In The United States, Loyalty is viewed as a personal virtue instead of something that should be maintained by those in positions of power. The entire dynamic of loyalty being personal is flawed and completely disregards the complicated relationships people have towards institutions and each other. The amount of loyalty that many people in this country have towards the regime is comparable to monarchies that operate on divine right theory. No matter how bad it gets or how incompetent they prove themselves in governing, they still call others traitors for seeking alternatives. The Western ideas about loyalty that we operate on almost seem feudal.

If you read The Art Of War or any revolutionary text, you see that loyalty is something that must be maintained. This sounds political, but in reality this can apply even to interpersonal relationships. If you are dating someone but do not care for them, mistreat them, or violate the agreements your relationship is based on, then how can you possibly expect loyalty to you? Western ideas about loyalty being a personal virtue are obviously engineered so that the person who becomes radical or decides to not support a current establishment is then labeled as a traitor instead of the greater society stepping back to look at the issues that caused it to happen in the first place. You also see these ideas about loyalty being pushed by the churches which is unfortunate and causes people to be unable to get divorced or leave abusive partners.

Even political extremists such as liberals or rightists tend to betray the regime when the military does not honor contracts or discards them leaving them disabled and broke, leaving them basically ronin. Do you know why a bunch of people with military training are not launching a siege of the white house or government facilities to demand or take the money owed to them? Because of these ideas of loyalty. Look at the United States military so you know what not to be. The constitution of the US at this point has become a religion. How could you ever justify to a foreigner the constraints that the document causes? It’s the result of isolation and naivety on how political systems actually work around the world.

If you look at socialist societies, they understand this pretty well. You will not see Marxists pretending that loyalty or allegiance to a state must be done out of personal virtue or justify it with some higher philosophy. Loyalty is maintained through livelihood and the US government has proven multiple times that they are either unwilling or unable to maintain the citizenry this way. People are loyal to the side that pays them, benefits them the most, or upholds their class interests. Anything else is useless idealism. Forget about seeing loyalty as your own virtue and instead find a group or organization of loyalty. Anyone who calls someone else a traitor for leaving a group they do not benefit from being in, is just not good at strategy. You owe loyalty to nobody and to nothing, and if someone tells you otherwise, run the other way!