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The offer

From Foundations of ethicsAbout 3 min read

The offer

- Come and work with me, double the salary.

  • Thank you, but I can't bring myself to leave my boss when things are hard for him. When the company does better, I'll reconsider.
  • What if the company over there collapses and is dissolved?
  • I'll think about it then.
    A text message arrived on the phone: "If you turn down the offer, I'll be fired, and we're getting married next year."
    Quý texted back: "If you're fired, come and work with me."
    "The pay on your side isn't enough to cover things, and later we'll have so many expenses for the children."
    "I'll think it over slowly."
    The director went on:
  • I hope you'll give me a yes this afternoon, so that your Trang can be fully happy. Goodbye.
    Quý left the café with a heavy heart. Quý was in charge of the artificial intelligence side of the company, the key link in the technological breakthrough to enter the world market. If Quý left, the company would be dissolved at once, and many people would lose their jobs. The company's owners were all close associates and friends bound by long-standing ties of gratitude. That night Quý sent Trang a very long message, begging her to let him keep working to help the company start up and train its workforce first. Trang replied coldly that in that case she would be in touch again when he agreed to come and work over there. 💎

Loyalty is tested by money, romantic love, position and fame, or also by suffering, torment, torture, threats...
Normally few people have enough ethical loyalty to pass these tests, and they accept betrayal, sometimes a betrayal that is a serious violation of the nation's law. In the story above, if the character Quý betrayed them, this company's enterprise would collapse and the lives of his colleagues would be thrown into turmoil. If Quý stays loyal, rising above money and love and continuing to help the company start up and grow steadily, many of his colleagues will raise their standard of living. The law of cause and effect also rearranges the path accordingly.
The story also warns us about romantic love: did Trang really love Quý, or is she a character planted by an organisation to get close to Quý and bring him over? The honey trap is not yet out of date. If Quý knows how to weigh up that the interests of the many matter more than the interests of two people, Quý will keep his ethical loyalty. But if romantic love is too strong, Quý will sacrifice his colleagues' interests to please his lover. And then betray them.
Loyalty is the resolve to protect the interests of one's leader, one's country and homeland, one's employer, even though we ourselves suffer many losses, even sacrificing our lives. To sacrifice one's own interests for something else, going against one's own selfish instinct, is something few people can do. But in a country with too few loyal people, it is very dangerous, and easy for foreign powers to infiltrate, make connections and win people over.
We need countless people who know how to be loyal to the homeland, to leaders, to one another, in order to preserve peace and stability for society. Not betraying is very great ethics, immense merit, and the law of cause and effect keeps great and happy things in store for later. We do not know whether there is any realm beyond death, but if there is, surely there will be a place of worthy glory for those who have the ethics of loyalty.
The inner mind must be very strong, the resolve very great and the stand very firm for people to be able to be loyal.