Why Should People Get Along Well with Each Other

Reflections on The Lonesome West Performed by the Shanghai Theatre Academy

Abstract

This article draws on the author’s experience of attending Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West at the Shanghai Theatre Academy to examine the complexity of human relationships and the role of trust in both public life and everyday social interactions. Engaging concepts from Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach and Luhmann’s Trust, the analysis further differentiates between belief and trust as distinct modes of orientation: belief concerns the transcendent or the afterlife, whereas trust is directed toward the future. When the future is suspended or collapses, trust collapses with it. For both individuals and nations, the loss of trust signals a profound crisis in the fabric of social relations.