As I kick off for this blog I find myself reflecting on the word “trust.” When you get ready to use this blog, you are going to ask yourself, “Can I trust the site?” “Is it possible to be exploited in anyway by this site?” “Should I divulge my real name?”

These are all kinds of questions relating to trust. The English word “trust” has many meanings and uses. After studying the definitions of “trust,” I find am most interested the more precise word “trustworthiness.” It seems to be that an essential part of any successful society is trustworthiness. An example of this type of trust is our reliance, in the USA, on our drinking water. Most of us go to the tap and draw a drink without ever questioning its safety. We may complain about how it tastes, but we seldom question whether it has been poisoned. How many of us know the person who is responsible for our safe water? Most of us don’t know that person’s name, have never even ventured to find out who it is, and yet, we trust in this employee’s reliability and trustworthiness.

One could point out many other examples such as the one mentioned. Our society relies upon the ability of its members to trust the services of people we have never met or will ever see.

What would happen if we could not rely on the safety of our water, or food, or even the bridges we drive over? Well, events do happen. Bridges have collapsed, food has been contaminated…. Basic infrastructure has broken down often enough. We call on those responsible and rely on courts and congressional committees to investigate and take action.

Today, there are actually terrorists out there who would like to break down the trust in our social structure. They are maliciously trying to tear down the very foundations of our culture.

The question is, how do we improve our trust in our social infrastructure? How do we fight a challenge to the trustworthiness and reliability of our society? I offer here five ways that we might be able to answer the challenge.

We can:

1) Be trustworthy ourselves. By doing this, we set an example for others. We need to constantly strive to improve our moral strength. It is only in this way that we can establish the standards that make for a stable and safe life.

2) Provide positive reinforcement to those who demonstrate trustworthiness. This we can do by actually finding out who the person is that sees to it that your drinking water is safe. Then reward their values and dedication. This serves to reinforce an important value, and to create the opportunity to promote a theme of trustworthiness to others in the society.

3) Be diligent in weeding out the unreliable.

4) Make a personal effort to be aware of who is involved in the workings of our society. Know them. Take them to lunch and talk about the needs of the community.

5) Get involved in committees and discussion-making bodies.

Following the above suggestion will help strengthen our social structure. Your own involvement will reduce anxiety about safety issues. Also, by following the five steps above, it makes it almost impossible for terrorist to infiltrate our infrastructure.

What Do You Think?