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It's that time of year again: The Masters, my favourite dose of noblesse oblige
I've seen it lamented numerous times here and elsewhere of the decline of noblesse oblige. I chalk it up to the internationalization of finance and wealth and the simultaneous decline in nationalism: the peers of the ultra-wealthy are the ultra-wealthy of other countries, not their neighbours or countrymen who they generally try to spend as little time as possible in the company of. God forbid that they might actually have to mix with the unwashed masses. Before you were obliged to in an attempt to forestall some peasant revolt from burning your estates, but now you've got private security defending all fourteen of your mansions, so what would really be the harm even if you lost one?
But at least in Augusta, Georgia there's some vestige of that lost spirit. Every year the Masters is held at the ultra-exclusive Augusta National Country Club, arguably the most prestigious golf tournament (give or take The Open) and the pinnacle of achievement of one of the hobbies of the elites. And every year the Masters goes overboard in creating a prestigious, elevated, and somewhat stiffly artificial environment. No expense is spared, no detail overlooked: the fairways are painted a verdant green, Rae's Creek is dyed its iconic dark blue, and the telecast features a chorus of (not-actually-present) birds so you can't hear the highway traffic. It's pure spectacle, and a treat to watch.
And you can watch it. Rather than hiking ticket prices to the eye-watering levels the open market would demand, the tournament distributes tickets via lottery ($140 for a day ticket, but if they hit the retail market they usually go for multiple thousands). And once you're on-site, the costs for food and drink are almost cartoonishly inexpensive. Oh, you couldn't secure tickets or are too far away? Well they built maybe the single-best website for watching sports: an infinitely customizable setup where you can watch whichever players or holes you wish. I've never used the app for mobile but people rave about it as well. These are both free of charge and have no region locks, and feature not one single advertisement or imposition upon the watcher. It's sporting entertainment at its ultimate best, built not for profit but purely for the prestige of being able to give it to the masses.
Was this ever actually required? Like, how many noble people were walking through a peasant village and chatting with the locals like they were at a sports bar? You can have obligations that you fulfill without the emotional attachment to them.
You didn't just have to mix with them, you had to lead them into battle. With the rise of gunpowder and the demise of the knight in shining armour as a practical battlefield weapon, the role of nobles (and gentlemen below them) on the battlefield became as officers, and officering the army became the de facto function of the nobility. And the other ranks tended towards the worst kind of oik. As Wellington said:
If I look at my own family history (I am from a multi-generational upper-middle class family), all my (male) ancestors had a job early in their career where they had to give in-person orders to their social inferiors. My father's first graduate job was as a shift manager in a factory, and the previous three generations were military officers. The only people I have ever had to give orders to (apart from servants - one of the advantages of the UMC mindset vs. the PMC one is that you can save money by hiring servants directly rather than going through a corporate intermediary) are juniors in the office who are basically younger versions of myself. And that is typical of my generation - the only person in my undergraduate social circle who expected ever to be giving orders to social inferiors was the lady who spent her whole gap year working at McDonalds and got promoted to floor manager half way through. (Quite a few people from UMC backgrounds had worked on the line in shitty jobs like McDonalds as student summer jobs etc. - but that is temporarily slumming it with the proles, not leading them, and thus a very different experience).
What's UMC? I assume it isn't United Methodist church.
Upper-middle class.
May be a British thing.
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