Dependency and Distrust
There is a difference between reliance and trust. You can trust someone without being reliant on them, because reliance involves some degree of dependency.
Americans today are individually more reliant on other people than probably ever in our history. Our general population, for example, is completely dependent on others for food. Those in the service-based economy, which makes up the biggest part of our job market today, largely depend on producers of goods in this country and around the world to exist in the marketplace. Plus, Americans utilize technology at record levels, as discussed in previous posts, yet we generally lack even a basic understanding about how these tools actually work or how they were created. And finally, more Americans are dependent on government than ever.
Yet, studies show that Americans’ trust is diminishing. While public trust in government has been declining steadily over the past half-century, this trend does not end with politics – it extends to confidence within our personal relationships. According to Pew Research, almost 80 percent of Americans think their fellow citizens have too little trust in each other. The Institute for Family Studies further notes that trust between Americans has been waning in society over the last 50 years.
Thus, data confirms a diverging trend: Americans are becoming more dependent on institutions, while our trust in each other is declining.
While I am no psychologist, people in my career need to at least understand a little about human thinking. Many might find declining trust and increasing dependence as hard to reconcile. However, I believe the phenomenon can be explained with a truth that you have probably heard your entire life: trust is earned.
By instinct, humans should only trust those who have proven themselves worthy. While not necessarily rising to the level of dependance, trust places us in a condition of vulnerability. After thousands of years existing in a world where danger lurks practically at every corner, our survival has depended on our ability to discern who and what to trust.
Thus, if we see someone who is capable and independent, we are probably instinctually more likely to consider them trustworthy. Conversely, a society filled with incapable, dependent individuals will likely not generate a culture that has great confidence in each other.
As government and other societal institutions grow, our trust as citizens shifts from each other, as a collective of independent and capable people, to the state itself. Eventually, our trust in our own personal capabilities erodes to the point that dependance on government and societal institutions just becomes the norm.
While the data discussed earlier indicates that almost all Americans believe that declining trust in our country is a problem, I would contend that society is probably looking in the wrong places for solutions. The coexistence of rising dependence and falling trust provides evidence to support the logical theory that our focus should be on dependance itself – if Americans were to become a little more independent and self-reliant as a culture, we could possibly develop more trust between each other.
While this might seem unachievable at the population level, I believe each of us can take small steps as individuals to make meaningful change. We shouldn’t focus on how much society trusts each other. We should instead be focused on how much we, as individuals, can be trusted.
Our efforts should be driven toward achievable goals. We simply can’t control how people feel about us, but we can control who we become. Given human nature, I believe that if we focus on being competent, dedicate ourselves to learning new skills, and commit ourselves to becoming less reliant on a system that is fueled by our dependence, then people will naturally become confident in us as individuals and gravitate to our behavior by example.