Dialectics: Friendship and Loyalty

Many people may look at the title of this blog and say, "Hey, friendship and loyalty are the same thing!" Well there are several things wrong with these people. First of all, hey is for horses, and secondly, friendship and loyalty are quite different, though they relate to each other quite well.

Friendships are human to human relationships with many twists and turns, but loyalty can be as simple as how your dog feels about you. However, in relationships, your friends can or can't be loyal to you and people who are loyal to you can or can't be your friends. Although, what is really important is what the two ideas have in common.

Being loyal largely overlaps with being helpful, as does friendship. Going back to the dog analogy, humans help dogs live by sheltering them and guaranteeing them meals, and humans and dogs provide a companion to each other. Now some oblivious people may state that their pet is their best friend. Not only do they have interpersonal issues, but they also need to understand that friends should regard and treat each other as equals. In a loyal relationship between a person and a pet, the pet is loyal to the person, and the person is loyal to the bet, but in different ways. Pets are loyal to their masters because they feel loved by their masters and the pets can depend on them, and masters are loyal to their pets because they love their pets and they are always there for them. I obviously can't speak for the entire world, but I command my dog, and my dog doesn't command me back; therefore we are not equal; we are not friends. But that does not mean that I don't love my dog, in fact the opposite is true; I love my dog to death and I would do anything for him, which leads me to my next point.

Support and aid are both very central in friendship and loyalty. The armed forces are built on loyalty, and support and aid is a prime job the armed forces provide. While that support and aid is external, the soldiers within the armed forces are trained to support and aid each other, or in other words, function as a unit without necessairily being friends. Friends are also to be there for each other in times of need. Though there is a difference. The armed forces are trained to be loyal to each other, but friends that are loyal to each other are loyal because they want to be.

In a community, especially the global community that becomes more prominent with technological advances, both loyalty and friendship are beneficial and necessary. Being friends assists us humans in the task of bringing each other closer together, and by being loyal to each other, we ensure each others' saftey and well being. In short, both of these valuable traits can lead to many important ideas and other behaviors, including a better world.