belonging and loyalty

'Belonging' is something that happens to you and is very often something which you do not actively choose. I 'belong' to the human race because I am human and can't choose not to be. I 'belong' to a club or society (for example, to MyLot) partly because I chose to apply for membership but mainly because others - in particular, the officials of the society - choose to accept me as a member. As you can see, there can be two kinds of 'belonging'. One where our membership of a group is unassailable (belonging to humanity or even, perhaps, belonging to a country or a city) and the other where our membership may be denied and rescinded by others. We may decide not to belong to the latter but, really, whether we belong or not is something which is decided mainly by others. 'Loyalty', on the other hand, is always a personal choice. Nobody can decide for us whether we should be loyal or not, though they may judge us to be loyal or disloyal. I may decide to be disloyal to the society I belong to by not observing its rules or by not attending meetings or by expressing my disapproval of it and, by doing so, I may therefore forfeit my membership of it (and no longer 'belong').

there is a sense of belonging in the first place and there is a dire need to share also and i do understand it

i like the effort of differentiating and deconstructing the notions of belonging and loyalty. i think this discussion sounds more intellectual than any other discussions here. i like the enumeration of related concepts. it may be helpful if you put them in a framework so that we can see clearly the connections with other concepts. like it so much!