Frederick Childe Hassam

FROM another good piece, this one on the subject of aristocracy by Michael Watson, at The Clifford Hugh Douglas Institute for the Study of Social Credit:

The dictionary description for ‘aristocracy’ means rule or leadership by the best and most virtuous. Social classes and ruling cultural elites are both a natural and necessary development in human societies and communities, even in societies that claim to be egalitarian, such as liberal democratic and communist regimes. Historic examples of this can be found in ancient Rome with the paterfamilias, in medieval Europe with knights and nobility, in ancient Japan with the samurai and daimyo classes or in the case of the indigenous peoples of Africa, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands, their traditional tribal chiefs and elders. In all these aristocratic hierarchies and societies, the merchant bourgeois classes whose main focus is on the accumulation of money and speculation with the same were ranked amongst the lower classes and subjected to that of the ruling aristocracy in the form of a nobility, monarchical dynasty, or warrior class, whose main goal was the fulfilling of one’s duty towards the community or family, the development of cultural values, or the maintenance of familial honour or posterity, rather than just mere accumulation of money and commercial pursuits. But with the advent of mass mania for equality and democratic levelling in the last century, the rule by the aristocratic class and its attendant values have been replaced by rule of the bourgeois merchant class and high finance masquerading as a façade of political and social freedom and equality, since no human society can function without some sort of hierarchy (whether it be for good or evil). Famous English writer C.S. Lewis elaborated this point perfectly in his 1943 “The Spectator” essay titled “Equality”: “Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, atheletes, or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison”.[ii] It is a rather politically incorrect historical truth that many of the aristocratic families and royal dynasties which have ruled over the centuries have actually held back the tide of the excesses of the merchant bourgeois classes and the oligarchies of money and kept their domination in check by preventing them from defining economic and cultural life to varying extents. Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of the famous British TV series Downton Abbey put the matter quite simply and directly: “You see, the point of a so-called great family is to protect our (the people’s) freedoms.”[iii]

     Since people of the aristocratic classes are not exclusively pre-occupied with accumulation and commerce (at least in theory) and are financially independent and secure, they are free to devote themselves to higher ideals such as political, military, social service to the nation or people, academia, culture, or religious and spiritual causes. With this secure way of life, they can develop a sense of honour and noblesse oblige, that is, to dutifully take care of and protect the interests of all the servants and people under their charge or domain since they rely on the other classes under them as much as the common people rely on them for the achievement of the common good and to maintain the integrity of the community. The noble profession of domestic service undertaken by individuals hired by aristocratic households to perform most or all necessary household labour (cooking, cleaning, laundry, driving, etc.), manage the affairs of the household and provide daily services to the family members adds dignity, grace and order to a household and provides greater leisure time for the family. Such honourable service towards one another enriches the culture of both the principal families and persons in service as well as of society as a whole.

Please follow and like us: