Why One Must Place Loyalty to Self Over Loyalty to Society

The cold harsh truth is that we all live in an extremely self-centered society where everyone is primarily concerned with his or her own self-preservation and self-interests. As such it seems foolish to place loyalty to society over loyalty to the self. Even if one were to be loyal to society and succeed, it won’t work forever. Being loyal to the self shows the strong personality of a person, and the self-confidence the person places in himself will make others trust and believe in him more than the person who is making decisions from people’s opinions or who is placing loyalty in society over self.

Therefore, an individual must be loyal to his personal beliefs and thoughts than rather than being loyal to the society and acting due to societal pressures even against one’s conscience will lead to much guilt and self-conflict as well as conflict with others. This concept is evident as we read in Gregory’s story. Even though the solders were given a direct order to kill the hostage Gregory, the soldiers remained loyal to themselves and their conscience by giving Gregory the chance to escape. The soldiers had grown to like Gregory and to see he was a good person as they cooked and ate with him, and shared personal stories with him.

The soldiers allowed Gregory to do the laundry by himself and gave him hints as to when the sentry was sleeping. However due to Gregory’s stupidity, he was not able to escape and the soldiers were now forced to be loyal to the headquarters and eventually executed Gregory as ordered. In my opinion, the soldiers did the right thing and kept loyal to themselves, but only up to a point when they couldn’t take it any longer because of the stupidity of Gregory. As a result, they were forced to execute Gregory. In the end though, the soldier who executed Gregory was suffering of guilt because he wasn’t loyal to himself and killed his friend Gregory.

In my opinion, a mistake in making the decision to be loyal to the self would not matter as much as a mistake in in being loyal to others. Because in loyalty to the self, it is your decision and you’re conscience is comfortable with it even if the answer is simply yes or no. However, in loyalty to others, once you realize that you have made the wrong decision, the regret from making that wrong decision will be unforgettable and you are going to end up always feeling guilty and will lack the confidence in making future decisions.

In the inspiring movie “Hotel Rwanda”, we see an example of how loyalty to the self can correspond to loyalty to society in the face of impossible odds. The movie is about Paul Rusesabagina who is a manager of a high-class hotel in Rwanda and is caught in between the deadly civil war between the two warring tribes the Tutsi’s and the Hutu’s. What complicates the situation is that Paul is a Hutu and yet his wife Tatiana is a Tutsi. As the political situation in the country deteriorates, Paul does his best to try and save and help his family at first.

Then after securing his family, he tries to save as many more lives as he can by bribing the soldiers who were killing the Tutsi’s with money and alcohol. Paul is then considered a hero by diverting the Hutu Soldiers, taking care of the refugees, being a source of strength for his family, and all while maintaining the high-class appearance of the Hotel since he is the Manager. He does all this and saves his family and 1200 of the refugees’ lives in the process. Paul’s action shows us how strong and important loyalty to the self can be.

Paul knows that he is on the right side by saving his family and refugees even if “society” thinks that he is wrong by sending soldiers to kill the Tutsi’s. He has so much loyalty and belief in himself and his principles that he is willing to sacrifice himself for his family and the refugees. Even the Paul is unarmed and outnumbered, he challenged the impossible and used his skills, brainpower, and creativity in Rwanda to save people’s lives. This shows how important loyalty to self is and how powerful it is when used by people like Paul in difficult situations in order to succeed and do the right thing.

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