{Trust}[21st May 1989]

[Redbook6:131-133)][19890521:1000]{Trust}[21st May 1989]

19890521.1000

Briefly watching a rather unfortunate Army competition on television yesterday evening, it occurred to me that one of the reasons why I was never able to participate fully in T[erritorial] A[rmy]* life – or, now I come to think of it, in any institution – is that in the Army (as to some extent in any institution) it is vitally necessary that you trust your fellow men: your colleagues, your bosses, and through them the institution itself. Without such trust you are paralysed to [sic] work with and within the institution, and are therefore useless to it.

In employment you have to trust them with your livelihood: in the Army, even in the peacetime T[erritorial] A[rmy],* with your life. Those who do not trust, are not trusted, and the whole process becomes a vicious spiral: I once heard a [...] C[ommanding] O[fficer] of the T[erritorial] A[rmy]* say that there were some soldiers who, if hostilities broke out, would die in the first hail of bullets from their own side, so dangerous where they considered to be by their own mates.

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*[Volunteer Reserve]

**[But see next entry but one]

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