Rebuilding Trust in America

Are we doomed to tear each other apart or can we build a better country together by learning to trust one another again?

Has America reached its breaking point?

As America continues to grapple with protests and riots in major cities across the country after the shocking murder of George Floyd by police, the same question keeps popping into my head.

Are we doomed to tear each other apart or can we build a better country together by learning to trust one another again?

This story isn’t about the disproportionate killing of African Americans by police nor is it about the systemic racism underlying many of our nation’s institutions. I think those stories of injustice, and the potential solutions, are better told by leaders in movements like Black Lives Matter, who deserve the microphone on these matters.

Rather, this is about asking the bigger questions of how did we get here in the first place in which America seems like it is nearing its breaking point and is it too late to turn this all around?

Can we begin to undo the vast injustices built into our current economic and political systems by finding “hope in the dark”, as author, Rebecca Solnit would say, and learning to trust one another again so that we can work together to solve the common crises we face?

“Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.” — Rebecca Solnit, Hope In The Dark¹

If you ask Umair Haque, author and popular Medium writer, he would tell you:

“The economics of American collapse say that it’s probably too late to fix America. It’s probable that this is the new normal. Chaos, decline, incompetence, malice, poverty, hopelessness, despair.”

On top of an economic system that’s supposedly too broken to fix, add the highest levels of distrust that Americans have ever felt towards our institutions and towards each other. In a Pew Research survey from last year, 75 percent of those surveyed believed that Americans’ trust in the federal government was declining and 64 percent felt that trust in one another was similarly declining. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed also felt that these low levels of trust prevented us from solving our country’s many problems.

In aggregated Gallup polling of Americans’ confidence in various institutions from as far back as the 1970s to 2019, the percentage of Americans that said they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence fell or stayed the same for every institution besides the military which has increased steadily over the years. Not too surprising for a country that continues to invest billions into the military to retain its number one spot as a military power.

Americans who hold a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in some of these institutions have reached absolutely abysmal numbers:

• Congress: 11%
• Television news: 18%
• The criminal justice system: 24%
• News on the internet: 16%
• Newspapers: 23%
• Big business: 23%
• Health Maintenance Organizations: 19%

Not a great look for our institutions.

Meanwhile, as a pandemic and mass protests grip the nation, there has been an absolute lack of leadership from our elected officials on both the left and right of the political spectrum.

This all seems like the perfect recipe for disaster and potential collapse of arguably the most powerful country in the world. As the great Harvard professor, author, and political activist, Dr. Cornell West, recently said on CNN when discussing the protests, “it looks as if the system cannot reform itself.”

He went on to further say:

“We’ve reached the point now, the choice between nonviolent revolution — and by revolution what I mean is the democratic sharing of power, resources, wealth and respect. If we don’t get that kind of sharing, you’re going to get more violent explosions.”

I think if given an option between the two, I would hope everyone would choose the first option of nonviolent revolution as the civil rights movement, women’s rights movement, and other movements have shown can be done to achieve real progress.

But what’s required for a true nonviolent revolution besides anger and frustration with the status quo (of which we have plenty)?

We need to trust one another to know we have each others’ backs and that your cause is my cause too.

How do we restore trust?

In that depressing Pew Research survey from last year, there was also a glimmer of hope. When asked whether peoples’ trust in the government and in each other can be turned around, over 80 percent said yes.

But how can we even begin to do that?

Overcoming the deep cynicism that so many now feel towards our broken systems and institutions is no easy task. In fact, I don’t think that’s the proper place to start.

We need to start with the fundamentals of who we are as a people, what we care about, and what values and social norms we want to push for in our new collective vision for America.

But as I discuss in the story below, we also cannot wait for leaders to save us. We don’t have time for that. We must become those leaders today.

I’m not a politician, celebrity, or expert that you commonly see on TV. And that’s the point. Real change isn’t going to happen from the top on down. It always happens from the bottom on up.

It is up to each and every single one of us that loves this country and its people to works towards creating a more perfect union, as the Preamble to the Constitution so eloquently states.

We can no longer sit on the sidelines as some of our fellow Americans are mistreated. Their voices must also be our voices. Movements across this nation must build solidarity with one another and bring new people in, because many times those movements share similar goals and interests with each other and with the American people in general.

As just one example of such solidarity, the Sunrise Movement, an environmental movement focused on addressing the climate crisis, has worked in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, because both movements recognize the fact that climate change affects everyone, but black people especially. We need much more solidarity among the different movements across this country that advocate for greater inclusiveness, so that we can start to trust one another again and show that we care about people beyond our family lineages and friends, in what I call “radical caring”.

“Activism can generate hope because in itself it constitutes an alternative and turns away from the corruption at the center to face the wild possibilities and the heroes at the edges or at your side.” — Rebeccca Solnit, Hope In The Dark¹

If there was ever a time to become an activist, it’s now. We have to quit sitting on the sidelines waiting for change to happen; it’s time to make change. And the best way to do that is through nonviolent revolution.

“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

And to those who currently enjoy the comforts of the status quo who get nervous by words like “revolution”. Those of you in gated communities separated from the rest of society in your homogenous white suburban neighborhoods of wealth and splendor, I have a news flash for you: You live in a bubble and that bubble is about to be popped.

This current set of arrangements isn’t working for the majority of Americans and change is long overdue.

Going back to Umair’s story about our current predicament, it’s not to say he didn’t diagnose the causes and symptoms of our economic and societal problems correctly, it’s that he forgot about the power of nonviolent revolution to drastically transform countries and its people for the better.

We cannot be naive and think that institutional reform and the rebuilding of trust will come quickly; these things take time.

But there is no doubt in my mind that we can trust one another again and even trust our institutions with the right reforms guided by a set of collective values, beliefs, and common interests.

And here is what I believe:

I believe that African Americans and other minority groups can one day live their lives without fear from police brutality and systemic racism.

I believe that we can protect our environment for current and future generations, and begin to undo the environmental racism that extends well beyond our nation’s borders.

I believe that we can reduce the vast wealth inequality in this country to ensure we all have opportunities for success.

I believe we can root out the corruption in government and in our institutions to make them accountable to us, not wealthy donors and corporations.

If we all continue believing that such things are possible and put collective action behind them, including voting for non-corrupted leaders who share our values and will fight for them every day they are in office, then there is no limit to what we can achieve together. The day we give up is the day that we resign ourselves to the collapse that Umair has foretold.

However, before revolution and reform of our institutions, we must first have trust among one another to know that each of us is in this fight together; a fight that has no end because it will always be a struggle — a worthwhile struggle — to create a better nation that is more equitable, fair, and prosperous for all.

References:

[1] Solnit, R. (2004). Hope In The Dark. Nation Books.

To address the crises we face, we all need to work together and contribute our knowledge, ideas, and skills. If you share my vision of building a better future together, then please consider subscribing here to stay connected and be notified when I publish a new story.