Society needs trust because it increasingly finds itself operating at the edge between confidence in what is known from everyday experience, and contingency of new possibilities. Without trust, all contingent possibilities should be always considered, leading to a paralysis of inaction. Trust can be seen as a bet on one of contingent futures, the one that may deliver benefits. Once the bet is decided (i.e. trust is granted), the trustor suspends his or her disbelief, and the possibility of a negative course of action is not considered at all. Because of it, trust acts as a reductor of social complexity, allowing for actions that are otherwise too complex to be considered (or even impossible to consider at all); specifically for cooperation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Best of TMK
-
Terence McKenna speaks on Robert Anton Wilson's term "Chapel Perilous" defined by Wikipedia as: "A psychological state in...
-
Finnegans Wake is a work of comic fiction by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as on...
-
The mathematical roots of the idea of fractals have been traced through a formal path of published works, starting in the 17th century with ...
-
Terence McKenna on "The Media is the Message", from Riding the Range with Marshall McLuhan.
-
The term "hallucinogen" is a misnomer because these drugs do not cause hallucinations at typical doses. Hallucinations, strictly...