Too long for Twitter

March 26, 2008 by Jeff Jarvis

I just typed this while writing the book:

Before the public can learn to trust the powerful, the powerful must learn to trust the public.

  • keith

    Jeff:

    The powerful doesn’t trust the public because they believe that the average American is more concerned with the latest episode of Jerry Springer than what’s happening with our government.

    Why?

    Because the average American is more concerned with the latest episode of Jerry Springer than what’s happening with our government.

  • Cooler Heads

    Jeff, I know you think that this is insightful, but c’mon. Oprah trusts the public. So does Toyota. And Obama. And Princess Diana did. Reagan trusted the public. Ryan Seacrest trusts the public.

  • http://www.buzzmachine.com Jeff Jarvis

    Cooler,
    But too many journalists and politicians don’t. And that is their failing – especially now that the public has a voice.

  • http://sandlander.blogspot.com Malcolm Thomson

    I find the phrase both insightful and apposite. It is particularly helpful in the context of the ongoing discussions of the freedom of speech issue in the Middle East.

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  • Will

    Exactly as poignant as was said by Natan Sharansky. I could read his book 1000 times and still have more to learn.

  • http://crawfordinsights.blogspot.com/ crawford

    Pogo.

  • http://www.buzzmachine.com Jeff Jarvis

    Grin.

  • Cooler Heads

    Jeff, politicians trust the public. Government doesn’t. Nor do political parties.

    Politicians trust the public to be swayed by their sales pitches.

    Journalists definitely don’t trust the public.

  • http://crawfordinsights.blogspot.com/ crawford

    A personal anecdote, FWIW. I used to work for a client that ran a highly profitable super-regional bank guided by absolute and slavish devotion to one guiding principle: respect for the individual. Yes, it can be viewed as cliche. And, yes, it could be dismissed if one chose to do so. But I can vouch from first hand experience that it was remarkable what an impact this core value had on all customer/employee interactions at every touch point. Stability, loyalty and profits continue to result.

    And, not surprisingly, this bank consciously chose to not load up on sub-prime. Why would they? Guiding principles do matter. Even these seemingly simplistic old saws.

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  • http://none jim weaver

    wow. what a genius!!!