Society has to exist on trust to a large degree. No trust and nothing can happen. Without it you couldn’t move forward in any direction without constantly checking your back. When you go forward, taking a risk, you do so in the hope you will not be violated and trust is the important element that allows that to happen. A society without trust and risk can only stagnate.

In this sense, an individual is either part of the problem or part of the solution. One who engenders trust contributes to the overall good, one who doesn’t detracts from it. When freedoms based on trust are abused then systems have to be devised to cover or reduce the possibility of abuse. The problem is that everyone then suffers. These systems are themselves usually restrictive and thereby inhibit the freedoms they attempt to uphold. The more such devices are employed the more authoritarian a society becomes. It has then allowed the lower values of an immoral minority to dictate the degree of freedom and consequently the quality of life for the rest.

Most societies throughout history have been coercive like this. Many in the world still are. If you’re going to have a free society it really has to exist on individual responsibility where each person honours and upholds agreements based on trust. The minority who abuse it should not be allowed to prevail.