“Loyalty to the family must be merged into loyalty to the community, loyalty to the community into loyalty to the nation, and loyalty to the nation into loyalty to mankind. The citizen of the future must be a citizen of the world.” Thomas Cochrane
The vast majority of people, when hearing the world loyalty, go as far as pairing it with a country. Thomas Cochrane suggests that loyalty begins within the small, inner circle of family and ends among the large, surrounding circle of mankind as a whole. By stating that loyalty should result in a citizen of the world, he’s hinting that it should mean global unification and peace. If a person is devoted to his or her family, then by default that person will become devoted to all people. The bigger picture Cochrane is painting within our heads is that people need to be more loyal to the whole rather than limiting themselves to the individual parts.
While I agree with the concept argument Cochrane is making, I feel as if this world is not one to budge easily. I’m going to assume the majority of the population promotes the idea of world peace, but the chance of such a perfect utopia is slim. It still amazes me that the entire world can come together peacefully for the various Olympic Games, despite all the war and conflicts amongst the various countries. In fact, the Olympics is a good example of how loyalty to one’s family can lead to loyalty to all of mankind. If a person chooses to train and practice in order to be a highly competitive candidate for a particular sport so he or she may earn money to pay the bills, one is loyal to one’s family. And if that person competes under his or her hometown’s name, one is loyal to one’s community. When that same person plays representing his or her country, one is loyal to one’s nation. Then, when that same person travels to wherever the Olympics are that year and participates fairly, one is loyal to mankind. While the thought of the human race being more loyal to each other than the differences that come between them is ideal, unless every person is completely loyal to that becoming a reality, it is unlikely to happen.
