Don't Trust Them

Don't trust people who want to take away your rights. I don't care whether they're taking them away for what might be good reasons. I'm not even saying that they shouldn't be allowed to take rights away. But if someone tries to take away your rights, you shouldn't trust them. Keep a close watch on them.

Don't trust people who keep secrets from you and everyone else. If they can't trust someone, anyone, who is sufficiently different from them with their secrets, don't trust them. If one branch of the government doesn't trust another branch of the government enough to let them in on the secret, that secret is probably something someone else ought to look at. Don't trust the secret-keeper.

Don't trust people who claim to act in your interest without telling you what they're doing. If they're acting in your interest, they should let you know how. The exception is if you ask someone to act in your interest. Obviously, you should have already trusted that person enough. But don't trust someone who takes it upon themselves.

What does it mean to not trust someone? Does it mean you have to violently oppose them? Not at all. There's a difference between allowing someone to do something and trusting them. The difference is oversight. Trust is a lack of oversight.

So people who aren't trustworthy can still be allowed to do things, but we must take steps to ensure that they don't use their power for purposes other than what should be allowed. That's why, actually, this whole piece can be boiled down to one point: if you give someone power over you, don't trust them. Make sure they use their power appropriately. Don't trust them to oversee themselves.

At the end of the line, you have to trust someone, and I'm not advocating widespread paranoia. But power is dangerous, albeit necessary, and people with power should be given limits and oversight. Don't trust them. Make sure you know what they're doing with the power you gave them. There is nothing implied in government which says that we have to trust everything the government does. We can accept it, even approve of it, but we should know what we're accepting and approving.

I'm sounding paranoid now. But remember, just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. The fact that they may or may not be out to get you has nothing to do with whether or not you trust them. It's whether they get away with it. Don't let them get away with it. Don't trust them.