TRUST -- THE BEST DEFENCE?

I've done a fair amount of travelling alone,
In two or three of the worst-reputed crime areas on the planet.
And, after a wonderful incident in downtown Sicily, arguably the criminal capital of the world,
I noticed something -----
One of the surest (and easiest) ways to ensure the safety of your bags while you (eg.) go to the toilet
Is to ask a complete stranger to watch them for you.
Trust de-powers Deception.
I can't explain how that happens.
It's a mystery to me.
There seems to be something about innocent trust
That brings out the best in even the worst of us.
Watch a bunch of thugs on a bus
When confronted with the unjudgmental gaze of a little child!

I'm not talking about "trust" as a verb,
Or about trust as something given and/or received:
That's not quite it.
That kind of "trust" is a negotiation
And a product and function of existing dis-trust.
That kind of "trust", being positional and opposed/tied to Distrust,
Will attract an experience of distrust,
We get what we resist.
And there is no shortage of consters and manipulators around
Who are ever ready to oblige anyone who's on the lookout for betrayal.
When looking at chronically co-dependent relationships,
I'm often intrigued by a question --
"Who is the greater manipulator here --
The one manipulating, or the one being manipulated?"

I'm talking about Trust as a way of doing what we do,
An implicit assumption,
An unquestioned expectation,
A way of giving and receiving,
As a way of being;
Trust as a quality of space that we come from -- "trust-ness".

The magic of pure, innocent trust was at the core of one of the most extraordinary films ever made --
"Being There."
Trust transcends just about everything,
Because it plugs directly into the essential innocent nature of everyone and everything.
We are all innocent, inasmuch as we do not know what we know.

Have you never noticed that a truly innocent person is almost immune to deception?
It's well-nigh impossible to deceive a very young child!
They know. They've got you sussed. It just doesn't bother them much.

When one unconditionally lives in trust, one tends to attract it.
Trust and innocence create their own energy in an aura;
It becomes almost impossible for others, even criminals, to deceive you.
It is far easier to deceive a deceiver,
To victimise a victim,
To cheat a cheat.....
"I've been used!" is a perception that can only arise from a victim consciousness.
A true Innocent (as distinct from ignorant or naive) is never exploited or cheated,
He just doesn't see it that way.
And if he doesn't see it that way, it isn't so.
But the world disagrees with that and calls it "mad".

Who's going mad, I wonder.
The trusters, or the distrusters?