For many, stability is boring. It’s banality stultifying, serving nothing better than as a millstone around the desires for new experience and the adrenalin rush that goes with it. I would argue that this view of stability is related to the fear of complacency. For many, stability is that hunky-dory time when things begin to be taken for granted and complacency sets in. The fear of letting the ball drop colours the idea of stability.
Of course, everybody likes to link creativity with that spark of madness, that tension of living on the edge which supposedly gives everything meaning, and an enhanced appreciation of life.
Stability is what is natural. Stability is not only about the present but also about being able to predict the future to a fair degree of certainty. That is how there is a crop cycle and farmers can plan their sowing. This is the reason for migration and a mating season in nature.
It is said nature hates a vacuum. What is left unsaid is… she is seeking balance, trying to re-establish stability.
One source of stability and balance is routine. Eating specific quantities of food at specific times is touted to be healthy. An office routine is everyone working daily for a specific period. This enables productivity, as employees can work together, and an efficient use of infrastructure. One commiserates with friends and colleague whose working hours differ from the rest or occasionally work hours based on needs of colleagues in another time-zone because it throws everything off balance.
There is an adage ‘a family that eats together stays together’. This can only occur with a routine. Eating together fosters communication and therefore bonding. I believe there is another reason, it ensures optimal use of what was once scarce and now expensive – fuel, heating, and water.
Many schools in the US found a spike in student anti-social behaviour near the end of the month. Behavioural economists identified that students from families dependent on food stamps were prone to such conduct. Near the end of the month there would be insufficient stamps to put food on the table. The anti-social behaviour was a symptom of hunger and the insecurity that comes from it. When there is a breakdown in routines it has detrimental psychological effects which trickles down to society.
Stability and routine lead to trust. Trust is the basic glue that binds society and the economy. Trust is based on mutually held understandings. For example, pedestrians cross the road when the signal turns red, it is based on them trusting drivers to adhere to the commonly understood protocol of traffic signals.
The trust that employees have that their bank accounts will be credited with their salary enables them to plan. Trust therefore enables a vision of the future and its fulfilment. Routine and trust enables one to make sudden decision – one can make sudden purchases because one knows the shop’s working hours. A trusting and, therefore stable, corporate culture is good for employees and has an impact on the balance sheet. The same logic can be applied for a country.
The situation in the US is an outcome of the decline in trust in every section of society and governing institution. The Trump appointed conservative Supreme Court (SC) Justices lied during their confirmation hearing about their position on Roe versus Wade as they later overturned it – making abortions illegal. Today trust in the US SC has fallen to 25% as per a recent Gallup Poll. The integrity of the US election system is in tatters not only because of Republican’s gerrymandering and passing laws that target African Americans but also because they are perpetuating the lie that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. The police are distrusted because the criminal system is biased against people of colour.
The Trump White House perpetuated many lies while simultaneously claiming that only the Conservative media were broadcasting the truth i.e. Trump’s truth. Today the political divide in America is two opposing versions of truth and lie. The January 6th insurrection was a result of this.
There is a deficit of trust in India too. Like in the US, this has been built over the last few decades. There is the name calling, dog whistles government critics being labelled antinational. The increase in the weaponisation of various constitutional and administrative bodies against citizens. Politicians elected from one party defecting immediately after elections leaves the sanctity of the electoral process in tatters.
Trust is a strange beast. Its manifestation- trusting – is either natural, experiential, mimicked or taught. Trust within society is created and nurtured through rules. A baby naturally trusts its mother while young lovers trusting each other is experiential.
Trust in democratic institutions is taught and mimicked through the observance of rules. There are times when people have no option but to trust that is when trust is dictated, or people acquiesce to trust.
Rules and regulations are the building blocks to creating trust in society, and between individuals. Rules provide a framework of engagement. One could even call them the grease that ensures society functions smoothly. For a nation emerging from the shadows of monarchy and colonialism rules are mostly viewed in two diametrically opposite ways depending on whether one is a citizen or part of the government and its supporter. Citizens consider rules as curbs to their freedom – no matter how selfish and thoughtless this concept of freedom be. For the government, and their supporters, rules are a way to establish and maintain authority and suppress criticism. When rules and regulations are viewed as either stumbling blocks or as weapons society as we know it crumbles.
The benefits of stability created through the constant bombardment of ‘new found respect’ will be fleeting, such respect is a chimeral notion. Respect in the absence of trust is no different than the emperor basking in the adulation for his new clothes.
(Samir Nazareth writes on socio-economic and environmental issues)
