Trust declines can persist for a generation without preventing later social progress

Evidence

We do not know from available survey data, which exist for only a few decades, whether there is a secular trend in trust or distrust. Those particular decades suffered from many episodic crises that might have undercut optimism about the trustworthiness of others, and the effects of these crises might last the lifetime of a particular generation. For many families of my generation, even intrafamilial trust was shattered by conflicts over the ugly politics of Vietnam. It would be perversely ahistorical to suppose there were not even greater losses of optimism in earlier times. Yet we seem to have survived into a richer social life and a radically more productive economic life than our predecessors knew—despite all passages through periods of significantly lower levels of trust. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 802

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader inquiry: crises (like sudden blindness in Saramago) can shatter even intrafamilial trust, yet societies rebuild — parallel to the wife restoring order amid total collapse. — connects to: Declining social trust reflects generational succession, not individual change — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 463; Generational effects alter society even when individuals stay the same — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 858; One cohort stayed well-adjusted lifelong while its children grew more distressed — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 907
• QUESTION: The claim that episodic crises can shatter even intrafamilial trust across a generation invites comparison with Hardin’s encapsulated-interest model — what interest survives within a family during political rupture?