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AIBU?

To ask what is so noble about nobility?

26 replies

BettyCrockerLover · 19/07/2013 23:59

Just that, really.

I want to know why 'nobles' are considered a cut above the rest. What is it that they have personally achieved to inspire such awe and reverence?

Basically, the charity I volunteer for is having this big fundraiser in a month and they'll be inviting the patrons of the charity for dinner afterwards, this is relatively a new charity and they have not hosted an event this size before. One of the patrons is an earl (who happens to be single) and he will be at the event for the first time and this is causing such pathetic sycophantic behavior in the office.

So today some of the employees, two single women one in her mid twenties and one in her early thirties come up to me and the other woman who volunteers with me and ask us what we are doing to get ready for the earl.....I give them this look Hmm and ask what they mean. Turns out they have both signed up to this boot camp thingy and they are going on a cleanse and beginning a tanning regime....I am so embarrassed for them. WTF do they think will happen?

But back to my AIBU, I also want to know what does noble mean anyway?
This is 2013 ffs not 1568. Are nobles better than other people the 'serfs' and 'commoners' because of their blood? If so, I think that is v outdated and regressive. Even the term grates me - noble....what does that make the rest of us then? ignoble?

(please don't say things like you are just jealous that YOU are not a 'noble' - because it is untrue and will dilute the discussion)

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WorraLiberty · 20/07/2013 00:02

I'm laughing at the idea anyone would think you're jealous Grin

I don't know what makes noble people noble but it certainly doesn't make them any better than anyone else in my books.

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kim147 · 20/07/2013 00:04

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kim147 · 20/07/2013 00:05

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EstelleGetty · 20/07/2013 00:07

Absolutely fucking nothing. My kingdom for a republic. You volunteering and giving your time makes you 100% more admirable than anyone with an inherited title.

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imademarion · 20/07/2013 00:08

Well he's taking the oblige part seriously enough to be patron of a charity rather than flog the stately and shove the inheritance up his nose (I assume).

Despite what you rightly say about it being 2013, clearly a title still moistens gussets (viz the sad chicks in your office) so why not leverage the tragic snobbery to do some good and raise money.

I know a few nobles (!) and they're pretty ordinary types really.

It's the insecure tools just below them on the social pecking order without real breeding who tend to bring out the revolutionary in me. Those with the all expectation of privilege and none of the humility of duty.

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Xihha · 20/07/2013 00:12

I'm thinking the 2 ladoes you are talkig about are probably more excited about him being rich than a noble tbh.

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imademarion · 20/07/2013 00:14

Xihha, oh dear. If you're right, this will not end well.

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WorraLiberty · 20/07/2013 00:17

They sound like a pair of hopeful and deluded WAGS to be honest

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EllieArroway · 20/07/2013 00:23

I find the whole thing completely ridiculous.

I had to meet a Duke for work recently, and I was supposed to call him "Your Grace". Why exactly?

I wanted to call him Mr the place he is Duke of (iyswim) but my courage failed me, so I didn't call him anything.

"Your Grace"??? For fucks sake. It's 2013, and I am not a forelock tugging villein.

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BettyCrockerLover · 20/07/2013 00:35

It's funny worraliberty because that is the perfect description for them. They dream of marrying 'well' (as they put it) and then doing nothing for the rest of their lives! I guess allowances could be made for the 24 yo but the woman who is 32!!! and still has this stupid life plan/ fantasy of being dependent- it is pretty sad imo

They also haven't thought about the fact that a rich & titled man can smell a husband-hunter a mile off

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kim147 · 20/07/2013 00:37

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Xihha · 20/07/2013 00:43

Probably not imademarion, I used to work near a very posh private school (like £36k a year school fees posh) when i was 18/19 and despite being the closest person for the 6th formers to buy alcohol from I only succeeded in getting one date with a noble :(

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EllieArroway · 20/07/2013 00:44

Apparently they begin every conversation with "Have you come far?", Kim!

