I never hesitated about what title to give a post as this one did. I wanted to title it “Dual Loyalty” but there are cases in which double loyalty leads to division but not entering into duality.
Wikipedia explains dual loyalty well “For example, a doctor who is asked by a government to assess a prisoner’s fitness to withstand torture faces an enormous ethical dilemma because of the competing loyalties of the doctor to the state versus the physician’s code of ethics and his/her commitment to a patient’s human rights”.
One example in which loyalty does not involve ethics is family members supporting two derby teams. Once a game is over you can hear the mocking of the loser. This is mostly in a prevailing family atmosphere.
A different example is a soccer player accepting an offer to play for a foreign club. One day his home club, which he played for, had a decisive game against his new club.
The player faces a dilemma. He has double loyalty. One towards his new club and one to his old club.
Is it possible to partition loyalty? No one has two hearts and a hesitant heart tends to make hesitant decisions.
Worse, if the player acts professionally and scores the winning goal against his home club. Loyalty can be hard on our humanity.
Our mobile world witnesses huge mobility where millions of people migrate to seek better lives. Some of the immigrants work in military research labs to develop weapons. What reaction would the migrating researcher would have finding that the weapons he is developing are for use against his home country?
How much effect does loyalty have on humans to remember the land they came out of? How soon this loyalty fades with time.
Loyalty can be very stressful. It is loyalty to the past with its roots and the present with its captivating light.
