29. LOYALTY

The word Loyalty, according to me, is so black and white, so often misapplied, so double-faced and hard to recognize from one side to the other, that, perhaps, it would be better to leave it altogether out of use? Its presence is assumed, its absence blamed with a partial and unreasonable passion. Rarely the same for him who speaks and him who hears from even the least divergent angle: and the fact is that the word is a collective, whose use with a singular meaning is almost, without exception, a mistake. By its very nature it provides ground for conflict between truth and faithfulness.