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Xihha · 20/07/2013 00:45

although reading through my posts my inability to spell or type properly probably wouldn't of helped my case!

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imademarion · 20/07/2013 00:51

They're barking up the wrong tree then! I don't know a single noble who's also rich.

I know several who wouldn't mind a loaded wife.

Tragic though that anyone would even admit to wanting to marry for a position.

The girls in the office should try Idaho apparently. Lots of wealthy farmers, all convinced every English person is Royalty.

And all the spuds they can eat.

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allaflutter · 20/07/2013 00:58

Betty I agree with some of what you say, but isn't your last sentence snobbish? Rich and titled men ae ALWAYS hunted as husband material, I think it's extrenely rare that they get interestd untainted by this. If not the poor or middle class women, they are hunted (mainly!) by girls from titled families who may not be as rich or as high up - what's the big difference? why is it ok for girls from status-y families to hunt, but not for anyone else? Men know this and are ok about it - they get a good choice thta way. Also, maybe a man is unintelligent and unattractive, then he's lucky to have the status, so let him smell it a mile off, he'd only be pleased.

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allaflutter · 20/07/2013 01:01

imadem - exactly, so many nobles are hunting for a rich wife from the business classes. Apart from the Royals, obv, yu can't say NO ONE is rich and 'noble'.

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trampled · 20/07/2013 01:17

A "noble" is a type of apex predator, or a descendent of one.

We are all animals. It is survival of the fittest and the fiercest animals sometimes give themselves titles to intimidate the weaker animals.

We go along with it because we are afraid they will kill our children.

They throw us scraps to stop us killing them. We then fight over the scraps. This keeps us very busy.

We all know what is going on but we don't admit to it because it means admitting that we are animals.

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imademarion · 20/07/2013 01:21

alla, I said that the ones I know who are noble are also broke! Lots of other exceptions, Duke of Westminster being an obvious example.

I don't know if it's so cut and dried with the 'hunting'. There's more family involvement; bloodlines, property, inheritance, duties etc that will have a bearing on future choice of spouse.

It makes sense to choose someone who gets this and will be prepared for and supported in a very odd way of life: a solid breeder who loves gardens and crap food would be a good start.

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EllieArroway · 20/07/2013 01:25

It is survival of the fittest and the fiercest animals sometimes give themselves titles to intimidate the weaker animals

Sorry to be pedantic, but that's not what survival of the fittest means.

It never occurred to be that the Duke of X might want to kill my child Shock. Very glad I didn't call him "Your Grace" now Wink.

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BettyCrockerLover · 20/07/2013 01:35

trampled Sad very true about fighting for the scraps they have thrown us to keep us busy from killing them- visible in just about every benefits discussion both on MN and irl

You know, I've been thinking about how we don't want to admit that we are animals and that is also very true. Our behaviors and our social hierarchies, how we ostracize members of our 'herds' and mating rituals etc. are all found in the animal world, ours just has a thin veneer of civility, this is weird but since a few weeks ago I've started seeing humans as just these bipedal clothed animals haha

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EllieArroway · 20/07/2013 01:38

We are the fifth ape, Betty.

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BettyCrockerLover · 20/07/2013 01:38

re: scraps etc. I don't mean that about the nobility, I mean that about the 0.1% and the shadowy people who are the true elite.

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Mimishimi · 20/07/2013 04:40

Well, it's from a different time I suppose, when families close to the monarch were rewarded for their service (which usually meant sending their younger sons off to be slaughtered in whichever battle the crown was fighting at the time). I'm surprised at notions of wealth - with inheritance taxes and crumbling homes to maintain, many are not well off at all especially after WW2 although the GWOT has improved the lot of a fair few Wink. I think your friends are being toadying twits but that's not necessarily the fault of the earl.

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olidusUrsus · 20/07/2013 04:46

It's just all part of the blood ranking system, from Emperor to pleb, init.

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