Loyalty, Fidelity, and Balto

While watching Disney's Balto with my kid's the other day, I was struck by the unexpected ending. The animation ends and we see a statue dedicated to the team of dogs that actually brought critically-needed medicine to the remote Alaskan(?) town, in the 20's.

The motto read 'Fidelity, Courage, Intelligence'.

I got to thinking about Fidelity. Diction: Fidelity. It struck me as different from loyalty in some important way. Sure, they were synonyms, but . . .

In our explorations of bi-culturalism and belonging, concepts of loyalty naturally interest me a lot.

So I went to the dictionary. Ah ha!

Loyalty: 1. The state or quality of being loyal. Gee.

So, Loyal: 1. Steadfast in allegiance to homeland, government, or sovereign.
Double Ah ha!
Ah ha! Ah ha!

There's that whiff . . . Smacks of conformity, somewhere in there, hidden within the virtue.

Now. Fidelity: 1. Faithfulness to obligations, duties, or observances; loyalty. Well, okay. But number 2: Correspondence
with fact . . . verity; truthfulness.

THERE is the difference, what I was feeling: Correspondence with truth or fact is often very different from loyalty.

I have a favorite new word. The first line of attack against an individual often comes in discrediting his or her loyalty.

Fidelty is noble; loyalty is corruptible. Fidelity is a trait of the individual; loyalty of the group man. Fidelity will probably cause conflict--individual v. society; loyalty conforms.


Or, as Friar Lawrebce reminds us

Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied