Could Honesty and Trust work?

While discussing things in blogs and emails earlier today, I had an idea.

Instead of drug testing in sport, why not just trust athletes to be honest, and believe them when they say they are not doping?

Instead of policemen and hidden cameras catching speeding motorists, why not just trust drivers to obey the speed limits and rules of the road?

What are we really afraid of?

Ourselves?

What is so fundamentally wrong with honesty that we do everything in our power to keep it at arms length?

Why can't we trust each other?

In thinking about these questions it occurred to me that the whole design of our current social fabric is biased towards overtly supporting fabrication, fraud, and dishonesty.

We expect people to lie, cheat and steal.

Why is that?

We expect smart people to take advantage of the system at our expense.

We expect our politicians to lie, fabricate positions, and take advantage of their power.

How did we get to this state?

And more importantly, how do we reverse this untenable situation?

Do we want to?

I believe we need to, so how do we do it?