The Object of Loyalty
Today I finished reading a crime novel, A Bitter Feast, by S. J. Rozan. Her main character, PI Lydia Chin (or Chin Ling Wan-ju), enters a room (on p. 276) and listens in on the conversation of an elder in her family association:
His position, as I stood respectfully listening, seemed to be that no government could be trusted….
A good notion, but I would change "could" to "should".
By saying that no government should be trusted, I'm not advocating an instituional distrust, but something more along the lines of continual skepticism — I am a scientist, after all, and skepticism is a fundamental and positive part of the scientific process.
Giving limited power to our elected officials is necessary if they are to perform the administrative tasks that we assign them, but giving any power is a perennial invitation to corruption, and must be vigilantly guarded against.
Much is made on occasion, as it is in the current political landscape, of "loyalty". There are innumerable attempts at government-imposed and peer-group-imposed tests of "loyalty" (one of the most annoying is the current fad for the yellow "Support Our Troops" faux-ribbons that adorn the rear of so many automobiles), and they are all misguided. Calls for displays of loyalty to our government attempt to shore up the powers of government against possible erosion from the skepticism that is the obligation of the electorate.
The electorate loans the power to govern over it, but owes nothing to the government. It is the government that owes the electorate. Indeed, informed dissent is a patriotic obligation. Sedition and treason exist, but they are rare.
"Loyalty" does describe a characteristic exhibited by a person or group towards another person or group; it can, in the right circumstances, be an admirable and honorable trait.
In times of tyranny and widespread corruption, calls for demonstrations of "loyalty" are popular: it is mistakenly thought that "loyalty" should be shown by the grateful electorate towards the government that condescends to protect it. This is wrong.
In a democracy, it is the government that shows its loyalty to the electorate. We, the people, must not let them forget it.