It's pretty clear that we don't live in that world anymore.
The harder they push, though, the less willing I am to tolerate it. It's harder to trust a government that bans your right to protest it. It's harder to trust a government that will arrest you for showing up to criticize them. The government has also been lying, as noted, about things like masks' effectiveness. They are treating us and our rights with contempt, and there is very little reason to trust anyone who holds you in contempt.
There is a great deal of damage being done here.
18 comments:
I don't think the present Wuhan Virus situation has done anything more to trust than make its lack more apparent.
When Americans are contemptuously dismissed as bitter Bible-clinging gun-toters in flyover country, there's not a lot of trust being supported.
Even earlier, when the NLMSM refers to Tea Partiers as tea baggers, there's not a lot of trust being supported.
When Democrats call Republicans terrorists and hostage takers over a debt ceiling debate, there's not a lot of trust being supported.
When candidates for office call Americans racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and on and on because they won't vote for her, there's not a lot of trust being supported.
When Democrats call administrative personnel racist and xenophobic because they disagree with administration policy, there's not a lot of trust being supported.
When Democrats leak classified information, leak information from private meetings, there's not a lot of trust being supported.
That's just a couple of highlights; the list goes on, and it's of decades duration.
Regarding government pushing too hard and so losing trustworthiness, that's the local jurisdictions that are pulling those stunts. State-level governments have been, for the most part (a couple of exceptions), strongly suggesting, not pushing. The Federal administration is criticized for not being dictatorial enough--and hypocritically, cried foul over when it asserts its authority under the nation-wide, State by State declarations of emergency--an authority each State willingly granted the Federal government when they asked for the declarations--which they had to do; the Federal government cannot declare those emergencies without the requests.
Eric Hines
Mr. Hines beat me to it, and more eloquently to boot.
I've been opining elsewhere that the authorities, because of their failure to trust the American people en masse (of course there are *always* foolish scofflaws), choose to lie and embellish or even fabricate facts to support more burdensome regulation, run the very real risk of being the "Boy Who Cried Wolf", ironically enough, arming the scofflaws with proof that they are correct in dismissing the authorities claims, and likely convincing a fair number of regular folks that they are not to be trusted blindly, undercutting their authority. Yet they continue their one-upsmanship on restrictions.
It will be harmful in the end, if the truth isn't sussed out of the background noise eventually, made plain, and admissions of fault given.
I'm not hopeful anything will improve, because it has a nasty tendency to be a vicious spiral.
Yeah, Eric beat me to it as well, although I like to embrace the healing power of "and". A lot of damage was already done to trust, and more is being done now.
Wasn't Y at Zero Trust for awhile there...
Didn't people think that was paranoia or something...
The government has also been lying, as noted, about things like masks' effectiveness.
The Purple is preserved for only the Royalty or those of a certain status. Peasants and such... they don't qualify.
“Does anyone have eggs for sale?”
Comrades; The Wahman are noticing Eggs not on shelves.
Lenin asks; Wat iz 2 bee dun?
Comrades; In decades nothing happens, in weeks decades happen…but comrades decades can unravel in a few weeks if women keep asking “Does anyone have any eggs for sale”?
Comrades, that is same as Windows Blue Screen of Death.
7 words Does anyone have eggs for sale?< FATAL ERROR
RESPONSE FROM CHORUS: COMRADES !
***!!_WE MUST COLLECTIVIZE CHICKENS_!!***
No, eggs for sale is not guaranteed under Soviet system...
The mortal danger to the V-shaped Collectivization of America:
Eggs. NO EGGS. V-Shaped Collectivization Blue Screen of Death.
This may be the shortest Communist relationship ever, of course America was always too much "It's complicated" for such a marriage to work.
Still I thought it would last longer than a month.
To do my part I shall upbraid family members with chickens in Koop [yes KOOP] to begin Poultry Collectivization by reading DAS KAPITAL to Chickens.
This will also give her kids, excuse me economic sub-units something to do...
As the self-appointed elites (academic, political, financial) have become more and more self-contained and insular, they have started reverting to aristocrats. The ultimate example, perhaps thus far, those who fled New York City for their vacation homes and hired guards to keep away the mobs they (the elites) expected to be attacking to get their supplies.
