Well, it’s a sentiment I can certainly understand, but it’s not terribly practical in the real world. True, more often than not someone you put some trust in will wind up proving to be unworthy of that trust….at that point your only recourse is damage control of the highest order.

But trust, like virtue, has degrees. For example, Tony at the corner pizza place trusts you enough to let you slide when you order a couple slices and discover you forgot your wallet. Rather than demand you leave your watch or cellphone with him as collateral, he trusts you to bring him a few bucks the next time you’re in there. But Tony ain’t gonna trust some mook like you with, say, the weeks cash receipts getting deposited at the bank. Tony has a scale of trust and you, paisan, are at the bottom.

So, trust has degrees…. it’s easy to trust virtually anybody when the stakes are so low as to be immaterial. It’s when the stakes get higher that we start getting mighty picky about who we trust and how far.

As survivalists, we have a few things going on in our lives that we’d rather the world at large not know about. But, at the same time, we can’t go 100% solo or we’re going to have some really bad moments.

It’s depressing, but true… you’re on this planet for a finite amount of time, with a finite amount of resources, and you simply don’t have room in your life for people who are, passively or actively, damaging (or at least not contributing) to your life.

If you haven’t already done it, you may want to think about people you know and evaluate their position in the hierarchy of trust. And, naturally, you may also want to think about contingency plans for when Cousin Bill or Friend Steve violates that trust (or becomes a non-asset to your life).