Does our culture devalue the noble?
First to clarify, I am not referring to the noble class of a feudal society or to any social class of any era; I am not referring to a quality that gives one a right to rule over another. By nobility, I am referring to a quality more individual and transcendent, something we more often witness in art, literature, and myth. The noble spirit surpasses the banality of everyday experience, hones their passions, and willingly and totally embraces their acts as in harmony with everything about themselves. They do not act on mere pragmatic calculation, the careful sensibility; their very essence opposes this. When they sense injustice, it burns against every fiber of their being, so tightly are their passions aligned with their principles. In love, we see that the noble spirit gives of itself tirelessly and embraces their beloved without prejudice and without resentment, willing to build a world between two where life itself has been colored poetic: more alive, free of hatred and petty misgivings, unbridled in sensuality, painted by a willingness to dazzle anew again and gain. The noble spirit is “doubly dangerous” in the Nietzschean sense: making its own assessments of what is good, true, and beautiful; it may find the customs and rites hollow and lacking in splendor or vivacity, preferring their own rites that are personal, life reaffirming, and overflowing in meaning.
Does contemporary American culture reaffirm these things, or does it find itself in askance that something like this could ever possibly be? Can a society that understands money, fame, and power be anything but bemused by this? As the motivation to wealth, the urge to conform, and the craving for power over others tarnish the noble spirit, how can such a culture understand something that is its very antithesis? It can pile cynicism upon the noble spirit’s motives; it can mock or fear it; but it seems to lack the introspection to understand it. The culture understands not making a bold move because what's the “value-add”? It can only introduce unnecessary risk: After all, someone somewhere at some time may disapprove, and what then if it costs you a job, a business partner, or similar? The culture does not understand the passions: Why spend time helping others when it may set yourself back? Why waste time on love? There are so many fish in the sea! Why not just be like everybody else? Think what they think? Do as they do?
Probably the noble spirit has never been very common, but the constraints working against it have likely differed over time. Today we have a culture that heavily emphasizes material success. Some people derive satisfaction from flaunting status symbols; for the rest of us, though, this culture is unsatisfying, devoid as it is of romance, for example. The culture doesn’t even understand how a person could desire romance over wealth.
Matt Wittmann