Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Trusting our Friends

We expect to trust our friends and mistrust our enemies. Part of the function of identity (especially in a security context) is to tell which is which.

But as John Smith points out, we cannot always trust our friends. Our friends may subject us to friendly fire, may cause us to be exposed to danger or shame.

There is an aspect of trust that can be equated with predictability. Does this mean we can sometimes trust our enemies more than our friends?