For most of my professional career, I instinctively have invoked optimistic trust in my “fellow man” and credible organizations — until and unless betrayed.

I freely admit to succumbing to such “pollyannaish” business exhortations as … resist less, trust more, for the sake of the greater good. I am also a political guy who follows the news. And so, the unusual intensity of January’s change in government in Washington and calls for “unity” in such a politically charged and pandemic stressed economy has me … cautious.

What compares? My coming-of-age memory is Vietnam, of campus protests that turned violent, disproportionate military service by those not fortunate enough to have a college deferment, of a national party convention (1968) where heads were bloodied on the streets of Chicago and cops uniformly vilified as “pigs,” antagonists and authority simply not to be trusted.

Five decades later, I find plenty of parallels in my experience with academic and business colleagues, students, friends and pursuers of a “faithful” life, and in some compelling business books. For example:

The Press — reporting on a remarkable growth of political distrust which helps drive decline of “social trust” – less moderation, more radicalization – among American elites who not only disagree with but actively dislike one another, attitudes passed on to the rest of us.

Consultants — as represented by the respected Edelman Trust Barometer 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer | Edelman, which documents great distrust not only of the political class and news media, but of continued erosion of trust in institutions generally, from government to business to the church, only the military holding its ground.

Partisans — we all know the drill: a stolen election, alarming violence in D.C., impending impeachment trial of an unrepentant outgoing president, determined calls to purge Congress of collaborators, pushback in demands for “equal justice” elsewhere.

The People — vaccine doubters, who consider the risks of vaccination to be much greater than the risks of the diseases these vaccines are supposed to prevent, including COVID-19. A condition that predates 2020, rooted in historic mistrust of authority, some of it earned by grievous government misconduct.

Students — particularly my business law and business ethics folks increasingly skeptical of “truth in advertising” and the credibility of “celebrity endorsers.” My communication students whose willingness to trust their peers in a group project is conditioned (understandably) by their previous success or previous disappointment, whether at Aims, other schools or at work.

Authors — of new books on developing, restoring, and extending trust by Marc Benioff (Salesforce) and Stephen M. R. Covey, whom I engaged with the Aims College Council last summer, and an oldie but goodie by Patrick Lencioni which several of us mid-level managers read together in 2004 (watch for lack of trust as a fundamental “team dysfunction” in my February column).

One general takeaway from this synthesis is that to deprive our political or ideological opponents of the “complex thoughts and scruples we often associate with humanity” is to make them easier to stereotype, to appear less honorable than “people like us.” As a friend lamented in a recent email, “We no longer trust that people are trying to do the right thing!”

What to do with this? Should distrust be our default? Permit me to close with some recent encouraging notes:

Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila — take care to look beyond mere commentators, politicians and political parties, to short circuit the constant flow of information, to pursue Him who can “pierce our posturing and rhetoric and scatter the fog of confusion.”

Local pastors Frs. Tomasz Strzebonski and James Goggins — to emulate Peter’s leap of faith 2,000 years ago, overcoming “the fears and concerns that bind us with invisible threads,” by turning off the tv, not allowing the news media’s trumpet of nothing but alarm to steal your peace.”

Greeley Tribune editorial of Jan. 20th — viewing the 2020 Inauguration as a “chance to heal if we accept it.” Thoughtful calls to kindness, humility, gratitude, patience, forgiveness, “seeing our national faults for what they are, and to look at them as opportunities.”

My 12-year-old men’s prayer group — whose brotherly love transcends genuine political differences, who strive mightily to put down the armor, to refrain from characterizing all who disagree philosophically as enemies, to recognize and perhaps adjust our filters. Work in progress.

My current students — including some “more than willing to place trust in peers who are just as dependent as they to accomplish the same goal together” and others whose trust comes with a caveat: “once a student fails me as a group partner, then I will have less trust in them.”

Fair enough. Next time: what the business literature tells us about the significance of trust in business, neither a brief for “blind trust” (gullibility) nor extraordinary suspicion (mistrust).

— Lou Cartier teaches business communication, ethics, and the “legal environment” of business enterprise at Aims Community College. He chairs the Local Government and Business Affairs Committee of the Greeley Area Chamber of Commerce. The views and opinions in this column are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the College or the Chamber.