Failed trust at access points breeds cynicism but rarely full disengagement.

Evidence

In some cases, a person who has unfortunate experiences at a given access point, where the technical skills in question are relatively low-level, may decide to opt out of the client-layperson relationship. Thus someone who finds that the “experts” she employs consistently fail to fix the central heating properly may decide to fix it herself by learning the basic principles involved. In other instances bad experiences at access points may lead either to a sort of resigned cynicism or, where this is possible, to disengagement from the system altogether* An individual who invests in certain shares on the advice of a stockbroker and who loses money might decide to hold money in a credit account instead. That person might even resolve to hold assets only in gold in the future. But once again, it would be very difficult to disengage from the monetary system completely, and this could only be done if the individual were to try to live in self-sufficient poverty. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 223

Categorization

• XREF: Explains why Stevens cannot walk away from Darlington Hall even after disillusionment; institutional embeddedness forecloses exit.