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Catolic Twin Circle,
Spring 1995
Ron S e i g e l
Who Can You Trust Nowadays?
Years ago, I discovered a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson called
"Idylls of the King" that gave the fall of Camelot a fascinating
twist- Tennyson suggested that KingArthur's mythical civilization
fell because of a general weakening of trust
The scandal around Lancelot and Guinevere, the poet indicated,
created an atmosphere of mis-trust, making people cynical about one
another and about moral values in general. However, it also made
them extremely gullible toward those appealing to their suspicions,
like Mordred, who pretended to be exposing treason and turned out to
be an arch-traitor.
Today Americans are facing a crisis of trust because so many people
prey on their trust.
In the September 1997 Issue of Reader's Digest, a Los Angeles
security consultant named Gary de Becker wrote a chilling article on
the techniques rapists and murderers use to gain the confidence of
their victims. Generally, these techniques amount to gestures of
kindness, caring, and courtesy.
Such offors of "help" create a psychological sense of obligation and
make people fearful that questioning the intentions of their
"helper" will appear rude and ungrateful.
Expressions of empathy, De Becker warns, may be "one of the most
sophisticated forms of manipulation." Psychologically, it creates an
illusion the two are "a team" with "a shared purpose or experience."
In ordinary life, there are similar (if less gruesome) attempts to
take advantage of our trust.
The advertising industry often tries to win our trust by
manipulating our emotions. Announcers talk in soft, deep, fatherly
voices. Advertisers manipulate our dissatisfaction with the
impersonality of the commercial world by associating their product
with warmth, concern, and friendliness.
Much of the current hostility toward govern- v ment is caused by the
fact that many offidak have used our faith in government to deceive
us.
We can't even rely on those who take care of our health. This isn't
simply because of individual wrong-doing (publicized cases of
doctors sexually assaulting patients or performing operations while
intoxicated), but the fact that some we trust to be healers are
prejudiced against their own patients.
In December 1996, a report on "medical futility" issued by the
Ethical and Judicial Affairs committee of the American Medical
Association (AMA) noted that some doctors wanted to stop life-saving
treatment for patients with certain illnesses and disabilities,
despite the wishes of the patients and their families. This
committee declared the doctors viewed these patients'
lives to be of inferior "quality" and felt saving them was not
"worth the effort."
Columnist Evans Kemp Jr chaiged that some hospitals use trickery or
pressure to get their patients to sign orders preventing the use of
certain measures required to save their lives. Columnist Nat Hentoff
quoted a survey of intensive care doctors affirming that some
admitted to withdrawing life supports without the knowledge of the
patient or family.
Tennyson suggested there is something blasphemous about betraying
trust Because our capacity to use language is a manifestation of the
divine image in us, he implied it was sacrilegious to use it for
malicious deceit.
Our capacity to trust, our longing to trust may be a deeper
manifestation of God's image within us, a part of our capacity to
love and affirm. Betrayal of this is demoralizing because it
represents a blasphemous mockery of these qualities and a scorn
toward us for having them.
Jesus, who faced many attempts to trick him, revealed how to deal
with a climate of duplicity - know the dirty tricks, try to protect
yourself and others from them, but refuse to be demoralized by dirty
tricks and don't practice them.
In short, as he said in Matthew 10:16, "Be as wise as serpents and
guileless like doves."
Rob Seigel is a
freelance writer who lives in Highland Park, Mich. |
