How Can We Trust Them!?

“They don't do that kinda stuff!” Mary said with some tension in her voice.

“How do you know?!” Edgar asked.

“Because they're good people, that's why!”

“Yeah, I know! But they are it in a sense that permits wrongdoings if only there are ways to feel good about oneself just the same!”

She looked chocked. “Really!?”

He nodded. “Yeah, really!”

She looked thoughtful. “Are you saying they actually could have us believe they really wouldn't hurt anyone, but really only look and seem innocent in a way that appeals to our common sense of morality?!”

“Yeah! That's what I say! But don't tell everyone that I've told you so! They can be very dangerous at times. ....”

Mary looked thoughtful and a bit annoyed. “I don't believe I would be into seeing them if I knew this for certain about them!” she proclaimed. “Moreover, I wouldn't let them get away with it!”

“How the heck do you think you would be able to nail them?! It's they who wold be innocent enough for people who didn't know yet - and those - fairly few - who manage to figure it out, they don't dare to take part in what could be called for example blackmail of a very reputable family!”

Annoyed again, Mary hissed a little before saying: “It's not hey who should be getting away with it and that's final!”

“I can't help it, it's not even I who really can help that they are reputable as long as their surfaces seem to be totally moral.”

“If this is really true about them, then how can we be sure there is a point to believe even at all in common sense about whom to trust?”

He looked thoughtful and a bit troubled. “I'm not quite sure about it. I suppose, though, that we can't always trust our senses, but only sometimes. Simply like that! How about it?”

Mary seemed sort of relieved after hearing this. But she still seemed to hate that those people got away with it. “Is there any way there can be safety against that one is fooled by them?”

“Only sort of, I think. One can only double-check their statements and insinuations. Probably that's all one can do.”

“Holy canoli! Then how can we go on with this kind of naive judgement? I mean wouldn't it make us all perish or something?”

“We all have to survive that it's all in them to be able to take like that. It's we who must survive, not they who should be able to kill us all.”

“I know! But how come we don't all perish since this by all reason must have been a weakness in our judgements since ages - or mustn't it?”

He thought about it. “I guess,” he said after a while, “that is so because one can survive them! It's only that one must see to it that one doesn't get in their way.”

“Are you sure that's enough? ... How come then, doesn't it happen that more more people do that? And if that does happen then how can we survive one another?”

He looked thoughtful again. “yeah, I feel sure that it's enough. But I think it's because their souls still do perish for it! That way God can see to it that at least we can learn from our mistakes.”

She looked surprised. “But how come there's no one who has learned by now that we do have to get at such people somehow?”

“I guess it's just because they aren't so easy to get at without them having excuses to get at those who are more innocent than they.”

“There's no one who can say there isn't a way to get at them without there being any way to say to oneself that one really has to hanker on without having it they're mean enough to actually get at!”

“That's exactly what I mean.”

“Great. Then we can agree about that.” Edgar replied. But the looked thoughtful and added: “In a sense, Mary, it's worse of you can be with a female counterpart who is doing that, than with a male one. Because a male one tends to give himself away by being too decisive, while a female one tends to seem to be innocent just by being the one not to have the power to emphasize her ability to manipulate as important. ... I'm not sure if that's exactly it, but it seems to be something like that.”

Mary looked kind of nonplussed. She thought about it for a while, then said: “I canot feel sure that I do not manipulate that way. But I can feel sure that I could have said to myself that I wouldn't have to be in power just in order to get things straight. ... About her, I guess that if she, whoever that is, feels that things straight is to be about a lie as were it the truth, then she cold perhaps lie even better than you guys, since she is not the one to really be intense about wanting to lie. Right?”

Edgar looked at her. “Yeah. Right!” he said after a while.