What do you call something that's valued not in a platonic or "this is something noble" or "this is Good" kind of way but valued in a "this is something we can use" and use as in "exploit"?
I was thinking this morning how there's a distinction between these, but it is very easy to slide from "this is noble" to "this can be used", and how doing so flips something on its end, and once flipped and experienced/Seen it discolors the thing even in scenarios when it should be a Good thing. Take, as an example, loyalty. Having someone's back, knowing someone is there for you, even willing to defend you--this is, I think, Good! It's a part of community, a part of caring for one another; especially when things go wrong, when there is danger, when there is risk.
However: loyalty has been weaponized and turned on its head: a loyal customer can be milked for cash, a loyal employee is most easily exploited, a loyal congregation member is fastest to hide the abuse of an elder[1]. Likewise, to "get ahead", to climb the corporate ladder, to even get a decent raise the best thing to do is cut all ties and leave for a new group, new company, new something. You should even do it while you're comfortable, to avoid the stress of having to do it without support (or in other words, while you have loyalty to use yourself). If things are going bad already, it's the only way to fix them, too[^2].
I think this rounds out nicely some of my various Thoughts on community, how important it is because it supports, and how often people don't have one/can't find one/can't remain in one. I think people (or at least myself) have been burned by exploited loyalty, and thus cannot exercise value loyalty because of the conflation of the two/giving value loyalty when the entity on the receiving end is looking for exploitable loyalty. This is Bad in multiple fronts, especially when it can be so hard to read a person to know whether they are exploiting you[2] and in the transactional relationship of employment there's a needle eye one could thread of loyalty to one another yet an understanding that the system does not deserve loyalty that requires a certain amount of risk and skill to thread. Risk is not something someone who has been burned often pursues.
I think it is a needle that should be thread. I think loyalty should be given to people even if it could be weaponized against you. If we're unwilling to risk loyalty, we will be no better than the company who turns a profit by exploiting its employees: if you are unable to give loyalty, you are creating the same one-sided relationship but on the smaller, far more intimate, personal scale. I also think it'd be nice to have a word for the evil upside down version. Naming a thing is part of mastery over the thing.