We need to learn to trust again

A question posed recently in my class has been stuck in my head. “Are we less involved in our communities because we don’t trust society, or do we trust society less because we are less involved?” While no one in the class, including my professor and myself, really didn’t have an answer, I still think that it is a really interesting concept to think about. 

As an American society, we have become less involved in our communities when it comes to things like joining clubs and participating in religion. Some blame the rapid rise of technology as the reason behind this, and, while it has had an effect to some degree, I don’t think it is the villain of our story. 

Yes, technology is one of the factors to society gradually growing a part. After all, our entire generation has a hard time talking to people face-to-face. We rely on technology to help get rid of the awkwardness that might occur. This reliance has only created even more awkwardness. However, technology is doing a complete 180 by connecting our generation as well.  It is just in a way that older people might have a hard time grasping. We connect with people that are passionate about the same things we are passionate about. We might not be joining clubs in person that meet once a week and aren’t related to school but believe me we are still finding ways to connect. 

I think the intense partisanship that has emerged in our country over the last couple of decades is to blame. Our country has never been more divided over issues from gun laws to abortion. We have become numb to seeing shooting and corruption because it has become part of everyday news coverage. Civil rights groups beg for change from our representatives in government and yet we continue to elect the ones that refuse to do anything and refuse to work together to come to a solution. And if our elected representatives can’t trust each other, than what makes them think the people they represent will be able to trust?

Young people my age and even older are shying away from religious organizations because they aren’t accepting of new ideas. These communities that were created to invite everyone regardless of the sins they had committed, and they viewed the world are now places full of judgement and prejudice. My generation has become extremely accepting about things like sexuality in all its forms and that is something that some religions, and the people who practice them, can’t get behind. I thought that religion was supposed to be built on the basis of love and acceptance, so why isn’t that happening anymore? I can understand why people who would be discriminated against would choose to stay away and be less trusting of those people. 

If we as a collective went back to the way things were, when parties and the people in them actually collaborated and worked to improve each other ideas and lives, maybe we would live in more of an accepting society where people felt like they were able to trust their neighbors. I don’t think it’s too late for us to do that. I think we still have a chance to trust, we just have to learn to tolerate other people’s views.