585 Initial trust is instinctive but fragile.

 Many, perhaps most, people think that all conduct is based on calculative self-interest, and that trust is not viable. That is a tragic misconception. Trust indeed arose, in evolution, out of self-interest. Even among the early hunter-gatherers there was a need to collaborate, in hunting, economic production and exchange, family life, and war. However, it is too complicated every time to figure out or estimate the reliability of each individual and exercise control. As collaboration became habitual, initial trust became more automatic,  growing into a non-calculative instinct of initial trust, which gives collaboration a chance.

 In fact, trust is often betrayed, and one must develop the skill of assessing trustworthiness, and being flexible or adaptive when deceit occurs. But without initial trust, one foregoes opportunities for collaboration, or destroys them out of suspicion.

 If all goes well, trust deepens, and control becomes less. If things repeatedly go wrong , without explanation, trust totters and the rot of distrust sets in. Especially then, you must know the circumstances and competencies of the partner, to decide whether you should break, warn, threat with vengeance, wait till you become certain what the cause is, possibly finding that what went wrong was not intentional but accidental or due to lack of competence, ask yourself whether it was legitimate to assume trustworthiness, demand compensation, engage an intermediary, or accept what went wrong because it was accidental.

 All this applies to personal relations, alliances between firms and states, formation of coalition governments, and relations between states and citizens. Vengeance must be proportional, but what is proportional to infinite evil? Then revenge can become equally infinite. But then there remain limits of humanity. That applies to the revenge of Israel on Hamas.