Trust, but Verify
This proverb applies to elections too!
The advice “trust, but verify” is based on a Russian proverb.
It’s English version was made famous by President Ronald Reagan during his missile reduction negotiations with the USSR.
"Trust, but Verify" is also a reference to two well-established and sound business principles: Caveat Emptor (Latin) interpreted as “buyer beware”and Due diligence advising every buyer to do what’s necessary to assure that the agreement or purchase is worth the price being paid.
Trust is a precarious human FEELING.
An infant places total trust in mom because survival depends on it. As we grow through childhood into adulthood, we establish trust relationships of varying intensities with many people beyond our parents including siblings, teachers, friends and lovers.
Any betrayal of that trust can be emotionally challenging and even devastating in some cases. When someone is said to have “trust issues”, this is likely the results of past and enduring betrayals.
To Verify is an act of REASON.
A verification is carried out by a person who decides to apply facts and logic to reach the conclusion as to whether it is safe to trust someone or something.
Men and women react and act differently to circumstances where “trust, but verify” is called upon. Throughout human history, men were expected to play the roles of protector and provider in the family and the strongest men led those roles in a tribe or community. Women were homemakers and food preparers in the same human relationships. Men and women depended on each other and trust was the emotion that made it work.
In modern times, trust still matters greatly to the survival and prosperity of all human relationships. This includes the public’s trust in its elected government leaders and unelected public officials.
When people lose trust (remember, it’s a precarious feeling) in their leaders, what does it take to restore that trust? Is it promises of more ‘free stuff’? Is it great speeches by charismatic politicians who can deliver soaring oratory laced with tantalizing hopes and dreams?
Public Trust is crippled and limping into an unknown future.
Our ability to Verify if our leaders and institutions as trustworthy has been seriously attacked and undermined. The elites expect (demand?) our trust while erecting barriers to verification. Prior to the Internet and the many-channel news media, can you ever recall a time when public trust has been so low?
History has given us many examples of reasons not to trust in public leaders. The USSR collapsed in 1989. New Zealand, Greece and the city of Detroit have all collapsed or declared bankruptcy in my lifetime. Major corporations with “trusted brands” have come and gone or become “villains” in contemporary culture.
Trust, or lack thereof, comes in varying degrees and guises.
It’s one thing for a wife to find another woman’s brand of lipstick of her husband’s collar, but it’s a totally different scale of distrust when a citizens en masse vote to kick failed leaders out of the White House, Senate or Congress.
Did the American people trust Joe Biden and the Democratic Party in 2020 and spend the next two years testing that trust only to find it wanting? I guess we’ll know after tomorrow’s election won’t we?
