issue235 【自由女神小组第十一次作业】

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TOPIC: ISSUE235 - "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."
WORDS: 461          TIME: 1:15:19          DATE: 2007-2-1

Is loyalty all too often a adverse force, as the speaker claims? In my view, whether loyalty is a positive force depends on its extent and  its objector. Apart from its consequences, loyalty is definitely a virtue that all people should strike to develop. But if loyalty is overextended or misguided, I tend to agree that it may be destructive.

To individuals, loyalty means inner relationship with others. Those who are loyal are more likely to win trust from family members, friends and lovers and get lovely home, firm friendship and sweet affection. In this sense, loyalty is not only a desirable but also indispensable virtue that everyone should abide by. Without loyalty, family would break down, friendship would become colder and colder and affection would disappear as it can not exist without trust. In a word, loyalty is a virtue which plays a vital role in establishing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships.

To a community, success often depends on its members' loyalty. For example, a company can be easily defeated in competition when one employee of the company sells its commercial intelligence to its rival. While, as an old saying goes "every dog has his day", those who are disloyal to their communities might attain benefits for a short period, in the long run they would get their penalty for their disloyalty some day.

However, if loyalty is misguided or overextended, it can be a adverse force to both individual and society. Consider first the overextended loyalty to friends who are anti-society may lead to criminal behavior. Such blind loyalty may driven people to do all the things their friends ask them to do without considering those things are legal or not. As a result, a loyal citizen may be misguided to conduct crime. Consider next the misguided loyalty to mother school could result in job discrimination. For example,  a MR who has too much loyalty to his mother school might be more inclined to choose the candidate who comes from the same college with him  rather than the one from a different college even though the one is actually more qualified for the job. Finally, and perhaps foremost in terms of destructive potential, is misguided loyalty to one's country or political leaders. History shows all too well that crossing the fine line between patriotism and irrational jingoism can lead to such atrocities as persecution, genocide, and war.   

To sum up, without loyalty there are no basic trust between family, friends and lovers or individuals and their institutions. A world deprived of loyalty is an unlucky, if not terrible, one. But unless loyalty is tempered by other virtues, such as fairness, tolerance and respect for other people, I would agree that it can sever to divide, damage, and even destroy.