Lack of trust cripples our country

By Robert L. Dilenschneider

This is about "trust" and what has happened to this valuable commodity and what might be done about it.

Remember when you routinely heard, "My word is my bond" on Wall Street, which in the popular parlance meant, "You can trust me with the details. They'll be exactly as we agreed"? But now the world is a different place, and it seems all of us are consumed by a debilitating mistrust, largely because there are countless occasions to be taken advantage of -- in business, social life and relationships.

A recent Harris Poll showed that confidence in Wall Street was hovering around 4 percent and in danger of dropping.

An erosion of trust has spread throughout our society like eczema, but this crisis of confidence has been a long time coming, and we can't blame it all on Bernie Madoff and Dick Fuld.

The poll found that only 4 percent of Americans had a "great deal of confidence" in Wall Street, down from a high of 17 percent in 2007. Wall Street was at the bottom of the list, preceded by Congress at 9 percent, law firms at 11 percent, major companies at 11 percent and the press at 12 percent.

At the top of the list was the military at 58 percent, followed by small business at 48 percent, major educational institutions at 40, the White House at 36 percent and medicine at 34 percent. Midway through the list were organized religion at 28 percent, public schools at 25 percent and the judicial system at 19 percent.

Here is the greatest tragedy: The institutions that are supposed to inspire the most trust inspire the least. The poll points to a corrosive mistrust in this country of the pillars of our society -- the press, law, corporate America, Congress, public education and Wall Street.

Trust, of course, is central to our way of life.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer from Plains, Ga., became the 39th president of the United States. His great appeal to voters was his slogan -- "Trust me." After Watergate and Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, people wanted someone to trust.

Four years later he suffered a humiliating political defeat to Ronald Reagan, largely because we had stopped trusting him. Or maybe we realized that we had trusted him too much.

Americans want to trust their leaders. Everything in their moral psyche seems to plead for trust, and yet it's so hard in the face of countless betrayals. But trust is betrayed not just on an institutional level but more insidiously on the personal level.

It's difficult to trust because we live in a sinister world where everyone -- or so we believe -- is out for Number One and always striving to get to the top whatever the cost and willing to step on anyone whenever and wherever possible.

When trust is constantly betrayed we become cautious, we become careful and yes, we become callous.

The headlines tell the whole story. Tiger Woods betrays his wife. David Letterman is accused of affairs in the workplace. Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi are implicated in doping scandals. Politicos use their power to get their girlfriends jobs. Need we bring up Monica Lewinsky again?

Violations of trust are rampant and seem to be accelerating throughout society. Journalism was once a trusted profession, but now editors can't fully trust their reporters and reporters can't fully trust their sources so we ask for several sources to corroborate a story.

People in business are often willing to cut corners to save money and dupe the customer. Pharmaceutical companies are accused of knowingly deceiving consumers and marketing their products off-label or with knowledge of harmful side-effects. The Catholic Church suffered a scandal of historic proportions by covering up rampant sex abuse. As a result, the man in the pew stopped putting money in the collection basket, and charitable operations that rely on those funds suffer.

At one time, trusting our religious leaders seemed as natural as saying grace before dinner, but hypocrisy, fraud and scandal have adulterated that trust. Now, organized religion is often viewed with cynicism, and militant atheists are ready and eager to point out the foibles of those who portray themselves as "holier than thou."

What does this erosion of trust mean on a practical level? It's one thing not to trust our political leaders, but it's quite another when people don't trust their bankers -- a Gallup Poll indicated they were near the bottom of the heap when it came to ethics and honesty.

It means we operate under the assumption that people at all strata of society, from your estate planner to the contractor renovating your kitchen and your car mechanic, are looking for an opportunity to get ahead at your expense.

How, then, do you restore trust in a country where our value system has collapsed from the highest offices in the land to the common man, who has no problem padding his expense account and the college student who indulges in Internet plagiarism to write an essay about Coleridge?

Trust is the foundation of America. We say "In God we Trust," so it follows that we should be able to trust one another.

Restoring trust is a monumental task made difficult by the moral malaise -- Jimmy Carter again -- afflicting our country. Another poll showed that 75 percent of Americans believe our moral compass is pointing in the wrong direction.

Let's start at the top. (As the Italians say, "Il pesce marcisce dalla testa" or "The fish rots from the head.") Our leaders must be perceived as trustworthy and above reproach. No more trips to Latin America to consort with mistresses in the name of true love. No more junkets at the public expense.

We desperately need a national discussion on restoring trust. As they say in 12 Step Programs, admitting you have a problem is the first step toward recovery. Talking about it on the national level and having elected officials say they are committed to earning the public's confidence is that necessary first step.

Most importantly -- and this is crucial to our nation's future -- we must work to restore the trust of the Millennial generation, the 80 million young Americans born between 1982 and 2000, who are this country's hope. The baby boomers always believed, in the words of a '60s activist, "Don't trust anyone over 30," and this became their mantra until they turned 30. The tragic irony, however, is they are seldom trusted by young people.

How do we rebuild trust? This is something that can't be legislated and has to come from the power of example. Individuals in business and government and education and religion and law and media have to start turning the compass needle in the opposite direction. We have to get back to basics.

You may remember the immensely popular McGuffey Readers, with 120 million copies sold between 1836 and 1960. As a textbook, they were unrivaled and offered practical directions on how to live a good life, build character and instill trust.

For starters, you can't lie. You can't cheat. You have to keep your promises. You have to inspire confidence. You have to be, in short, trustworthy.

Have no doubt about it. Without trust, America's decline as a nation is inevitable.

Robert Dilenschneider, a Darien resident, is chairman and founder of The Dilenschneider Group, Inc., a strategic counseling and public relations firm headquartered in New York.