“… the whole structure of our society depends on mutual trust, not distrust.” Rooney’s statement asserts that people’s first instinct is to trust one another unless given a reason not to. Rooney’s effort in following traffic lights doesn’t make him more trustworthy by honoring the social contract that disapproves of it. His reasoning behind stopping is invalid for the sole purpose being that he would’ve pled the 5th if he was pulled over by authorities. If society depended on mutual trust then we would live close to a utopian society in which everyone would be more trustworthy, kinder, and more giving. Following traffic lights doesn’t justify his speeding and most people would find any opportunity to cheat the system if they knew they were able to avoid the consequences. Society couldn’t possibly depend on mutual trust because it’s in human nature to find ways to rebel against the norm of societies beliefs of ethics and morality. It’s the reason we have things like bill checks and metal detectors at stores and schools. It’s easy to see the distrust people have in one another in our everyday lives, especially as New Yorkers, where people have a sob story to tell on every corner as they plead for donations. Our society as a whole, takes precautions because we’ve learned that trusting one another sometimes has consequences.
It is in our human nature to try to cheat the system if we believe we can get away with it. When pulling out a fifty or hundred dollar bill and most often times than not cashiers will check the bill. Now why is that? Living in a society that depended on trust, we wouldn’t have to worry about counterfeit bills. However, we live in a world with deceitful people and trust is often gained upon the first interactions. Counterfeits are sometimes hard to differentiate from the real thing and are very common, making it hard to trust any one individual paying with bigger bills, which is why bill checks are done so often. Most often times the only way...