Trust

What is so important about trust? Just think about it – without trust society as we know it would disintegrate. And the core of trust is love; love for one’s fellow beings – all fellow travellers on the road of life.

Without it the situation would arise where trust between child and parent would be absent. Domestic animals trust that we will care for them. What about trust between partners – husbands and wives? I remember reading somewhere, Time magazine most probably, about an English couple, newly married – both lawyers of course – who drew up a bizarre ‘contract’ between themselves wherein everything they did had to be compensated for. If one made the breakfast the other had to do the dinner, if one washed the car the other had to do something to ‘balance’ things, and so it went on. There was obviously absolutely no trust between them, and I can’t believe there was any love either. I have no idea whether the union lasted, but I can’t see how it would.

Of course in business trust is paramount. When trust fails chaos reigns as is currently very evident. Banks don’t trust anyone at present, so credit dries up – and business relies on credit.

Trust also depends on people’s ethical conduct and behaviour. Unethical behaviour is the antithesis of trust. I mean, who would trust someone who lies, who is dishonest, whose behaviour belies all that most people consider to be good and decent? No one does – we use the rather disparaging phrase “honour among thieves” to express our distrust of those who we have categorised as untrustworthy, but who deal between themselves. As an example, who trusts the wiz-kids in Wall Street now-a-days? Who trusts the rating agencies that gave AAA ratings to very dubious CDOs and sub-prime mortgages? Who trusts the banks? But they all deal, or dealt, between themselves didn’t they? They all dreamed up the (basically unethical) schemes which have brought the world economy to its knees.

Now, to regain trust, people, particularly business people, must be ethical. They must remember, or re-learn, or be taught, what ethics means and why it is so important. They must be made aware of the importance of morality, of the virtues and of holding fast to values which support their moral precept and virtues, which are only evident by their behaviour (ethical, or unethical).

We cannot see into someone’s mind, so how they think, (and thoughts governs their morality, their understanding of virtue and what they value) can only be evidenced by their actions, which, of course result from their ethics.

I consider ethics to be the glue that holds societies and groups of people together. That is why it is so important, why trust is so important.