Toxic loyalty

I recently updated the quotations page on my main (Pagan spirituality) blog, including editing to include the following (which are my words and thoughts): 

Hierarchical obedience is not “respect”: it is the imposition of power, domination, and control. Reinforcing social/business hierarchy is not building cohesion. Promoting human rights is not divisive - it is the resistance that is divisive, not the rights nor their promotion.

That is a useful lead in to what I want to cover in this brief post, which is: 

toxic loyalty

Now, loyalty can be good in some situations - for instance, being loyal to a loved one when they are ill or struggling will help them, the relationship, and, ultimately, society. 

But loyalty can also be toxic - in particular, when one puts loyalty to a person or organisation above ethical principles. 

That may - in part (KPIs, fear of unemployment, attraction to elitism, etc also may play a role) - result in problems such as:     deceit about environmental discharge standards,     resisting the ending of fossil fuel use (and ending that is essential for our species having a better chance of surviving the climate crisis - or doing so in a reasonable condition),     allowing, enabling, or even promoting worker abuses such as the gig economy,     the implementation of unethical (or, at the very least immoral and questionable ethically) practices such as not recording all time worked on timesheets - even if the time will not be paid (underpayment, or wage theft as it is often termed, I consider likely due to other issues - including unfit-for-purpose systems, incompetent thinking, and inadequate life experience/knowledge about working conditions within the company),     continuing to support political views/parties/people that have become outdated, inappropriate, or even harmful,     the sort of appalling attacks on democracy we’ve seen over the last few years in the USA,     and     other forms of political violence, including this, this, and this, where those committing the acts of barbarity are exhibiting toxic loyalty - as are all the others committing, supporting, or enabling the other examples above. 

Given the risk of damage to the social licence (see here, here, here, here, here, and here) of corporations from such behaviour, it is damaging to the company as a whole, as well as those on the receiving end (and, to some extent, it will also scar those indulging in these abusive, unethical practices). 

In personal relationships, toxic loyalty can be one of the factors behind toxic forgiveness. 

(As a variation on that, the fawning stress response will be harmful for a range of reasons [such as enabling the continuation of abuse, blocking personal growth, etc], and that could reasonably be considered to be toxic in situations where the abuse it enables is towards other people, groups, organisations or even nations.)

More broadly, loyalty is always toxic when it substitutes for thinking.

What are the solutions? 

Well, I would suggestion to main thing is to take that first step, which is to be aware of how one is living, including all the impacts one is having, and then - with expert help if needed - identify and work through the causes which have led to any problems such as toxic loyalty. 

This might help. 

Easily written, more difficult to live; vital to our species, as well as you and the ones you love. 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/