They say that Trust is earned but this is a blatant lie. Trust is automatically given and expected. People expect me to trust them on our first meeting. People want trust without ever meeting them.
For example if you are selling your house you have to trust the realtor and the people viewing your house not to damage or steal any of your possessions. If you do business over the phone you have to trust that person to keep up their end of things. When I order books online I have to trust Amazon to ship the items on time.
Broken down on the side of the road don’t we trust that the person pulling over is a good Samaritan and not a serial killer?
On your first visit to a fantasy world you have to trust the first person you meet there. It is not possible to tell a caring Queen from a White Witch based only on first impressions.
If first trust is broken then I guess one could earn second trust. But even a chance to earn back trust is still a gift of trust from the person wronged to begin with.
Unfortunately, trust can’t be earned, it just isn’t practical. if we had to give every person we will ever meet a trust test before interacting with them all of our time would be wasted filling in dots with a number 2 pencil.
But even though you can’t earn my trust I still refuse to hand it out lightly. So forgive me if I still lock my doors at night. Just because trust can’t be earned dosn’t mean everyone can be trusted.
C. O. Bonham 