The Green caldron - University Library

What Is Loyalty?
Larry Schafer
Rhetoric 101, Theme 3
y%^j OYALTY," A SINGLE NOUN, HAS NO SINGLE MEANING.
I When written, spoken, or thought, it is usually expressed in terms
"^^ of a certain object. It is used in reference to something. One does
not say, "I am loyal." That declaration in itself means nothing. One must
specify and limit. One must say, "I am loyal to this group, or to this
nation." As an isolated, definite state of mind, loyalty is indefinable.
Modern dictionaries attempt to define it, but they begin, "Faithfulness
to . . . Trueness to . . ." They do not say, ''Loyalty is this." They cannot.
They must define it as being related to something else. They must limit
it in order to define it.
One dictionary does attempt to define it as a concrete, single state of
mind; however, it fails miserably. In efifect, it says, "Loyalty is the state
of being constant." This leads one to assume that since the earth's rotation
on its axis is constant, the earth has loyalty. Of course, this is not true ; but,
in my estimation, it is true that a definition completely and adequately de-
fining loyalty has not yet been recorded.
What is loyalty? In vague terms, it is a human concern for, or emotion
for, or toward, some definite thing, "definite thing" being any one of a
number of different, available objects. Such objects, which receive loyalty, are
one's country, one's family, one's home town, state, or national athletic
team. One may be loyal to an ideal, a leader, or a master.
Since a "human emotion" or "concern" may include an infinite variety of
states of mind in varying degrees of intensity, the one general type of emotion
intended in the definition of loyalty must now be established. Here, though,
is the difficulty. An emotion is formally defined as any departure from the
normal calm of the mental state. It may be joy, fear, sorrow, anger, surprise
—any number of conditions. Of course, the "human emotion" in the definition
of loyalty refers to one or, at most, a very few of the numerous
existing emotions. But to which one does it refer? Does a soldier loyal to
his leader display the same emotion as a man loyal to a baseball team?
No; so the words "human emotion" in the vague definition of loyalty are
really as specific as one can get. To select one word and to insert it in the
definition is not logically possible.
Loyalty is a state of mind defying accurate description and definition.
Because of its various manifestations and the widely different stimuli
producing it, it is not a set state of mind and cannot fit a set definition.
Everyone knows what loyalty is, but no one can define it.
[1]