Loyalty is for Dogs

What is loyalty (忠)? Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause. (Source: Wikipedia) Loyalty used to be a virtue, but now it's just plain foolishness - oh wait, has loyalty ever been a virtue? I guess it only happens in the perfect world under Confucius' teaching. Or loyalty is taught as virtue for the politicians to control over us?

In the world we living now, is loyalty a highly praised virtue? Or it just shows plain foolishness? We suppose that life with virtues will lead us to happiness and happiness is what we, every human, ultimately pursue for. However, loyalty, often times, is not rewarding although it is highly praised by the "saints". Let me illustrate a few example:

Kevin Garnett was a loyal basketball player to the Timberwolves franchise in NBA. He spent his prime time in that lousy franchise, which happened to be located in a a cold and deserted lousy place, achieving nothing and ended traded to Boston Celtic due to his age. So what loyalty rewards him? 7 years of losing. He didn't demand for the trade to Celtic but he was traded because he was too old for the franchise. Luckily, Celtic is a better place for him as a player, as he won his first championship on the year he got traded to Celtic.

On the other hand, Lebron James, the most hated NBA player on earth, saw Kevin Garnett's past and decided not to waste his prime in Cleveland (yet another lousy place, cold and deserted). After the Decision, he went to Miami (one of the best cities!!) to join his friends. And here the story of anti-LBJ goes.

Lebron James shows no loyalty at all. The Cleveland Cavaliers did everything they could to retain him but ended up setting records of losing 26 straight games. But he did show reasoning and intellect while making the Decision, making the best choice for himself.

Yet to see how loyalty mistreats players like Dirk Notwizki and Steve Nash. Yes they are white but when the time for decision making comes, they are more emotional and less reasoning than the black (Carmelo Anthony and Lebron James).

Enough for the NBA stories. How about some examples that are happening in our life? Such as brand loyalty? I will show how loyalty plays tricks in our mind and often misguides us from enjoying a better life.

We understand how companies spend tons of resources every year to build up brand loyalty in their customers. For example, Toyota, the leader in automobile industry, builds its brand loyalty through constant marketing, products upgrading and improvement on services. Through such efforts, Toyota successfully make its customers feel that driving a Toyota is driving the best car ever (for the given price of course!) and I was one of the millions brand loyalty victims. When competitors like Honda and Ford improves their products and services even better than Toyotas, Toyota customers, blinded by brand loyalty, refuse to accept or try the products manufactured by the competitors. As the result? These customers (including me) pay more for poorer product and service.

So does loyalty serve us good? Being loyal to Toyota is a good thing for Toyota's profits. And bear in mind, it is ONLY good for Toyota but NOT you. When competitors offer better products with lower price, we refuse to being reasonable and intellectual and make our decision based on emotion and past-ol-good-experience. As the result - we are paying more for less, and forfeit the "could have"/ "would have" enjoyment brought by the new competitors.

Also, loyalty is very often exploited by the politicians. What makes you vote for Party A instead of Party B? Some vote for party A because they like a particular politician figure in Party A. Some vote for party A because they feel that they belong to Party A.. Some vote for party A just because they hate Party B. But very few vote for Party A because they think Party A's policy serve them better in long term or short term.

So what is the purpose of having democracy when loyalty plays a more important role in deciding the country's leader/policy? Why don't we just have our monarchy system where the King and Queen live happily together in their pretty castle and we will be loyal for the emperor forever (as long as he doesn't abuse us)?

So back answering the question: Is loyalty a virtue? My answer is HELL NO because of the following arguments:

1. A virtue is a moral excellence in a person.
2. We practice a moral excellence because by practicing it, we believe we will achieve happiness.
3. Loyalty benefits only the loyalty-receiver, but not the loyalty-offeror.
4. Loyalty does not bring happiness to someone who practice it (the loyalty-offeror).
5. Hence, loyalty is not a virtue!!

Examples and arguments are presented to show how loyalty obstructs our reasoning and intellect to make decision which is best for us, hence hindering us from happiness.

So what makes us loyal? The rewards (often time in monetary form) given by the loyalty-receiver. Thus, loyalty can be bought with a price! You may ask what's the price for a loyalty. Remember the loyalty card given by Starbuck? A free coffee for every 10 coffee bought is what Starbuck paying to get a loyal customer!


We are just human. If you want loyalty, get a dog........ and feed it!