The Importance of Invisible Things

 

Last week I had my car worked on. Not a terribly significant event, I admit. But one that provoked the opportunity to ponder an endangered quality in our society: trust.

I doubt many of us realize the extent to which we are connected. That we depend on one another. Regardless of our political leanings, skin color, gender or sexual orientation, we are linked and rely on each other pretty heavily.

For instance, when we take our favorite article of clothing to the dry cleaner, we are counting on the store's employees to process it in the appropriate manner and not subject it to a toxic chemical bath which could destroy it.

Even if we're not there to witness it firsthand.

When we order Fetuccine Alfredo we take for granted the dinner will be prepared in a sufficiently sanitary kitchen using the ingredients dictated by the recipe and described in the menu.

Again, even when we're not personally overseeing its preparation.

And when we bring the aforementioned car in for servicing, we depend on an unseen mechanic to service or repair whatever component needs attention even though the car is out of sight and the work often not readily apparent.

So when you gaze upon the landscape of a functioning society, it is staggering to realize the extent to which we lean on this single, invisible thing called trust. A society couldn't function without it. It might even be the linchpin of civilization.

Also startling is the degree to which we take it for granted. And the profound, long-lasting damage that occurs when it is corrupted.

Which brings me to our sitting president.

Donald Trump has proven his willingness to destroy anything to satiate the yawning maw of his ego. To fill the bottomless chasm of his need for adulation and control. Even if that which is being destroyed enables a more-or-less functional society.

Put another way, ask not what Donald can do for you, but what you can do for Donald. Anything is worth sacrificing for his fulfillment. (Just ask the folk who contributed $170 million in donations to his "election defense fund.") 

So as he continues to nurture division and distrust in the name of consolidating political power, he doesn't give a shit that the cost may be a permanently damaged society shot through with suspicion, distrust and entrenched divides.

It works for him. And in the United States of Donald, that's what it's all about.