Sunday, March 04, 2007

The Myth of Loyalty

Quick question:

Where should my loyalty belong?

Should my loyalty belong to what I am, or should it belong to what I choose?

If my loyalty should belong to what I am, then what if what I am does not deserve loyalty? What if what I am tells me to be loyal to something that conflicts with my choices and beliefs, what good is such loyalty? If those that I belong to are in some way sinister in thought or action, what good is my loyalty to them?


But if I should be loyal to what I choose, how do I know how long this choice will last, for it is inevitable to discover that some choices are bad and that wisdom as well as duty obliges me to betray my pointless loyalty towards them. So how can I be loyal to something so changing as confused choices that are likely to change. If I am to be loyal to them for as long as I have chosen them, then I would have to say that a loyalty that’s short lived is as good as no loyalty at all.

So loyalty through coincidence or choice is overrated. The only loyalty that can exist irrespective of anything else is loyalty to myself. That is the one loyalty that makes sense practically.

There’s also another loyalty that makes sense; being indebted to a good deed. If you were saved by someone in any way then a loyalty to him may exist. If for no selfish reason, someone gives a helping hand in time of need without expecting something in return, the loyalty is justified.

My loyalties to certain milestones in my life seem justified, but other loyalties that people preach about just seem too sloganized and just overrated.

3 comments:

Eventuality said...

I thinke you should always be loyal to yourself and what you believe in. anything else would just be called alligning yourself with certain ideas or choices that fit the current circumstances and may be irrelevant later on.

N said...

what about loyalty to truth and love?
sutely those are not temporary in concept..

Wael Eskandar said...

N,You're talking about values, and what we value is a choice, and our values change. The concept doesn't change but, but our choice of that value changes.

And either way even if we never doubt truth and love, and they are instilled in us forever (which i doubt), then it's loyalty to our self.