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Bear with me...
I generally like to trust people - I've been 'had' by that level of trust in the past (curse you Gumtree'er who stole that printer I'd trustfully left in the porch for you to put the money through the letterbox...!), but generally,, I think people are trustworthy.
Yesterday I popped to the local shops to pick up some resoled boots and pick up some pies I'd ordered online from the local pie shop (all go in my life...!)..
The pie chap simply gave me the 'pair of pies' without asking for proof of purchase/ID etc etc (granted, I said I was here to pick up some catering pies..). And the cobbler handed me the boots I pointed to on teh shelf, saying they were the ones I'd dropped in earlier (granted, he may have recognised me from previously - he didn't ask for the tag/receipt).
I left feeling 'good about myself', and was pleased with that particular interaction.
I was thinking, if we just trusted each other, would asshats take full advantage of it (possibly), or would the world carry on, and we'd all get along better.
It's like honesty boxes, but an "honest world" - if the notion of trust and honesty is implied from the outset, then even the toughest scrote can be made to feel good, and do something good.
Discuss..
DrP
Bloody hippy.
Not for locksmiths
Hang on, lets sort out the important stuff
pies I'd ordered online from the local pie shop
Turners? or is there some other recommended pie maker in the area? I think I can trust your judgement 🙂
Being sceptical all the time is tiring. So yes, but some bugger is always going to spoil it.
Nope, humans are by nature scheming tossbags.
Love your life, kick the tossbags in the nuts I say.
I think someone nicking your shoes would take a very confident thief, plus they'd have to pay over some money whereas most theiving generally involves the nicking without any monetary transaction. Plus he'd then have to go and sell your shoes on ebay to realise the funds to then go to his local crack dealer. This is all too much faff for your local scally. It's not likely to result in the biggest profits either. So, I think your anecdotal evidences presented are insufficient to deduce if the world would be a better place or not.
I suspect worse off.
Turners?
'course.... nowhere else is there?!
2 catering pies sat in the bottom of my fridge as we speak... can I trust myself...??!!
Being sceptical all the time is tiring.
That is completely true isn't it!
DrP
and may I add
if the notion of trust and honesty is implied from the outset, then even the toughest scrote can be made to feel good, and do something good.
have you been self medicating? My 'Rouge Traders' etc viewing suggests to me the average scrote wouldn't do anything good, they'd have a field day
No sure about assuming trust....
How about if there were no strangers? - If you could point to anyone anywhere, in the physical or digital world and know their names, where they lived etc? (With "point" having a deliberately vague definition and "etc" being a very loose "etc")?
Rule 1 - Don't be a dick.
Rule 2 - Be excellent to each other.
Simple.
Anyhow, it's programming innit? We're all formed far too largely in our gurgly-pooping days, with the more 'aware' years being merely opportunities to consciously go in a certain direction (limited by who you are however - that work has already been done).
To change the behaviours of someone that's hard-coded to be a shit from the outset, is going to take a lot more than holding them gently and whispering "I trust you".
My 'Rouge Traders' etc viewing suggests to me the average scrote wouldn't do anything good, they'd have a field day
Indeed, I think they'd leave us all looking very red faced.
Er, oops. Rouge Traders is a specialist series, I meant Rogue and you know it!
@CFH you are Bill S Preston esq.
Rule 1 - Don't be a dick.
Rule 2 - Be excellent to each other.Simple.
If it's so simple why do you have such a hard time following your own advice...?
Too many freeloaders. However I agree with you that it's nice to be trusted, one of the advantages of living in a small town is being recognised.
[i]If it's so simple why do you have such a hard time following your own advice...?[/i]
Meeeeoow!
How about if there were no strangers? - If you could point to anyone anywhere, in the physical or digital world and know their names, where they lived etc? (With "point" having a deliberately vague definition and "etc" being a very loose "etc")?
The problem, once again, would be trusting that the ability to "point" wouldn't be abused. It already is and we have the ability to be relatively anonymous.
Meeeeoow
But true...
trusting that the ability to "point" wouldn't be abused.
I see your point but i was thinking of a society where anonymity holds no value.
Sort of (if you squint) similar to how everyone "knows" everyone in remote areas.
Sort of (if you squint) similar to how everyone "knows" everyone in remote areas.
