I miss Nobility

I miss nobility.

not royalty, nobility.

When you do the right thing when no one is looking and no one will ever know, you do it anyway. Because you genuinely believe, not for show. No paranoia because some alien or God is watching. In a sense it is for yourself, because you have peace with that belief or vision.

It is intricately linked with humility.

Remember the term statesman? Not a politician pandering to every passing whim of the public or a constituency for votes or contributions. A person who did the right thing, or at least what they thought was right, even when it didn't go with public opinion. But they never lied to sway public opinion. They gave the facts as they knew them and the reasons why they believed what they did, but never misled people. And they accepted that if they could not convince people they accepted quietly and calmly what the voters decided.

It has to do with accepting that the mission, ideal or vision is bigger than you/they are. And yet in sharing in that larger thing showed you were small, but willing to use what strength and stamina you had towards that end. Now a days many people assume that sharing some limited portion of a vision makes them as big as the entire vision. In a word they lack humility. They are almost certainly ignorant. They lack nobility. Like believing in God makes you equal to God or believing in some ideal makes you equal to that ideal.

Nobility is a beautifully small thing. That sings with a sweet quiet voice that rings softly to the ends of the Universe. Silence is a beautiful sound.

I suspect it is rarely garish, loud, or obnoxious. It is probably peaceful serene and often a secret little joy unto itself.

So much TV seems to be a race to the lowest common denominator. The chase for money seems to bring this out. Money as an end in itself, i believe lacks nobility. If it is to some end, especially an inspired end or objective then and only then does it take on nobility.

I used to think America was noble.

Nobility isn't alway logical, or obvious, it is humble and it holds true to itself. It is like a rock within. Though a hurricane of wind and rain beat on it, it holds fast. The sun will shine again. It doesn't need to shout or tell anyone. It simply is what it is. Perhaps it is all around me and it is just me who no longer sees it.

People used to have much more respect for teachers. Then knew their kids were little animals who needed to be taught civility and academic subjects to become good and intelligent citizens. I think people today are blind to the fact that children are generally speaking a mixed bag. They suffer under this delusion that all children are naturally little saints. It is an absurd notion.
The teacher was the person who went the extra mile to try and bring enlightenment to a child. Many still to this day spend money out of their own pockets to get extra supplies so they can do projects to engage the children in activities and new ideas.

I am a complete athiest/agnostic, but one of the most impressive things about Jesus, was his nobility. Sometimes he could be arrogant and condescending, but sometimes he could be staggeringly noble. To save the life of a prostitute he said "Let he among you that is without sin cast the first stone". It took cajones and it also took belief that no one could face down that challenge. He didn't threaten, he used words alone. He held up a mirror for people to peer into.

Maybe the Universe is built on the Noble. Each atom, each particle does its function. Is there anyone who checks each one for its behavior? Yet to all appearances each one is essentially uniform and acts in its orderly way.

Sometimes one sees Royalty acting Noblely. I think the Queen of England has a lot of Nobility. When a military coup in Spain handed power to the King of Spain, he immediately put it back to a democracy. That is Nobility in action. I think the King of Jordan has a lot of nobility. He seems to be doing what is best for his nation. Not just what may make him a hero of the day, but with the long view of what is good for Jordan.

The most powerful nobility of all though is the billions of people who do their jobs with dedication. Observing how things might be improved from time to time, but mostly just making sure it is done right each time. Often going that extra mile to make sure it is done right, even when people may take it for granted.

Maybe it is self indulgent for me to miss it. A quality that truely has gone past its prime. I do miss it. In people that is.

Maybe i am hypocritical about it too. Wanting to see it in others, but sure that i act that way myself. I don't like to see it as an unshared burden that some labor under and others do not.

I suppose from an intellectual standpoint one should ask what are the effects of nobility and the lack of nobility? What do you think? Is it an important quality? Is it a necessary quality? Is it the only important quality?

Ideas, comments, thoughts?
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Originally posted by slank
I miss nobility.

not royalty, nobility.

When you do the right thing when no one is looking and no one will ever know, you do it anyway. Because you genuinely believe, not for show. No paranoia because some alien or God is watching. In a sense it is for yourself, because you have peace with that belief or vision.

Well why stop there? Why does it need to be some "belief in righteousness"? I mean this is still just a belief, nothing else, and you are only doing it because you believe it is "good" and "right", you're still doing it for yourself, to feel good about yourself as someone who "does the right thing" (however you define that to be). But everyone has their own idea of what "right" is, so anyone can just feel gratification with their actions because they assume they are "a good thing" - which is completely subjective. But why stop at that "level", are humans truly incapable of any real altruism, and the only way they ever GIVE to anyone is if that giving somehow BENEFITS the giver in one way or another?

Why not just have altruism, where there is no "right thing", but you simply do not value yourself before anyone else, you respect everyone and everything and simply GIVE because you're asked, without expecting to benefit from the situation, whether through external means like payment or internal "pride" in your own "goodness". Why not just give from the innermost depths of your being, because at some higher level, you simply have no desire to serve SELF over others, even if this world is structured around a self-centered way of existance so you really have no other choice if you wish to survive. Pretty much all people only "give" when they GET something out of it, or only because they got something already - it does not have to be a physical thing, could be as simple as "pride" or "sense of righteousness" or what not, but it's always self-oriented, there's always some "reward" expected.

