Don’t be so quick with your trust

Ever since Cain killed Abel the bond of trust between people has been in question. Can we really trust anyone, and is our distrust really all that bad of a thing? Romulus killed Remus and created Rome, the most powerful civilization in human history. This violation of brotherly trust led to something greater than either of them. Events in the news warn us to be wary of everyone, even the people closest to us – even the people who sleep in the same building as us.

Personally I would prefer to be used instead of having friends. It’s kind of like having friends, just without the depressing emotional connections. Trust is a big part of friendship; if you can’t trust friends, then who can you trust? Throughout life you experience a lot of violations in trust. If you’re a girl, your boyfriend might cheat on you and come back with a STD or something (another girl would classify as something). That is definitely a violation of trust. For guys the same thing could happen, but we don’t care as much because we’re all jerks who just think about sex. If this stuff happens to you, instead of just ignoring it stop talking to those people. You should pick your friend network carefully at this point in your life; a violation in trust can be not only emotionally harmful but also financially damaging. The people you meet now may be business partners later, so give out your trust sparingly.

I’m not saying don’t trust anyone, but don’t trust yourself to trust someone else (or something like that). Be wary of strangers, but talk to new people. Meeting new people can be valuable in networking. In the business world networking is very important, whether you’re an art major or an engineering major. Just be careful who you get involved with in relationships as well as business ventures if you want to be successful in life.

Trust in relationships is something completely different; you need to be able to trust your partner with a lot of different things, not just money. You have to be able to trust them with your emotions (if you have any emotions). “Love” is very particular: Little violations of trust can result in gigantic turnoffs and destroy relationships. Cheating is a big no-no in this respect. This isn’t just a little bitty violation of trust, it’s a huge violation of trust. If you talk to a couple who has been through it and they say something like, “It just made us stronger,” don’t trust them because most likely one or the other has a massive brain aneurism or something equally as unhealthy.

Trust between friends is a lot like trust in a relationship – it can be very detrimental. Personally when a friend violates my trust I stop talking to them all together for a long, long time. Even larger violations in trust lead to more severe retaliation, or what I like to call revenge. But that’s just me. Don’t go out and get revenge on your poor friends just because they do something stupid.

I assume normal people might take the other person aside and discuss their differences and stuff like that. Being able to talk to another person is a big example of trust. Be wary of the person who doesn’t like to talk about his feelings in this way. It too can be because of a lack of trust. Machiavelli summed up how a person who can’t be trusted should be viewed when he said, “It cannot be called talent to slay fellow citizens, to deceive friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; such methods may gain empire, but not glory.”