London, Libya….what is really going on?

A number of people from various countries have asked me ‘What are your thoughts on what is going in …Libya ….London (with the recent riots?’ Of course, we’ve now got our own, far less violent version, of frustrated and angry people taking to the streets to say ‘enough is enough’.

One of the things I talk about whenever I’m presenting on ‘The Truth about Trust’, is this:

First we define trust as our ability to rely on a person (or group of people), an organisation (corporate, political, church), a product or service, to deliver a specific outcome.

Then I ask people ‘How many times a day do you rely on someone or something?’  A hundred? A thousand? Most people say ‘All the time’, or ‘Every moment of every day.’ When you think about it, you are relying on the alarm clock to go off, the water in the shower to come out hot, the cornflakes to be crunchy, the car to start or the bus to be on time, and so it goes all through the day. In some countries, those things are luxuries, but they are relying on government to do something, to deliver on the promise of better housing, of jobs, of water in their community.

Then I ask them ‘Are you aware of all the times you are relying on someone or something every day?’ The answer ‘No, not really’.

So I ask them ‘When do you become aware of them?

The answer, a resounding ‘When they don’t work!’.

Ah ha! So, when we have trust, when we are able to rely on people, and organisations, and products and services to deliver that specific outcome to us, we don’t even think about it. In fact, we just get on with our day, productive and stress free.

Yet, when those things don’t deliver that specific outcome to us, we become acutely aware of it – and it doesn’t feel good.

When I ask people to describe how they feel when things they are relying on don’t work, it’s all negative, and varies from mild disappointment, to stressful, to annoying, to frustrating, to angry.

It’s is this anger, this absolute ‘I’ve had enough’ frustration, that drives people to the streets, sometimes doing things they may not have ever imagined themselves doing, like those children rioting in London. Like the people fighting for their freedom in Libya.

When trust breaks down it hurts. And when it hurts that much, violence is the natural, human response.