Trust in a Troubled World

“The more I read the papers, the less I comprehend. The world with all its capers, and how it all will end.” These are Ira Gershwin’s opening lyrics to Our Love Is Here to Stay, written in 1938. Now as well, the world order seems to be unraveling as we sit down for morning coffee.
 
My fear is not that America and other free nations lack the power to contain totalitarian threats. What scares me is that America is weakened by distrust. The strength of any culture and coalition comes not just from aligned interests, but mutual trust. Take away trust, and commitment becomes tentative. To be strong, any group must be bonded by belief in each other.
 
The bad guys know this. They like it if the U.S. acts like a bully, because that fractures alliances and undermines our moral authority. China, Russia, and others also sow division within America, hacking our culture using social media. America can’t be strong abroad, they know, if we’re weak at home.
 
Our focus at Common Good is to re-empower Americans to take responsibility—to modernize infrastructure, fix poor schools, and regain ownership of our values in daily interactions. The impediment is a flawed governing philosophy, introduced after the 1960s, that strains daily choices through a legal sieve. Instead of using common sense, Americans go through the day listening to a little lawyer on our shoulders.
 
The harm of law everywhere is not just government paralysis, but growing social distrust. A recent Pew survey found that social distrust in America is higher than in any surveyed country. In his farewell New York Times column, David Brooks explained how “four decades of hyperindividualism” have led to growing distrust, which in turn dampens ambition and hope for the future. But Brooks does not explain why selfish individualism infected the culture.
 
In “The Need for Judgment,” published by Law & Liberty, I argue that distrust grows when people are not accountable for selfish behavior. Today, Americans are taught to avoid being “judgmental.” We’ve been told that almost any adverse decision about someone might be a violation of their rights. You must be prepared to prove by objective evidence that, say, the teacher has lost her spark, or that a co-worker selfishly games the system. Who are you to judge?
 
Distrust can arise from many sources, including the inability of governing authorities to deal with endemic social problems. But there’s hardly any more corrosive cause than letting people get away with selfish behavior. Instead, in a well-meaning effort to avoid bias, modern law encourages a mindset of self-interested entitlement: Give Me My Rights!
 
Both the paralysis of American government and the rise of hyperindividualism are largely caused by one flaw in modern governing structure—the disempowerment of human judgment.
 
A spring cleaning of the red tape state is long overdue. The proper role of law is to provide a framework for freedom and for official authority—not to micromanage choices within that framework. Reviving trust will be hard until Americans feel free to act on their best judgment.

– Philip

  • Interest in overhaul is growing. In The Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria calls on Democrats to stop “spending more, delivering less.” In The New York Times, Nicholas Bagley and Robert Gordon discuss the intransigence of public employee unions.

NewslettersAndrew Park