"A castle, even in ruins, is still a castle. A pile of manure, even if it grows to be as big as a castle, is still a pile of manure."

It is just another stupid TV show about stupid girls, for stupid girls. Like everything in our culture of spectacle it focuses on some external characteristics of something, in this case nobility, rather than the core values of a given phenomenon.

Thinking, that dressing up fancy, learning to walk a little less like a crocodile and more like a female, and spending some time in nice setting will make somebody a noble person, is like thinking, that building an exact replica of the JFK will redirect the international air traffic to your back yard.

Emulating something, or somebody, will not make you that thing, or person… As for nobility itself: throughout ages it was a reward for exceptional deeds, or being an exceptional person. It came with duties, requirements and standards to uphold. More often than not it meant a life in the service of the state, and sworn duties of upholding laws and sovereign’s will as well as defending the integrity of the state, if needed.

Even these days, in countries supporting monarchies, it is easy to get a title: write a good book, find a cure for a disease, support and popularize your country in some extraordinary ways. That’s all you have to do. But I guess that is just to difficult of a topic for a stupid TV show ]:)

I beg to differ on nobility. Throughout ages it was too often a reward for grabbing land by violent means, then pressing everyone who lived on the land you had grabbed into the military service of someone even grabbier and more powerful than you. It might also be a reward for being on the right (winning) side in a religious dispute. Then, of course, titles were (are) inherited, so there was never a guarantee that the succeeding generations would be worth a damn. Lots weren't.

Which philosopher said "property is theft"? No, it wasn't Marx, either. Nobility is grand theft.

GLM:

Which philosopher said "property is theft"? No, it wasn't Marx, either. Nobility is grand theft.

It was Proudhon.

Thanks...probably doesn't make a lot of diff, then! Let me go search the British economic philosophers for somebody more surprising...