Sleeping With The Fishes
By James D. Zirin
July 21, 2010 Forbes.com
Trust in our leaders, institutions and one another can be restored, but it must be earned.
Trust has always been central to the American enterprise.
The fourth and final stanza of the National Anthem ends with,
"Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
We are a diverse, multicultural society with no particular reason to
trust one another. Yet we do. The Somalian refugee, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a
heretical Muslim, writes in her extraordinary book, Nomad, that
on coming to America she marveled that the "infidel insists on honesty
and trust. Everywhere you turn here, you must trust someone: to fly the
airplane you travel in, to teach your child, to take care of you when
you are sick and feed you food that is edible. And everywhere your trust
is borne out." The strangers we trust may not be of our tribe, but
somehow it works. Our strength is in our people, even more than our
institutions.
Yet, trust is rapidly eroding. It should not be too
surprising. Economic growth is slow. Our entitlements are being
financed by Chinese debt. Our financial institutions have brought us to
the brink of collapse. Our real unemployed percentages are in the double
digits and rising, and Congress has yet to enlarge the period of unemployment benefits. The overprescribing guardians of our health have elevated profit making over quality of care. A book entitled The End of Lawyers is
a bestseller. Congress seems to elevate partisan bickering over the
national interest. We want to reach out to virtual "friends" on
Facebook, but are worried that such casual encounters will make us
victims of the voyeurism of predatory strangers.
Lack of trust is
not our only problem. We are also traumatized by the horrific nature of
external threats. The weapons of terrorism are not confined to bombs and
guns. Malcolm Gladwell wrote in a 1996 New Yorker
essay, "We have constructed a world in which the potential for
high-tech catastrophe is embedded in the fabric of day-to-day life." We
are also a deeply divided society, as reflected in the closeness of our
elections, not to mention countless five-to-four decisions of the
Supreme Court whenever an ideological question is presented.
Trust and confidence will not be achieved by joining hands and singing
"Kumbayah." It can only be restored with solid accomplishment. We need
leadership that can, among other things, strategize a military campaign
without undermining it by hard and fast artificial deadlines, rein in
bank excess without undermining free enterprise, find the right people
to plug a rogue oil well, trim the deficit, cut Medicare spending,
thwart a terrorist plot because the system really worked, promote a free
and open Internet that is immune from cyber attack, and end dependence
on foreign oil.
What we need to do is to chart some common understanding of what is
our shared purpose and what are our common beliefs. What we need to
restore confidence is some definition of what we can reasonably expect
of our government and what our government can reasonably expect from us.
More importantly, what can we legitimately expect of non-governmental
institutions, our universities, our professions, our churches, the
media--and, indeed, ourselves?
So where is the answer? Leadership
must come from the top. Should the President establish by executive
order a "Bureau of Trust, Confidence and Eccentricity" under the Department of Homeland Security
to look into the matter with a viewpoint outside the box? Should he
address the Nation, as Roosevelt did in 1941, offering a clear-cut
vision of his goals for the remainder of his term--and beyond? Should he
deliver a Kennedyesque "ask not what your country can do for you"
speech calling on the Nation for cooperation and involvement? Is it
enough to express his confidence in the American economy and tell why?
Can he possibly re-assure the American people, as Roosevelt did in an
even darker time, of their security--not only security from external
threats, but security in human terms that would expand the scope of
protection to include a broader range of threats, including
environmental pollution, infectious diseases and economic deprivation?
Trust can be restored, but it will take more than a shot in the arm or a
stroke of the pen. In the last analysis, it must be earned. Only then
will we have a chance to muddle through.
The King in "The King and I" was more analytical. He saw trust as a "puzzlement":
"Shall I join with other nations in alliance?
If allies are weak, am I not best alone?
If allies are strong with power to protect me,
Might they not protect me out of all I own?
Is a danger to be trusting one another,
One will seldom want to do what other wishes;
But unless someday somebody trust somebody
There'll be nothing left on earth excepting fishes!"
Let's not sleep with the fishes--it's too Sicilian.-- James D. Zirin is host of the cable television talk show "Digital Age.”
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