Labour, Law or Loyalty -- Take Your Pick

According to the Wikipedia – and can there be any more reliable source for meticulously researched, documented and verified information? – today is, among other things, Loyalty Day in the U.S. It is also Law Day, both such official designations being intended to counter the international observance of Labour Day, still celebrated by organized labo(u)r and once celebrated on May 1st (in apparent memory of the Haymarket Riot) by many socialist states and many would-be citizens of socialist states if not by any actual citizens of socialist states. This proves, if nothing else, the superior productive capacity of capitalism over communism when it comes to creating meaningless commemorations on May 1st which the citizens of both sorts of societies then proceed to ignore.

Speaking of ignorance, chances are you have never even heard of Law Day or Loyalty Day even though the Wikipedia assures us that the latter, at least, is celebrated with parades and celebrations throughout the United States. Both such commemorations are ensconced by Acts of Congress signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man whose administration will be remembered for his impenetrably convoluted syntax, his preference for golf over long hours in the Oval Office and being a better president than almost all of those who have since followed in that high office. Maybe that’s the real problem with George W. Bush: he doesn’t play enough golf and his own garbled English rarely rises to anything so sophisticated as compound- complex sentence structures.

I may be a bit glib about these things, but I have nothing against either law or loyalty. (Labor, my own at least, is another matter.) That is to say, law is a very good thing even if most laws aren’t and loyalty is a noble virtue if, but only if, it derives from more fundamental virtues. The accident of birth, either geographically or ethnically, is not such a virtue. That is, loyalty like diligence and conscientiousness is a secondary virtue. If one were, for example, a Nazi, it would be ethically preferable for him to be a lackluster and disloyal Nazi, all things considered.

Still, there is much about the United States and especially about its people and the society we have built and continue to build that is worthy of loyalty even as one can properly be loyal to one’s family and friends despite their various faults and shortcomings. In this case, such loyalty and respect for the law might lead one to criticize Congress for wasting time and taxpayer resources on such purely symbolic and unnecessary gestures as Law Day or Loyalty day, though I think a better case can be made for encouraging Congress to spend even more time on irrelevant symbolism, thus leaving them less time for doing substantive harm.

Anyway, while I am unaware of any parades or celebrations in my neighborhood, I resolve to do my part and try not to break any laws at least for the rest of the day. It will be difficult, but it is the least a loyal American like myself can do.