They assume they know what is best for everyone else, because they are the elites, born and educated to be leaders. They've inadvertantly (and perhaps in a few cases deliberately) sown the seeds of loss of trust. Americans have been losing faith in government since the 1970s, and this is accelerating it. Unfortunately, with the loss of other local institutions such as the church, family, community-service groups like the Masonic Lodge and Lions among others, the foundations for trust have been eroded. When the top is frail and the bottom is weak, the building can't stand when storms come and the winds blow.
LittleRed1
"As the self-appointed elites (academic, political, financial) have become more and more self-contained and insular, they have started reverting to aristocrats. "
Bingo. I call them "The New Lords"
Yet unlike traditional aristocracy, they lack the sense of duty and responsibility of their assumed position. I cannot, for example, imagine any of them leading men and being first over the top at the Somme.
In Yeagers biography, he talked of going to Vietnam to take command of a squadron . He had some reports of ineffective support. Can't do good air support (at the time) from 15,000 feet- or whatever- the details may be off- but the gist is this-
He told them- "you are fighter jocks, the best, the elite. You got to fly the fastest planes, you got the red Corvette and the prettiest women. You guys are the star of the show. Now it is time to payback- get your ass down on the deck and get those troops the air support they need." or words to that effect-
With power comes responsibility. Instead, we get contempt. This fuse is burning short.
Chuck Yeager is the best. The other day he was talking on Twitter about the last time he was in a stay-inside situation: while hiding from the Nazis after being shot down over France.
He said he eventually got moved from the mayor’s barn into French cathouses, because the German soldiers weren’t allowed to go there. Once he got back all his fellow pilots were wondering if they could get shot down!
They assume they know what is best for everyone else, because they are the elites, born and educated to be leaders.
They will be corpses by the time my faction is done with them.
They will be elites so long as Americans keep calling them that instead of zombie dogs.
The reason why I don't buy into the American gun culture of rah rah Ar 15s is not for the usual reasons. I get why people like their AR 15s. Got a sleek finish, customizable whatever rails, red dot, scope, receiver caliber chamber switch out, Picka rail whatever systems to put up flashlights, tripods, and all kinds of other accessories that would be on par with a high school female student putting stuff on on her book bag and phone in Japan. I get it.
But they are still pea shooters. In a military campaign, the Final War of Humanity, projected casualties went as high as several BILLION. Pea shooters are not enough for such a war. Which is why I prefer Weapons of Divine Annihilation or Weapons of Mass destruction (except hydrogen bombs, those are bad).
I call them "The New Lords"
They are only "new" in America. In Latin America, Europe, Britain, and Hapsburg territory, the New leaders are the same as the Old Fuhrers.
" moved from the mayor’s barn into French cathouses,"
In this case the cathouses are running the town, city and nation...so...
I guess we're all shot down now.
We'd be better with the nation managed by crackheads.
They know the value of a dollar, and can be sated for far less than our current crop of degenerates.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/libyas-rivalries-risks-covid-19-part-one
How did Libya, the nation with the highest living standards in America or one of the highest, with a banking system that was soon going to be backed by gold and not fiat debt, turn in this America's Cabal?
America's Cabal: Oh that, we played around with them a little and looks like they broke.
What say you American slave citizens?
Slaves: NATO is fighting for security, we did what was right.
Y: Is it me or when nations use their power to project slave status unto others, sooner or later the karma boomerang hits back at home?
Cross out America and replace with Africa.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/prior-to-2011-nato-war-libya-had-the-highest-standard-of-living-in-africa/5668003
The fundamental problem with spreading liberty via American foreign adventures is... the traitors at home.
Somehow we seem to have lost the desired outcome of the cathouses.
Many pet cats and dogs have had their soul upgraded, and they are then born as human babies in their next life cycle.
This is why humanity is... ridiculous.
Prisons are full of them. Narcissists and malignant narcissists are full of something.
They were once, often abused, pets. They just don't know anything. They are lower than children. They are the deer and the chipmonk that gets killed because they tried to cross a street or got hunted. They still live in the Jungle, fearing human hunters.
Post a Comment