Comment by senderista
4 days ago
"If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I would have the guts to betray my country."
--EM Forster, "What I Believe"
4 days ago
"If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I would have the guts to betray my country."
--EM Forster, "What I Believe"
The problem here is that Forster is relativising the good.
I am not betraying my country by refusing to follow laws or decrees that require that I engage in intrinsically evil deeds. I am not loyal to my friend if I do evil things he asks me to do.
Our loyalty is to the objective good of our country and our friend. Otherwise, there is no such thing as loyalty.
There are situations when you genuinely must betray your country to protect your friend, or vice versa.
For example, if your country is a multiethnic empire that is unsustainable as a single entity without compulsion and forced assimilation, and your friend happens to be an ethnic minority in it.
Please reread what I wrote.
What does it mean to betray someone? If a friend intends to murder someone and asks you to keep that secret, would telling the police be a betrayal? Would keeping it secret be an expression of loyalty?
Loyalty and betrayal cannot be understood in purely subjective terms. It must always be grounded in the objective good.
In your example, you haven't provided enough information to judge how exactly you would are betraying your country. However, if your country is doing evil things and you defend a friend from those evil things, then you aren't betraying your country. The government in question is betraying your country.
"I must admit that when my friend first told me of his plan I was sorely tempted drop off an anonymous tip recommending that the Archduke postpone his trip to Sarajevo..."