The culture of distrust has reached a crescendo

Which is always followed by a period of calm and more soothing times. At least one hopes.

For the record, there has always been a culture of distrust in government and business and adults in general. As a father, I still don’t know why mothers are considered more trustworthy, but they are. This hurts. All this is as old as history. And when I get carded buying beer and produce an ID, I sometimes ask the cashier if they have a punch-in code for “older-than-dirt”? So that is my claim to be self-appointed to the cultural police, old time style.

What is of concern is the level of distrust that seems worse than the normal level of human friction. This especially applies to the USA. Now I am not talking about child like behavior such as “they did, so I can do it”. Nor am I thinking in terms of the most abysmal uses of the free speech idea to explain away simple mob like behavior and poor manners. Football cheers from the student section come to mind in this case. I am thinking about what appears to be a culture of distrust that is counter-productive to our Nation’s future.

Now I think my own political leaders have done some no-down no-good skullduggery for their egos, political power, and profit, usually in ripping off the treasury filled by we citizens. But in no way is it the level above anything in the far past, or recent past. So something else is going on, or I live on another planet. This idea got me thinking since I care about my Country, my kids, and the future of both.

One option is that the balance between idealists who expect, and leaders who make things happen, has shifted. Another option is information overload is both not recognized, nor appreciated. Since I am a three option kind of person, the last option is the most human, that we can be manipulated by those minorities with their own agendas who most slickly appeal to our best instincts. Again, my judgment, how else can such distrust beyond historical levels exist? The reader is presented with three choices.

Alas, all is not lost. Hope is not forlorn. Distrust has been amplified all out of proportion, historically speaking. That’s the good news. The bad news is parents still have to be parents, and voters still have to think and decide on leaders. And damn, it still hurts my feelings about mothers being more trustworthy.