I read that and squinted. I think I get your point...
Sadly it only takes a few idiots to spoil it for everyone. All the businesses i use take no money till the job is finished, they ve been going for years so must have been done at some stage.
I like trusting people, my last 2 good deeds have been rewarded by good karma.
Thing to remember as well is that an alarming amount of 'decent' people turn to absolute asshats if they think nobody will notice their misdemeanours - no matter what the crime. If they want, they'll do.
Unless they wouldn't get away with it, then they're full of high and mighty moral spouting 🙂
Actually, most people in fact!
I'll start on an assumption of trust. A friend once said - 'sometime in one's thirties, one should learn to trust one's instincts'. They seem to work. Though that's how 'long firm fraud' works.
Just back from a cycle with an old mate. Half way round we chanced upon a small brewery in a farmyard. We stopped for a quick half, yet only had a tenner and no change.
"No problem, just drop the money in next time you're passing!"
which will doubtless be quite soon...
Sadly, I suspect that the surprisingly large number of asshats would take advantage an we collectively would be worse off. In my opinion, this can pretty much be seen now in the large amount of fraud, scams etc committed against elderly people. They tend to be more trusting of 'strangers' having grown up in an era when people trusted each other more, and as a result are more prone to believing people claiming to be 'experts'.
Like the OP I tend to be quite trusting and am quite aware that a lot of people, including employees and family, try to take advantage of that.
as we are "as sheep among wolves" we should be "as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves"
Too many freeloaders. However I agree with you that it's nice to be trusted, one of the advantages of living in a small town is being recognised.
Yep, misdemeanours can be punished by a collective withholding of pudding and peeing in shoes.
Sadly I don't really trust anyone I haven't known as a friend for a long time. I basically work on the assumption that everybody is an arsehat until they prove otherwise. Probably not the best outlook but meh.
Trusting people and an honest society would be great. I worked for a company where someone would always be stealing something, but at the Japanese arm of the company there was a 24hr canteen with an honesty system that never lost money.
The two types of people that would spoil it would be:
1) The people who steal anything that's not nailed down. Just because they can. (even if they don't want it)
2) The people for whom no amount of anything (money/goods/property) is ever enough. The guy with a thousand / million / billion in the bank who can't sleep at night because he needs it to be 10 thousand/ 10 million/ 10 billion
Greedy blighters!
Being the one to get home from school while in primary school to find we'd been burgled and had things taken, and having the family car stolen while in secondary school, and a brother's bike stolen around the same time, and fairly recently some (thankfully) scrap radiators taken from down the side of my porch, and a parcel from outside my back door, I won't leave things to chance to do with anything being left unattended or unlocked. because I can't afford to.
I do generally assume that 'most people are good', though, and go on that general assumption unless I pick up signals that I need to be wary, as sometimes a lack of trust in oneself, can mean the other person holds back as well, meaning that the opportunity for something good or nice to happen doesn't occur.
When it comes to 'stuff', though, Sheffield/city life means I won't take the risk...
arsehat
Top marks for not using that bloody awful American version.
*doffs arse*
We have a local pub here in the wilds that still doesn't accept card payments. You can imagine in this day and age how many people get caught out with this and are not able to pay for their meal and drinks. The owners simply hand over a card and ask the punter to post a cheque when they get home. Apparently they have had very very few non-payers. A lot less money lost than the card machine and fees would have cost them over the same period
To answer the question simply........yes, the world would be a better place but as several posts have stated there are always those who will **** up anything - for the vicarious pleasure, out of envy, because they know no better, because they 'need' whatever it is others have.
Welshfarmer - the people who visit a pub in the wilds are probably unrepresentative of the people referred to generally in this thread.
No.If we all assumed we could trust one another, would the world be better/worse?
Because you might be trusting something that is wrong.
A few years ago, I heard [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_D._Putnam ]Robert Putnam[/url] speak at a conference in Manchester. He is a political scientist who's been studying the decline in "social capital" over several decades. People tend to spend more time alone, watching TV (or now online) rather than going out to clubs and meetings, or inviting neighbours round for a meal. This isolation has resulted in a lack of trust in society, and hence a variety of modern problems.
Interestingly, he claimed that regularly attending meetings was better for your health than giving up smoking 😯