Trust

We champion voluntary transactions between people as being the foundation of freedom. We interact with people on different levels. Trust is the confidence that another person will treat us justly. There is a level of trust toward others on the road that they will obey traffic laws and pay attention. Negligence angers us because they willingly break that trust. This works on different levels. We make contracts so expectations are spelled out. Verbal agreements are made on different levels. A fun person would be expected to give entertainment and a responsible friend would be expected to keep us out of trouble. The possibilities are unlimited. We trust friends with our secrets that could be embarrassing. A soul mate will be entrusted with far more than an acquaintance. We all want someone we can trust, who will accept us as we are. When an unauthorized person imposes on this we feel violated. Privacy is the ability to share what we want with whom we want. This is another facet of freedom. The greatest possession we have is our soul. That is why gossip and sharing private information is such a violation and we feel an injustice has occurred when it happens. All agreements to share and interact have conditions of trust. We call this natural justice.

When we proceed into justice for a community, the agreements for sharing and transactions become more complex since there are so many degrees and opinions. That is the point where written contracts become necessary. We call these written contracts “law”. The further we get from honest personal interactions, the harder it is to take everyone’s situation into account. That is why we limit the scope of federal laws the most, to state laws, to local but prefer that people work things out among themselves on a personal level. Experience teaches us that leaving the power to maintain order for the masses up to individual discretion will end up in tyranny. The people have to come together and agree on what power will be ceded to whom. We hope that we can trust them with small areas of our freedom to make things run smoother. Traffic needs stop lights to keep everyone moving.  This defines legal justice.