ABSTRACT
I suppose that when one reaches my age one should have learned that the world is a neither a very moral nor a very rational sort of place and moderated one’s expectations of contributing to changing it. One might generalize Shaw’s quip about socialism; he – and perhaps even Shaw nowadays would have felt it necessary to say he or she – who is not burning with enthusiasm to improve the world at the age of 20 is a rogue. And he who is still burning at the age of 40 is a fool. On the other hand, I have always assumed that it was venerable age which lent Jeremiah the authority that got his dire prophecies a place in the Old Testament. At any rate, what I am offering tonight might well be described as a jeremiad. Assuming that there ought to be some sort of ‘message’ in an inaugurating lecture, let me tell you from the outset what mine is. Trust is in danger, homo fidelis is an endangered species, and one of the dangers comes from the academic study of the role of trust in the workings of market capitalism.
