Opiate of Loyalty

There are few forces more powerful than loyalty. To obey, to belong, to put an abstract symbol before yourself, will drive so many people to a single cause. No nation with a flag or anthem can claim to be above loyalty. The pretense of patriotism is carried best by those who think least, and give greater mind to national dogma than rational thought.

Obedience is a great evil. Any entity which controls without meaning, with symbols and songs, cannot be trusted. I don't know that they dogma of society or the laws of a government are good; I only know that they claim to be so, a claim as much unjustified.

So why, then will people commit to such blind obedience, such irrational loyalty? I ask any such person, and they call me idealist or rebel, if they do not ignore the idea entirely. It is a delusion of emotion, a powerful intent not to think, for fear of what it might discover.

It is so hard to act without regard to the law. Obedience is so natural, it seems. How natural, I wonder? would people act so very deluded without sufficient teaching? Do not teach loyalty, and never learn it.