issue235

斑马慢蓝黑乱UID: 2788017

235. "Most people are taught that loyalty is a virtue. But loyalty—whether to one's friends, to one's school or place of employment, or to any institution—is all too often a destructive rather than a positive force."

The speaker asserts that loyalty is regarded, though has been taught as a virtue, as a destructive rather than a positive force in most conditions. At first glance, the opinion seems convincing, but further reflection tells that I can’t agree with it for the following reasons.

Most of us have no doubt that loyalty is one of the most important characteristics with friends, nobody would like to make friend with somebody may betray you one day. Undeniable, we have to tell lies or keep some details towards our friend, however, that’s our protection for friends rather than betrayal, we should make sure that our friends are away from harm and they can live a better life. For example, when something sad happened to our friend, we should help him get away the harm as soon as possible, when he failed in his business, it’s our responsibility to help him rather than leave him alone. On the flip side, friends are most familiar groups for everyone expect for the family, no reason is for us not to try our best to be loyal to them and support them. What’s more, on account of the loyalty between each other, friends can build up good relations, in other words, friendship comes from respect and loyalty, this explains why loyalty is a positive force.

When it comes to one’s school, loyalty represents your sense of recognize of the school and so it is your study. Only when you’re loyal to school, you could be dedicated to the study. Thus, one’s loyalty to school was built on the base of his favor for study, in other words, each hard –study student must be absolutely loyal to the school, and the loyalty will help improve their study.

Admittedly, in certain conditions, excessive loyalty will impede one’s improvement. For example, the famous NBA star John Stockton was a typical mode of loyalty who played for Jazz the whole career, but he haven’t reached his dream for champion. Once he has got a chance to trade to a stronger team to realize his dream, however, his mind of loyalty made him stay in salt lake city for more than 20 years, and finally retired with such a pity. However, when we trace back to this history, we still believe John was a great player and he got success, especially for his loyalty .

To sum up, loyalty still plays an important role in moral society with a positive rather than a destructive force, we should be loyal to one's friends, to one's school or place of employment, or to some institutions.