Gentle Action Blog » Trust http://www.gentleaction.org/blog Sun, 18 Dec 2011 16:53:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 An experiment in trust http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/08/29/an-experiment-in-trust/ http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/08/29/an-experiment-in-trust/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:23:28 +0000 F. David Peat http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/08/29/an-experiment-in-trust/ Just how strong is trust in a modern society. That is something I discussed in one of the chapters of “Gentle Action: Bringing creative change to a turbulent world”. My conclusions was that while there are some exceptions where certain vested interests have an influence, in general trust is fairly healthy.

This is something that Paul Bellis Jones, a student from Wales, believed and in order to test this out he left a disposable camera on Tryfan mountain with a note asking walkers to take photographs of themselves and giving his address. His motive was to see if anyone would make off with the camera. All in all thirty different climbers took photographs and when the film had run out the camera was left there and returned to Jones by a National Park warden.

You can see the photographs at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209877/Camera-abandoned-student-mountain-returned-snaps-fellow-walkers.html

]]> http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/08/29/an-experiment-in-trust/feed/ 1 Trust http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/03/17/trust/ http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/03/17/trust/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:09:54 +0000 F. David Peat http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/?p=65 I’m hoping that those of you who visit this blog will begin to post some of your own examples of cases you know or may have read about – cases involving organizations, or sections of society, that operate on trust. Or examples where trust has been violate and the economic or social consequences of that breaking of trust.

So please feel free to post, or email your examples to me at info@paricenter.com

]]> http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/03/17/trust/feed/ 0 The Social Contract http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/02/20/the-social-contract/ http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/02/20/the-social-contract/#comments Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:36:09 +0000 F. David Peat http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/?p=43 In his review of Gentle Action (see Reviews section of the Gentle Action website) Gordon Shippey questions how far we should exercise trust in the context of State and private institutions. His argument is based on what he terms “the myth of the social contract”. In a reply to Gordon (on the same page of the website) I contrast the Enlightment’s view of a social contract – out of self interest and the need for mutual protection free individuals “in a state of nature” come together for mutual protection and form a society – with that of a number of Native American groups in which society or the tribe is prior and the individual emerges out of that society but is alway a product of the society.

]]> http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/02/20/the-social-contract/feed/ 8 No Free Lunch http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/02/20/no-free-lunch/ http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/2009/02/20/no-free-lunch/#comments Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:03:18 +0000 F. David Peat http://www.gentleaction.org/blog/?p=40 Yesterday we ate in a very crowded workers caf on the outskirts of Siena. It was, large, crowded and had several serving area – a bar, a counter where you could get slices of pizza and another counter for pasta, salads and a meat plate, plus refrigerators containing bottled water and soft drinks

After eating we went to the cash and told them what we had eaten. The whole thing operated on an honor system where they trusted that customers would give an honest account of what they had eaten and drunk

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