Looking at the state of our society and its political environment, a deep lack of trust comes to mind. Within the studies of American culture there is an observation that points to the fastest growing class of Americans being that of the anxious class. This growing class of American society spans all races and many tax brackets; it is an equal opportunity class of society where all that is required is a subtle feeling of fear that comes from a lack of trust.
I have had the privilege of working in extremely stressful settings, both as a white water river guide and a ski patroller. The unforgiving environments of a raging river or a steep frozen mountain side, pose excellent case studies for observing fearful people. An observant river guide or ski patroller can learn volumes about human behavior with respect to anxiety, fear, and trust. To summarize what I personally have learned from this experience is this - people that have high levels of anxiety suffer from low levels of trust. This is obviously a generalization of a very wide breadth of individuals, but nonetheless the pattern is there. I will also say that this observation comes from working close with other guides and rescuers, and from observing myself.
Applying what I have learned from the extremes of some recreational realms of our society to the broader society, I think it is interesting to look at how the lack of trust is affecting our society. All human interactions and relationships can be tract back to the core intrapersonal relationship, which we all have with our self. Just as we cannot separate the well-being of an individual from the well-being of their society, we cannot separate the state of trust within our society from the state of trust within each of us.
Where did the trust go?
If you couple this post with the earlier post titled "The Real American Deficit - Compassion" you may just see some connections that were not as obvious as before. What do you think?
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