On the Issue of Trust and other Immaterial Things

A good question that we should never have to ask ourselves is: Who do I trust? 'Cause usually by the time you're asking that, paranoia, the great black bird, already has its icy-clawed grip upon your chest, and is peeking over your shoulders each time you turn around.

Yet, there always comes a time when a man must ask: who do I trust?

Is it the government? Them whom live in their great big towers, far from my home, who pass the laws, hire the sweepers, and tend to the lives of bigger men far taller than I'll ever be? They has my respect, that I give, but trust?

Many a common man trusts more his dog than the official at his door.

Is it your workplace? Colleges and bosses, from the sweepers whom clean your cubicles to the inspectors with their clipboards and thick, reflective spectacles, staring through the mush of paperwork and into your very soul. Left and right you find both angels and demons, willing to help yee up on your ascent to Heaven or stab and weigh you down to Hell, their daggers cutting through your back and sometimes, the heart.

How many times have I heard my dad sigh a great sigh of relief upon reaching home?

Home then. Family. That, I suppose, we can trust. Your littlest sister, who rats you out when you buy that computer game your parents forbib all access to. The same little sister, whom finds you half-dead from studying and glomps you with her soft toys in a bid to cheer you up. Your parents, whom shout and scold and forbid all manner of things, from socks to shoes to computers to television at 1am. And the same parents, whom on the rainy day you find standing outside thier car with an umbrella half soaked 'cause of the wind waiting for you to come home.

All exaggerations perhaps. But nontheless, a good spectrum covered.

Your friends of course. Who can't trust their friends? Truely, anyone can trust their friends, to be there when you need them, to support and tease you about all your aims in life; to help you with your homework, to ask your help with their homework, to hit you on the head (not too hard of course) whenever you start falling asleep in the middle of a lecture - of course we can trust our friends.

Problem is, you can trust your enemies too. And you never know which is which.

So whom do I trust? Its an interesting scene. People would rather let pass their neighbour of fifteen years than an official of the Ministry.

Does that make the whole point of a government pointless?

Or does it just mean people are often very shortsighted?

I don't exactly know who I trust. But I definately know one person I don't.

Me.