Who Do You Trust?

This feels like a short entry, and I'm no expert in calling to arms and such. Anyway, here it goes: Earlier this week, a friend posted the image on the left on his Facebook profile page. I suppose the coincidences of time, famous surnames of the dearly departed, and the current economic and social climate can be put together in a humourous factoid. However, it begs the question of where humanity's trust lies when Steve Jobs (innovation), Bob Hope (entertainment), Johnny Cash (rage against the machine), jobs, and cash are not in overwhelming abundance as they were a decade ago. After all, the Iron Curtain fell, capitalism and spending were in abundance throughout the world (well, most of the world. Hi CHINA!), and peace and prosperity were the latest rage. There was an omission in this list, but if one's hope or heart lies with those that are no longer in abundance than all hope for humanity in the future is lost.

There is a movement in New York to "Occupy Wall Street", and to take a stand against the backroom dealing and big business attitude which are widening the divide between rich and poor, and plunging the post-modern world back into recession. Upon returning to the social network on October 1st, one can't help but notice the flood of Facebook wall photos uploaded and shared throughout the online community concerning the occupation of New York's financial district. Every person should return to those basic human principles of honesty and character, but not without painstaking effort to sift through and eliminate the pork barreling, toxic money lending and credit practices of decades' past which brought society to this place in 2011. This would require a complete overhaul of how people do business; like the previous sentence exemplifies, people must come before business.

I have no way of knowing how to accomplish that, but there are MANY people who do. It takes a unified team of people to make changes happen, so there will be benefits in the long term.

A journey of a thousand steps begins with a single step, so why not begin with what the artist of the image is confuzzled over? There is no hope because the trust was the first from the scene. If this is true, then where does the artist place his trust? More specifically, where do the people looking at the photo place their trust? Where does society place their trust? Where do you place your trust? Who do you trust?

There was an occupation of another kind at the start of 20th century. Upon occupation of the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908, the Austro-Hungarian Empire believed it would bring stability to the culturally fractured region of the Balkans. The age of open warfare in Europe among the major countries was over, so it seemed, and peace and prosperity were in great abundance. Of course, when the whole of European, nay, world society placed their TRUST in the world order, the web of alliances, military might and outdated strategies, imperial gain, and subservience of the less fortunate for the sake of a few, the occupation set into motion a dangerous chain of events that linger to this day. However, that couldn't happen again, can it? 

I saw black & white footage of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary in high school and college: He gets around...very quickly, but everyone back then was quick on their feet then. What? o_O

If the hope of nations, people, and families remains set on the things of this world, then those poor souls occupying Wall Street are no better than those of the Hapsburg court in Vienna at the turn of the century, who are no better than those looking at the "No Jobs, No Hope, and No Cash" picture above and agreed without thinking about its ramifications. In effect, everyone needs to learn why trust is important, and whom to place trust. There may be no jobs or cash, right now, but trust and hope in what and who is right will see us through.