Virtue or Vice: The Loyalty Trap

Loyalty is a virtue.  Patriotism is a subset of loyalty.  We learn from an early age the value of loyalty.  “Blood is thicker than water,” and thus friends who share one another’s blood are blood brothers. No way do you rat on your buddies, a practice which sets up us vs. them, seen not only between gangs but between the teacher who asks who did that, and the students who refuse to turn in their buddies.  We take loyalty oaths to execute specific jobs or professions: doctors, judges, police officers, military, priests, high level government officials to name a few.   We swear to tell the truth, to remain loyal to a club or organization; we exchange marriage vows.  Confirmation, bar or bat mitzvah, and baptism are oaths to be loyal to a religion. 

We punish people who violate expectations of loyalty from mafia members to military deserters to individuals who disclose secrets to the enemy.  Loyalty can be freely given, but it can also be demanded, and that demand can require the loyal followers to make dangerous, unwise, even unethical, or irrational decisions.  In the early days of Christianity, loyal follows of Jesus were tortured and killed.  We call them martyrs and applaud their loyalty.  The loyal followers of John Jones’ cult drank the cool aid and died clinging to their belief that their leader was a messiah.  We declared them demented and attempted to rescue them.

Wherever there are sides to be chosen, there are loyalists.  During the revolutionary war, people died for their loyalty to the king of England or the Colonies.  The Civil war pitted brother against brother.  During the Viet Nam war people had to choose between Patriotism, loyalty to their country, and their personal moral beliefs. 

We are in a position today where our loyalty is being challenged in every direction.  Israel, Ukrane, Biden, and Trump, are all challenging our loyalty.

Blind loyalty is Dangerous.  It leads to fabricating and believing falsehoods.  Are members of Hamas terrorists or freedom fighters for the Palestinians? Do Israeli’s have the right and responsibility to destroy Hamas in order to protect their safety or are they engaged in what we might call involuntary genocide.  Will we remain loyal to our Ally if we believe the latter?  Are we violating our loyalty to Ukraine and to our European allies by dragging our heals about appropriating more funds to the war against Russia?  And what about Biden and Trump?  There was a study done decades ago that indicated that Democrats were more likely to criticize themselves and one another while Republicans were more likely to defend one another.  Is Donald Trump returning American to greatness or destroying democracy?   If the later, are is followers patriots or blind.  Are Republicans caught in a loyalty trap, required to support Donald Trump and deny or dismiss words and behaviors that are falsehoods or  illegal and or immoral?  Is loyalty so important that it prompts people to  support someone who threatens revenge against anyone who criticizes him?   Is there an off-ramp from loyalty when we discover it has flipped from virtue to vice?