Who do you trust? Who do you not trust? What is trust? Who should we trust?
My big question is
“Why do we trust that the food in our stores is healthy for us to eat, just because it is in a package or is sold by the store?”
Ever seen the words – All Natural, Supports the Immune System, Made with Real Fruit, Added Fiber, Low Sugar – or “only 90 calories per serving, then in small hard to find print 5 servings in this container – miss leading at best- try added BS – jughandle
These are questions that intrigue and confuse me, but I’m easily confused.
Who do you trust?
God, your parents, family, wife, dog, a few close friends, yourself? I, most of the time, trust myself to do the right thing and to toe the line. Maybe the bank, the government, the police, the insurance company you deal with, your broker, your local grocer? No? Yes?
Who don’t you trust?
Sad as it might seem, if you look into this with a microscope, then you might not trust any of those people listed above from time to time, nor should you. History plays a major roll in trust. What have they done for, or to, you lately? Blind trust will only break your heart or worse.
What is trust?
Wikipedia defines Trust as follows:
In a social context, trust … a situation characterised by the following aspects: One party (trustor) is willing to rely on the actions of another party (trustee); the situation is directed to the future. In addition, the trustor (voluntarily or forcedly) abandons control over the actions performed by the trustee. As a consequence, the trustor is uncertain about the outcome of the other’s actions; he can only develop and evaluate expectations. The uncertainty involves the risk of failure or harm to the trustor if the trustee will not behave as desired.
In the social sciences, the subtleties of trust are a subject of ongoing research. In sociology and psychology the degree to which one party trusts another is a measure of belief in the honesty, fairness, or benevolence of another party. The term “confidence” is more appropriate for a belief in the competence of the other party. Based on the most recent research, a failure in trust may be forgiven more easily if it is interpreted as a failure of competence rather than a lack of benevolence or honesty. In economics trust is often conceptualized as reliability in transactions. In all cases trust is a heuristic decision rule, allowing the human to deal with complexities that would require unrealistic effort in rational reasoning.
Who should we trust? and to what “degree”
My late father used to say often, “don’t trust nobody, not even your papa.” Dad was usually right, so I trusted him to have my best interest at heart. That only left me with a lonely conundrum. But, and it is a large BUT, is the Santa Claus, Easterbunny, tooth fairy issue. Weren’t those lies, or were they merely white lies … I digress.
More to the Point
My point is that we sometimes question those we trust or love the most, but we seem to always trust the local grocer to sell ONLY healthy food for us to eat. After all, if the stores sell it, it must be good or at least safe for me to eat. If not, what are all the government regulations about? Indeed!
NOT SO MUCH
In actuality, the only people that might trust the store are its share holders, and that trust is more about the bottom line than anything else. The store is obligated to its shareholders (its owners) to make as much profit as possible. In fact, the whole layout of the store is designed to get you to buy the high margin items. Ever question why the food you actually went there for is in the back of the store? That means that they might turn a blind eye to anything that might be a high seller, but is still questionable as far as “health” goes. The government’s rules and guidelines are like any other government “rule”; a line to cross when ever possible by some, a line to question by others. At best those rules are minimum standards that don’t fully protect anyone. Some aren’t even completely researched. At worse, the government makes rules based on lobbyist’s desires or compromise bills.
Bottom Line
Follow my father’s simple rule -don’t trust nobody, but lets add – especially the food supply. Buy organic whenever possible. Eat less meat, more green vegetables. Be creative. Most of all read the freak’n labels and Question EVERYTHING – please, don’t trust me. Do your own research, it will scare the hell out of you and you might join me running around with your hands in the air yelling, watch out for the bus. *– jughandle
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