It’s French for the obligations that fall upon those born into the nobility. Unlike our cousins across the pond, the US has no aristocracy – at least not one with the titles of European aristocracies. Our titles identify us in relation to our families, professions, or roles at work. Then there are titles that are conferred by the media – things like Richest Man in the World and Twice Impeached, Disgraced Ex-President.
The notion of noblesse oblige follows the biblical notion of to whom much is given, much is required. I am not a student of the bible let alone its scholar, but I have always taken that admonition to mean that whatever gifts we are endowed with, we are obligated to use them in the service of others. Maybe your gift is the ability to teach or solve problems or create music or build things or do exquisitely delicate things with your hands. Maybe your gift is that you were born into a family of great wealth and influence or maybe you became very wealthy in your own right. It doesn’t matter. Our gifts obligate us to their exercise for the benefit of others not only ourselves.
Of course, these altruistic ideas do not apply to everyone. Specifically, they don’t apply to the ultra-rich. They don’t apply to Elon Musk or Donald Trump. They don’t apply to Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk. Yes, I know that I mentioned Musk twice, but that is only because he is an order of magnitude worse than the rest. No noblesse oblige for these guys.
As I said in a previous blog post, we need new archetypes to capture the zeitgeist. The King, the Knight, and the Magus understood noblesse oblige. The Megalomaniac, Oligarch and Sycophantic Toady of today do not.
Sigh, I long for an age of dragons and magic when one had to prove one’s merit through good deeds.