Can You Really Trust The Government?

I know this is a complex issue, on the one hand democracy is based on the belief that the government is accountable to the people, that a sufficient amount of transparency exists and that the election system guarantees a sufficient level of supervision over the government. In fact it is not very different than the relationships you have with your friends and family. Can you trust them? Can they trust you? To an extent of course, but are you really telling them everything? Are they telling you everything? Families and friendships are characterized by a significant amount of lies, hidden agendas and all the “good” things that we at times believe the governments of the world to be doing. If we know ourself and our close environment we can be certain that we cover a lot of information from our friends and families. We choose not to rock the boat most of the times. We choose not to confront our teenager when we know he is avoiding us because we don’t really want to know. We choose not to confront our spouse when we feel he or she might be avoiding us by working too much, having a secret affair or just when there are indications that the love or worse the respect is disappearing. The negative things we think about the government and the people of power come from the same place. If we are lying, if we know that people close to us are lying to us all the time, than we can be sure that the people we choose to give so much power over us are lying to us on a regular basis. There is a saying “If you want to receive something-give it” and there is a lot of sense in it. If we want honesty in our lives, if we want to really count on our friends, families and government, we have to be accountable to our actions and act on the same moral standards that we demand from others. But can we really cope with the truth, the truth about ourselves, our families, our relationships, our values, motivations and everything else in our lives? Many would say that the truth is too harsh, if we could really know what some of the people we are considering our friends are thinking and saying behind our backs we’ll have to change our life in a radical way. Governments are the same, they just have more power and they know most of us prefer not to know that is done and how it is done, they know that deep down we know and choose not to step up to the plate and take full responsibility. I am not saying that we are not being lied too I am saying that it takes two to tango.