Where on the moral compass do your loyalties lie?

By QAROL PRICE

I cannot say I have ever sat down to take an inventory of everyone and everything I am loyal to, much less a list of those I ought to be loyal to but might have overlooked.

But now that this notion has struck, I see that it lights up a way to some previously valuable revelations. One needs only to take the time. But, as I attempt to answer the question, “Where do your loyalties lie?” I realize what a loaded question it is.

Taking the time to answer mindfully could put you through a useful exercise in self-discovery. It should ultimately reveal or clarify many foundational principles upon which all loyalties lie.

As with most any character virtue, trying to define it is like nailing Jell-O to the wall, if I can borrow a worn-out cliché. So, we must be clever about capturing the wriggly specimen if we are to behold its subtle features. Its slippery nature becomes evident when we are faced with the challenge of a moral dilemma.

Suppose you are a parent, and your son asks you to hide him from the police who are after him for a crime he committed. You want to be loyal to your son and protect him, but if you do as he asks, you become an accomplice! And what’s worse, you betray your principles of justice.

So, where do your loyalties lie? With your son or with the principle? This is a classic moral predicament when we must resist our sentiments in order to be loyal to a higher ideal. Would you agree? Can justice be trumped? Gee, what would Tony Soprano do? Better check the ‘ol moral compass.

A moral compass is a fair metaphor for the ethical guidance system that resides somewhere between our heart and our mind. It uses a balance of pure conscience and sound reason to direct our actions, at least in its mature state.

No one is born with a fully loaded moral compass; it must be crafted. It is up to us to “calibrate” our own instrument. It cannot function unless it is grounded in a solid foundation of ethical principles which we have taken time to understand and evaluate. Over time, we learn the values of our parents, religion, heritage, culture, community and country.

But this has come to be very confusing in today’s society. We are exposed to countless conflicting values, so how do we decide which principles we will loyally uphold? Your first major moral obligation would be to identify, then evaluate. your beliefs and your world view.

We can’t passively absorb the values of the crowd. If you let late night television or social media define your values, you are shirking your responsibility.

Our most important loyalty, it seems to me, is loyalty to our own well-examined values, which enables us to put the rest of our loyalties into proper perspective, thus creating a most reliable moral compass.

⋆ Next Month: Patriotism