
Robert Reich: The Trust Destroyers - chmaynard
http://robertreich.org/post/152174605125
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grzm
I think he succinctly summarizes the issue. The public will need to keep
pressure on both sides, not just to fight corruption but to get anything done
at all. The stalemates and government shutdowns undermine trust as well. And
on top of that, there's the increasing distrust in media.

The size of the country and ease of communication I think makes rebuilding
trust an increasingly uphill battle. The number of people involved is so
large, magnitudes beyond the number of people we can know and trust
personally. In PGP, key signing is a way of extending that circle of trust.
How can we rebuild the social/political/institutional equivalent once it's
lost?

Increased ease of communication makes it so much easier to sow distrust. You
hear something -- is it disinformation? just a rumor? an honest mistake?
Something you can actually trust? And who can you trust when you look for
information to confirm or verify that first piece? What level of openness is
necessary to make the populace trust the level of oversight?

We can't each research and verify every piece of information that we come
across. We need some kind of chain of trust if we're to get anything done
besides manage our paranoia. I'd like to stay on side of believing that people
are generally good -- the general population as well as people working in
government -- but we have to stay vigilant to corruption.

The underlying problems aren't new, but I do think we're seeing scaling issues
that compound the problem. Anyone know what work or research is being done on
these issues of rebuilding trust?

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carsongross
I would say it has been a bear market in social trust for quite a bit longer
than Mr. Reich thinks, and for many more reasons than the one that Mr. Reich
focuses on.

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zzalpha
Yup. I'd go all the way back to Nixon and Watergate, followed by the anti-
institution rhetoric of Regan and his acolytes which served as a reaction. Mix
in the junk bond scandal of the 80s and you had the groundwork laid for
fundamental distrust in basic institutions like government and the banking
system.

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carsongross
You can go further than that.

And wider.

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zzalpha
You could go back as far as you want, but the bulk of voters and those in
power grew up in the environment of the late 60s through to the early 80s.
Their ideologies were largely shaped by events during that time (which also
includes Vietnam, the Iran Contra scandal, etc).

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jasonkostempski
So the system has a function, that function might be invoked, undermining the
integrity of the system? Why is the function part of the system?