You know what I miss? I miss open tyrrany and royalty where everyone knows they are nothing but slaves and must obey their leaders and the establishment at large, or be punished. Why? Because this is basically the system the way it is now anyway, except here we have an illusion of "freedom", we are slaves who think they are free - our politicians and "leaders" redefine words like "freedom" to suit their needs, to condition us with all kinds of propaganda and hype to believe what they want us to believe, but this is still only a belief, and as all beliefs, it is a mere "wishful thinking", even if it is supported by the system.

Ideally I'd prefer NO government, no controls - because our government only exists to protect us from ourselves, because it is human nature to rule and be ruled, humans cannot exist without being controlled or trying to control someone else - so they create "systems of control" to maintain order through force. There are always those who want power and control, so we made an official system that allows them to LEGALLY get it, even though it amounts to the same thing - power and control, whether it is sugar-coated with "legality" or not. Government does not exist for the people, by the people, and of the people - it never has nor ever will, hence the word "government" which means "to govern" which is to control, to make our decisions FOR us, because we have no desire, as a species, to each be responsible for ourselves and our actions, we need a "handler", someone to take that responsibility from us, and to make major decisions FOR us. And because of that, those decision makers go in directions that pleases THEM, which they judge as "good", even if they say it is for the good of all of us - but how can someone ever decide what is "good" for someone else? Well they do, and we allow them to convince us that their decisions are indeed "good" for everyone, we realise that we cannot each do what we want, as obviously the world would fall apart.

And it becomes very easy to control us, because if we did not want to be controlled we wouldn't have a government - but we realise that without a government humanity will enter into chaos, and inevitably the most psychopathic and ruthless WILL come out on top, they always do, because those are the individuals that have no limit to how far they will go to get what they want, to create a pyramidal hierarchy and create a "following" and RULE everyone else (and they'll make their own laws, and of course it will be "good" and "legal", but this does not make it something other than what it is - CONTROL). So governments spring up one way or another, and the entropic nature of mankind does not allow existance without such control systems - we are like children who need a nanny, because otherwise we'll turn the whole house upside down.

When will humanity GROW UP and each individual will take personal responsibility for their existance in a world populated by others?

It is difficult to control people in open tyrrany, people don't like the idea of being led by someone they perceive as "bad" - so ALL leaders of ALL times of ALL civilizations or groups have always presented themselves as "righteous" and "good", because those words can be defined in any which way, and people can be convinced to associate pretty much ANYTHING with those words, and really believe it. Hitler had the entire country of Germany (the majority) convinced that he's the best thing since Jesus! They allowed him to commit all kinds of atrocities because they were convinced it was "for everyone's good" - and the current generation of people, despite their ego-based delusions of being smarter, are just as easy to control and convince of pretty much anything - and it is happening right now. Some people always SEE it for what it is, even when most people are just "asleep", and because "majority rules", the control is maintained, and the leaders end up causing a lot of death and chaos before people "snap out" of their daze.

Look up the history of almost any nation, there is almost always a history of imperialism and domination, and in all cases the population of the nation excepted it as "just" and "right" and "moral" and "good", and so went along with it, thinking they are "God's chosen people". But such subjective delusions never changed the OBJECTIVE reality of what it was - a system of control based on lies and manipulation of public perceptions to allow the controllers to do what they wish, with the support of the public. It is always POST-FACTUM, when we look back on history (hind-sight is 20/20) that we realise tyrranical empires for what they are, but when will people GROW UP and see it before they are led like sheep into yet another "holy crusade" that is based on lies? Will it ever happen?

Humanity has been led around by their balls all throughout history, it was always the few elite that made all the decisions, including war, and they made sure the people believed it was the choice of the people through propaganda and shaping of public opinion - despite guises of "democracies" and "open societies" - these guises only exist to appease the public, to make them happy with the system, to pretend it is something else, when in reality it never was, nor ever will be, as long as people are asleep, as long as they prefer "comfort" over "truth", as long as they allow themselves to be led, as long as they allow themselves to believe lies, as long as they allow their thoughts to be shaped by those in charge, and as long as they do not take responsibility for their own existance in their own hands, and stop depending on something "external" to govern their lives, to fix their mistakes, and to "save them" when they are in "trouble" because of their own ignorance.

So yeah, I miss open tyrrany, when people were sheep and KNEW IT - but then again, did they ever really KNOW IT, or were they always convinced that this is "right" and "good" and perhaps even "dictated by god, so divinely inspired" - and accepted it thinking there was no other choice? It seems the latter is indeed true.

Hind-sight is 20/20 people, but awareness of objective reality in the present, for most people, is usually slim to none. Please, wake up, don't repeat the same mistakes of countless generations before you. Yes I know, a plea that falls on deaf ears, but I can try.

-Mike