Information AboutLoyalty |
|
Loyalty is faithfulness or devotion to a person or cause. Social and cultural Loyalty, one can surmise, began with fellow-feeling for one's Family , Gene -group and friends. Loyalty comes most naturally amongst small groups or Tribe s where the prospect of the whole casting out the individual seems like the ultimate, unthinkable rejection. In a Feudal Society , centered on personal bonds of mutual obligation, accounting for precise degrees of protection and fellowship can prove difficult. Loyalty in these circumstances can become a matter of extremes: alternative groups may exist, but lack of mobility will foster a personal sense of loyalty. The rise of State s (and later Nation State s) meant the harnessing of the "loyalty" concept to foster allegiance to the Sovereign or established Government of one’s country, also personal devotion and reverence to the sovereign and Royal family. once stood as the opposite of the same Idea . Compare Loyalty Card . Loyalty is also used in context to employee satisfaction with their organization, and their propensity to exit or stay with the organization. Etymology and semantics The English word "loyalty" came into use in the early part of the 15th century in the sense of fidelity to one’s Oath , or in Service , Love , etc; the later state-oriented sense appears in the 16th century. The Old French word ''loialté'' (modern French ''loyauté''), comes from ''loial'' (loyal), Scots ''leal'', Latin ''legalis'' (legal, from ''lex'' (law)). The word functioned in the special feudal sense of one who has full legal rights, a ''legalis homo'' being opposed to the " Outlaw ". Thence in the sense of "faithful", it meant one who kept faithful allegiance to his feudal lord, and so loyal to the ultimate temporal Power . Loyalty and ethics Plato said that only a man who is just can be loyal, and that loyalty is a condition of genuine philosophy. The philosopher Josiah Royce said it was the supreme moral good, and that one's devotion to an object mattered more than the merits of the object itself. Lao Tzu's take on loyalty: "When people lost sight of the way to live Came codes of love and honesty, Learning came, charity came, Hypocrisy took charge; When differences weakened family ties Came benevolent fathers and dutiful sons; And when lands were disrupted and misgoverned Came ministers commended as loyal." from the Witter Bynner translation. There were many intents to replace loyalty with support of the ruling party, president, king or dictator. The quotation below allows to avoid the confusion: "...all political power is inherent in -- by Mark Twain , ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' {Link without Title} Sources
|