Allegiances run deep, so when to break ranks?
THERE IS NO MORE VIRTUOUS AN ALLEGIANCE THAN BEING FAITHFUL TO YOUR OWN TRUTH
Republican senator Mitt Romney made history when he broke ranks and voted to convict President Donald Trump on the charge of abuse of power, despite knowing that would not swing the two-thirds majority required to remove Trump from office.
Romney did it “subject to my own conscience” and in terms of his “oath to God”, to uphold the constitution of the US, pledging allegiance to higher causes than a political party’s. His action is rare and laudable, regardless of your view on the matter.
Trump has already fired two impeachment witnesses of standing and there will, no doubt, be further revenge, however cold those may be when they’re served. Such is the game of politics.
We all have allegiances, that can range from casual acquaintance, to the clothes we wear and the cars we drive, all the way through to cults and dens of thieves. We are defined by our observable allegiances, however superficial.
How we get there doesn’t always matter. I’m a Blue Bulls fan, only because as a schoolboy the first provincial rugby match I was taken to watch was at Loftus Versfeld, where Northern Transvaal were playing.
Allegiances, once made, should not be taken lightly. If you change teams in sport, you can expect flak. Beyond supporting Manchester United, or the Springboks (Go Bokke!), other allegiances can run deep.
Family and religion are perhaps at the apex of this hierarchy, notwithstanding that we’can’t we re usually choose brought our family up in and the religion into which we are born and blessed.
As we grow up, though, we have to make choices and bear responsibility for who we vote for, who we do business with, who we back and who we’ll fight.
Allegiance and loyalty have their place in society and private life, and there are rewards to be had for the faithful. At a commercial level this results in air miles, shorter queues, discounts, member lounges, and the like — trivial returns, I’m sure you’ll find, if you ever take the time to work through the economics. Your side also looks after you, particularly in times of need. The tribe looks after its own first.
We get ample opportunity to confirm or deny allegiance to the country of our birth, to our religion, to the political parties we support. Our hearts swell with pride when we sing our national anthems. It’s great to belong. But, when should we break ranks?
At the first sign of betrayal. At the first lie. However marginal, the change of heart, the breach of principle is always obvious. There’s a new and unwelcome force in the room, you can almost smell it. When fear and guilt and bravado mix, you can taste it. Beads of sweat start to form on the once determined brows of the founders of the institution you once proudly joined. Everybody knows.
Try as you might to convince yourself, others will question your support of something wrong. Friends will ask at first. Enemies will eventually bury you with the answers.
You have to break ranks when they break the rules. Silence isn’t enough. Silence in the knowledge of wrongdoing is complicit — there begins the never repayable indebtedness of the co-accused. Silence and secrecy are the currency, the weapons of the underminers, those who use the allegiance of the innocent (often unaware of the true agendas) to further their evil that will rot the pillars you subscribed to in the first place.
There is no more virtuous an allegiance than being faithful to your own truth, no more perilous a personal consequence than departing from it. There is no wave of populist rhetoric that should be allowed to wash over that, no incentive enough to justify it. When you see it coming, protest, scream, if that’s what it takes, if for no other reason than to alert those less informed, less powerful. Once persuaded away from your truth, your principles, you can never come back — it takes but a penny to make a whore.
There is as much bad being done as there is good not being done. Enough to require us to stand up, object and fight for change. Our children will surely judge us if we don’t. Hell, we’ll judge ourselves, when we’re alone, when the truth bounces about in our heads, when we can’t sleep, kept awake by the urge of our natural instinct that whispers, then shouts “get up and do something!”