External distrust or threat drives people to build stronger local trust enclaves

Evidence

Other issues in the management of trust could be addressed. For example, we might suppose that trust relationships develop in one arena in response to distrust in another or others. If the larger society is a place of distrust or the government is a source of threat, we might develop stronger local relationships to protect ourselves against intrusions from the larger, malevolent society or government. The threatening world of the Omani (briefly discussed in chapter 4) leads to strongly maintained familial homes that are virtual fortresses, with high walls offering protection against the outside. The awful world created by Stalin led later to the rich underground culture of the samizdat. Pernicious race or ethnic relations might lead a minority group to define its own ghetto. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 695

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Saramago integration: the doctor’s wife’s sightedness becomes the ‘fortress-like’ local trust enclave within a hostile blinded society; also parallels ghetto formation and samizdat culture as trust pockets under threat. — connects to: State propagandists, bots, and amateur conspiracy theorists form reinforcing alliances. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 396
• ADDENDUM: Relates to the sacrifice article’s theme of communities hardening internal bonds under external threats, though more directly to the trust/grafting tension of insularity versus exchange.