I. Understanding Trust and Distrust
“Trust must give us peace.” – Simón Bolívar
Trust is the belief or desire that an individual or a group will act or react in a certain way given specific situations or actions. It is an attitude towards the future, as it depends on one’s own actions, another person’s actions, or a group or authority.
There are three distinct scenarios when studying trust: self-trust, interpersonal trust, and collective or generalized trust. Self-trust involves belief in one’s own abilities, capabilities, and judgment. Interpersonal trust implies faith in another person’s integrity, honesty, and good intentions, expecting them to act appropriately even in vulnerable situations. Collective or generalized trust refers to belief in the responsible and reliable behavior of other societal members, fulfilling commitments and supporting each other.
For leaders, governors, or authorities to earn and maintain collective trust, they must demonstrate honesty, transparency, and accountability.
II. The Nature of Distrust
Distrust is a feeling related to trust, arising when doubt about an individual or group’s actions or omissions undermines honesty and reveals deceit. It can also emerge in response to specific situations or object use.
Let’s examine some impactful examples of distrust:
- The previous government displayed distrust towards civil society, especially towards entrepreneurs and the middle class. Examples include replacing private companies with military control over infrastructure projects, airport operations, government airlines, tourism businesses, and customs management, which neglected military responsibilities and public transparency.
- In pharmaceutical laboratories, distrust led to medication supply disruptions, causing widespread shortages in public health services and resulting in thousands of deaths over the past seven years.
- Distrust was also shown towards the middle class, accusing them of ambition at any cost. However, a significant portion of this class voted naively for the current leader.
In authoritarian regimes, governments and authorities distrust all citizens, as seen in Mexico. Recent legal framework modifications grant absolute control to the government for citizen surveillance, imposing censorship, and endangering fundamental rights.
The president’s recently approved legal provisions, such as controlling workers’ savings from INFONAVIT, giving absolute government control over citizens’ lives, increasing militarization, imposing censorship, and eliminating due process and presumption of innocence, have eroded public trust in her administration.
The US government’s distrust of the president and her allies stems from various reasons, including judicial reform distortions, power division imbalances, censorship advances, and insufficient progress in combating accomplices and politicians linked to criminal groups.
III. Addressing Distrust
When facing distrust, consider available options to prepare and protect oneself.
For instance, organize to eliminate and prevent measures imposed by the regime, now codified in laws leading to societal ruin. We all lose due to the control and manipulation of consciousness for greater governmental power concentration, detrimental to the country, its social fabric, and our future.
It’s crucial for citizens to awaken from complacency. The absence of credible opposition parties with leaders lacking prestige, trust, and social support, focusing on personal interests instead of their bases and the people, is concerning.
The president, her government, and allies have chosen to destroy bridges instead of dialoguing; spy rather than listening; polarize instead of reconcile; impose instead of negotiate; and censor.
The opportunity for national development, economic recovery, and political stability improvement, along with genuine well-being for all, depends on regaining trust.
Key Questions and Answers
- What is trust? Trust is the belief or desire that an individual or group will act or react in a certain way given specific situations or actions.
- What are the types of trust? There are three types: self-trust, interpersonal trust, and collective or generalized trust.
- What is distrust? Distrust is a feeling related to trust, arising when doubt about an individual or group’s actions or omissions undermines honesty and reveals deceit.
- How can we address distrust? By organizing to eliminate and prevent measures imposed by regimes, we can protect ourselves from societal ruin.
- Why is trust important? Trust is essential for national development, economic recovery, political stability, and genuine well-being for all.
