Loyalty to one’s group is not necessarily a virtue, as the horrors of Nazi Germany amply demonstrated. On the contrary, a commitment to group loyalty—a standing order to abandon one’s principles for the sake of the group—is irrational whether one subscribes to moral absolutism or to moral relativism.

Laurie L. Calhoun is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Advisory Editor of Transition: An International Review.
Economic History and DevelopmentEconomyFreedomGovernment and PoliticsNationalismPhilosophy and ReligionPolitical HistoryPublic ChoiceSocialism, Communism, and Collectivism
Other Independent Review articles by Laurie L. Calhoun
Summer 2023 Tyranny Reverse Engineered
Fall 2011 The Silencing of Soldiers
Winter 2010/11 Political Philosophers on War: Arguments inside the “Just War” Box
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