Trust vital to society
July 8th, 2011
We all recognise the importance of trust. More often than not, we visualise trust as something complex that is difficult to accumulate yet easy to lose. We usually are not quick to put our trust in anything or anyone because of fear. We are usually afraid to open our lives to new people or new ideas because we are afraid of getting hurt. This makes trust a very difficult thing to achieve.
We need to see trust as a catalyst. In a chemical reaction a catalyst speeds up the rate of reaction but remains unchanged once the reaction is complete. Trust too is necessary to speed up communication and promote co-operation amongst different parties. All too often we see nations being torn apart by tribalism, political, or religious differences.A good example is the tribal differences we have in Zimbabwe where the ndebele’s have very little faith in the shona’s because of the disturbances that happened in the country during the early eighties. The importance of trust can never be stated enough. Lack of trust inhibits the growth of any given society. Without trust it’s virtually impossible for there to be transparent communication and co-operation between individual members. We live in cocoons that prevent us from sharing with each other.
How then do we achieve trust from an environment full of apathy and suspicion? To develop trust in others we need to recognise the importance of the people around us. Everyone is important and everyone wants to feel important. Everyone’s contribution to society however small it may seem is important and must be appreciated. A society comprises people of different tribes, different ethnic background, and different political and religious belief and its success lies within the full participation of its individual members. It is important for everyone to be given the chance to contribute to the betterment of the society. Therefore by recognising our own self-importance and the importance of others in society, we will see trust emerging from a dark environment full of hate, suspicion and misunderstandings.
