Of Trust and Distrust - Alcyonenews

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Posted December 31, 2021

Of Trust and Distrust

Canada is seriously Vaxx-raging. We are a split nation, on the one side the Vaxxed on the other the Anti-Vaxxers. The wording reflects the reality that not all the Vaxxed are Pro-Vaxxers while the Anti-Vaxxers are rather firm in their position. But the sides share more than the crux of their antithesis.

Some of the Vaxxed took the jab under coersion by their employers, peer-pressure or the need for a Vaxx-Passport. The size of the sides is hard to guess because many of the Vaxxed are no Pro-Vaxxers, while many Anti-Vaxxers are such because they would not trust the word of the “authorities”. In other words, a sizeable portion of the population, transcending the schism, doubt the Vaxxing promoters. That doubt is what I write about.

In a democracy, the people govern the society. In a “representative” democracy we do that via proxy, the process being less effective than reasonably expected. Is this acceptable? The answer is negative and that failure is felt by a large sector of the population. Many of us esteem neither the intelligence nor the ethos of “our” representatives, who, oblivious to that carry on messing-up our lives. Distrust pervades the pandemic.

In a democracy the “populace” is both Government and Governed, but this is not evident now in Canada. Our society has been torn apart, into “we” the people and “they” the political “elite” (as they see themselves), who govern us. It is not the people who did this schism. It is the political “elite” who broke away from us. They profess being “enlightened” and call those who dissent “populists”, the term made akin to “Neanderthals”.

The “Elite” have usurped power thereby delivering themselves to the Power Corrupts syndrome which, according to Diogenes and Lord Acton, afflicts all powerholders. They have hollowed accountability and operate from a dungeon. They have turned topsy turvy the Master-Servant contract and thus unencumbered are messing up our society.

Arguably some of the blame is for us to take for being lax in our vigilance over our representatives. What matters now is whether we can muster the strength and the will to restore democracy.

Recovery is seriously handicapped by the corrupt electoral system “they” maintain and which all but precludes fair functioning of the Parliament. “They” have hollowed the whole system into skin and bones. They thrive on secrecy and loathe transparency as they recognize their conduct is unpalatable.

Canada’s Current Pandemic schism is a consequence of the deduction from that analysis. We do not trust “them” to manage the Pandemic. We have seen them routinely betraying our trust for their own and their sponsors’ gain. We do not believe them for we have seen them lying to us and getting away with that, free to lie to us again. We see “them” governing us from the dungeon, because their doings cannot survive the light of day.

This loss of trust is not a mirage. It has been recorded by many observers, including some luminaries such as ex-GG David Johnston who authored “Trust – 20 ways for building a better country”. Characteristically, his timing is reminiscent of President Eisenhower’s warning to Americans and the World about the loss of democracy to “Military–Industrial Complex”. Both did it at the expiry of their term in office, during which they did not ever move a finger to help their respective societies ameliorate the predicament they warn about. I mentioned them to demonstrate the futility of expecting change to be affected from inside the system. Power Corrupts all and sundry.

It is especially disconcerting that the authors who lament the lack of Trust tend to blame it all on us, the populace. This is wrong. Yes, they subjugate us surreptitiously and yes, we should have defended our democracy better and should not have let them “trick” us – but the fact remains that it is “they” who mess things up.

If we want to live in a democracy, those who govern us, must be us. But we are not doing enaugh of that and those who prevent us from governing ourselves lack the ethical stature to solicit our respect. In recent years “they” have spared no effort to destroy the self-confidence free people breed for themselves and which is essential for remaining free. “They” strove and strive to turn us into self-pitied “baddies” yearning for forgiveness for sins we never committed. “They” have unleashed their PRopaganda legions to round us up under “their” spell. “They” are after subservience and since people resist that, “they” speak in terms of “trust”. “They” are out to make us into a “meek nation”, one that it is easy to handle, for their convenience.

Check out the contemporary Poli-Science literature. The Prophets of the system drum for more obedience and Trust for the political “Elite”. Find if you can someone pointing to an instance of unwarranted public mistrust for those who “lead” us. Come on, I say to those writers, come on and show us someone we have denied deserved trust. Hic Rhodes, Hic Salta.

In a democracy Trust is earned. The prospect of institutionalizing “trust on-command” is very scary.