TURN over a US banknote and you will see the words 鈥淚n God We Trust鈥� and a picture of a venerable political edifice: the White House, say, or Supreme Court. The words and institutions are supposed to inspire trust, but increasingly they don鈥檛. Even the bank that issued the note is mistrusted now.
Where did trust in traditional institutions go? The answer is, down the tubes. The internet鈥檚 effect on trust, as in so many aspects of life, has been to replace top-down models with peer-to-peer networks (see 鈥�Who can you trust? How tech is reshaping what we believe鈥�).
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This is a good thing, in some respects. Many institutions that took our trust for granted did not deserve it. But as a result, faith in authority of all kinds has fallen. It is now commonplace to hear that experts are little more than out-of-touch elites, and that gut feeling is more reliable.
Turns out that many graduates of the University of Life got a third, and are not fit to tie an expert鈥檚 laces, let alone step into their shoes. We urgently need to restore trust in expertise. It must begin with a recognition that trust is not a given, but has to be earned. We can probably live without God, but living without experts is a dangerous fantasy.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淒on鈥檛 trust a nobody鈥�
