'According to the trite observation' — Adam Smith wrote — 'if there is any society among robbers and murderers, they must at least. . . abstain from robbing and murdering one another' (Smith 1976: 86; see also Saint Augustine in Dunn, this volume). This 'trite' observation serves a double purpose: it reminds us that basic forms of cooperation are inevitable if a society is to be at all viable, but it also points out, perhaps unwittingly, that there are instances of cooperation — notably those among robbers and murderers — that we may want to dispose of rather than improve. We may want /ess cooperation (and trust) rather than more, especially among those who are threatening us, and whose cooperation is a hindrance to ours.

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 2668