Societies at base are built on trust . . . not on laws, policies, procedures, systems, constitutions, or even philosophies.

These are all helpful things to be sure, but what must underlie them all – what underpins them and upholds them, gives them life and stability – is trust, trust between governors and governed and between fellow citizens and fellow governors alike.

How, then, to cultivate trust? How to establish it, grow it, and maintain it? How to prevent its erosion, and how . . . once it has been eroded . . . to restore it and repair it?

These are the questions we should be asking ourselves before all others. Society can survive without many things, but all things will ultimately fail us if we cannot first trust each other.