- An action hero, before an explosive scene in a movie
- A parent, teaching their child to ride a bike
- Every politician, when the elections come around again
- Jesus, in the Bible
- Your friend, passing a suspicious drink to you
- A woman trying to convince a man to buy something
- A man trying to convince a woman to loose something
- A spiritual medium, who needs to pay the bills
- The leader of an army, before taking them into war
- A con man, assuring you of a secure investment
- A doctor, calming your nerves before an operation
- A blog writer, telling you what your life is missing...
These are all examples of people who say, in one form or another: "Trust me."
Imagine someone says "Trust me," to you. I know it's a matter of context to know what your response would be- including who has said it- but what is your default reaction to that request?
Mine was negative. If someone had to ask me to trust them, it probably means that they had already picked up my lack of trust in them, and were really saying to me "Stop mistrusting me."
What if you suddenly request trust from someone else. If it wasn't a matter of life or death where only you can save mankind (which is a rare scenario, I am told) and you said to someone, "Trust me," what are you really asking for?
You might be asking for them to have hope that a problem can be overcome. But you might also want them to believe that you are so powerful that they should obey any command you give them. So you could really be saying "I have power, so be my slave."
I am not talking, by the way, about only verbally agreeing to trust someone, but about the real action of providing your complete obedience to someone else. If you think about it, this probably sounds as extreme to you as it does to me, and scary too.
So in this idea of complete trust, what is happening? A relationship is set. There is a master, and a slave. The slave could escape this bond at any time by not trusting the master, but I will not explore this possibility; I only want to look at the most extreme scenarios.
The master offered the request, and the slave has willingly entered into their inferior position. How strange that the one who enabled the contract to be set was the one who does not gain any power or advantage, but in fact looses it. Or does the truster gain hope? If tough decisions are to be made, maybe they feel released of the responsibility for their own actions? "I was just obeying orders." Can this slavery secretly be a form of escape and freedom?
But let's brush this tangent away, and again focus on the accepted offer of trust, without context. The trusted individual has made 2 statements: that they have power, and that the other should respond with obedience. "I have power," and "You should obey."
First, look at the statement "I have power."
How much power can an individual have? A bit. But against the force of the planet, and even the rest of the universe, any delusions of grandeur can be quickly put into context. If a friend stood between myself and a loaded gun, I would feel safer than before my friend stood in that spot. But if my friend stood between myself and an oncoming train, I wouldn't feel the same way.
Now look at the offensive statement "You should obey."
Obedience is not a popular word, and this is increasingly the case for the culture of the Sinatra doctrine: 'I did it My way.' We would usually demand a good reason for such an extreme laying down of our rights and our pride. Note that this is not humility; humility is only stripping off our daydreams of self-importance. Obedience does not stop at equality with our fellow man. And he knows this. Maybe he seeks to glorify himself by gaining your worship?
I won't end this post with an answer, because there wasn't really much of a question to begin with. I only feel that I have thought, with a bit more depth than previously, about a topic that probably affects us every day.
I think that trust is powerful, and empowers.
Who (or what) do you trust? Who do you obey and give power to?
See another post about Language...
Image source: http://www.legalcontract.com.au/superannuation-agreement.php
