Jean Horst

Athletes and Steroids, Enron on Trial, Political Bribes: Who to Trust?



Posted: Tuesday, April 04, 2006

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Is there anyone left to trust?

I'm a bit of a news junky. I don't care what kind of news, I read it all. Politics, sports, entertainment, science, health, and the list goes on. I like information, so I read. Now lately, I've been stuck on pondering all the scandals that we're constantly being told about. You've got the corporate accounting scandals like Enron & Tyco. Then there's Barry Bonds taking steroids in baseball and Olympians losing medals for doping. In politics, there's Jack Abramoff bribing... well, everyone, election tampering, & whether the president tricked us into starting a war. The Catholic church has its scandals with pedophile priests and worse, tried to pretend it never happened! Scandals roll out of Hollywood every day, like waves on the beach in Malibu. The cloning guys were faking too. You can't even answer the email that's supposedly from your bank! It's never-ending & it's all pervasive.

A lot of people are asking, "Is there anyone left to trust?" I think we need a new way of looking at this. I think the real question should be, "Was there ever anyone to trust?" Remember the old saying "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"? There's a reason that's an OLD saying. It was around before your Grandma's Grandma. Now, I know I'm not a very sentimental person and I was born with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. I don't really buy into the "Good Old Days" line of thinking. I enjoy change. I'm also the youngest of six children & I know by the time I was 5 years old, I didn't do ANYTHING my older siblings told me to without asking "Why?" It was bound to be a set up. So maybe I don't take this seriously enough, but I think too much is made of trust. I think what is needed is a healthy respect for human nature.

I like people, I'm a social person, I like to study people & watch behavior patterns. To the never ending embarrassment of my husband & kids, I routinely talk to total strangers. From where I stand, most of these scandals follow standard human behavior patterns. If people think they can get away with something, most of them will try.

I'm not saying these scandals weren't very bad or that those involved shouldn't be punished to the fullest extent of the law. They most definately were bad & people need to be held accountable. What I'm saying is, it's always been this way. Since the dawn of time when God created Adam & Eve, people have been tricking each other for their own ends.... HELLOOOO, the first story in the Bible is Eve feeding Adam that darned apple or whatever fruit it was, after the snake told them this was a product they couldn't live without. It would make them "like God". Sounds kind of like that email going around from the "King of Nigeria".

Human nature has it's very fine moments. Some people actually come to understand that the way to lifelong fulfillment is to treat those around you as you want to be treated. But that's not common. In any given disaster situation, you have those heroic souls who risk their lives to save others & you have those who run to protect themselves without looking back.

Some of you will argue that things are getting worse. Sure, these failures of recent years were of epic proportions. Then again, our access to media & worldwide information has reached epic proportions as well! Our parents and grandparents didn't know what was going on in the whole wide world like we do, what they did hear about often took weeks to get to them. Plus, there's a whole lot more of us here now to do bad stuff. Billions more.

Here's what I want you to do. Every time you think about all the bad stuff going on, make up your mind to make your little part of the world as good a place as you can. If you think it's all sliding downhill, buck the trend! You can't control anyone's actions but your own.

For the record, I have a deep trust in God, I trust my husband and I have a handful of great friends and family who would go to the mat for me. Beyond that, I smile and check references.


Jean Horst lives in Texas with her husband and three children. She and her husband of 25+ years are co-owners of a successful internet business. She has many years of experience in small business and office management. Her interests include travel, music, reading, writing, and family life.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by David Tanguay
 4 years 214 days ago.
You have a wise philosophy you live by Jean. Although in my case I’ve lost touch with what is real and what is unreal. It seems I could understand the times so much better back in the 60s when I was living on natural instincts more than a belief system. I could seem to know right from wrong (or good from bad) from a natural sense. Although I am making progress as long as I keep faith that tomorrow can be better . Avis recently had an article about dreams. I commented on it saying without dreams life would be unbearable. "good article"
» left by 4 years 210 days ago.
Thanks David, I appreciate your comments. I've always been intrigued with Jesus' statement, "The children of this world are wiser than the children of the Kingdom." I've always wondered exactly what he meant.
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