Nobility smelted individuals into the group while aiming at individual self-sufficiency

Evidence

Nobility’s special synthesis is one between the extremes in which the individual is either swallowed up by his group or comes to regard it with oppositional self-centeredness. The rigor of the status-specific form of life produces a maximally broad contact surface among the members. The insistence on equality of birth effects a physiological guarantee of qualitative and historical continuity. Through the technique of the noble tradition, the values and achievements of family and status group coalesce as though into a reservoir. By these sociological means, the nobility has smelted individuals into the common grouping to a degree not otherwise attained. But the superpersonal structure thus created has its goal and meaning, here more than anywhere else, in the existence of individuals, in their might and significance, in the freedom and self-sufficiency of their lives. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 522

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Knightly societies equated dignity with person-to-person service — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 350; Labor is means-oriented while aristocratic ethos centers on personal being — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 515; Nobility is self-sufficient like a framed work of art — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 512 (+3 more)

Related

• Nobility uniquely synthesized collective standardization with individual freedom (similarity 0.88)
• Mystified power binds a people into a herd ruled by number and self-holiness (similarity 0.88)
• Nobility’s prestige depends on cohesive circle boundaries being recognized. (similarity 0.88)
• Knightly societies equated dignity with person-to-person service (similarity 0.86)
• Nobility is self-sufficient like a framed work of art (similarity 0.85)
• Labor is means-oriented while aristocratic ethos centers on personal being (similarity 0.80)
• Nobility remains endogamous to preserve unbroken transmitted substance (similarity 0.79)
• Nobility could arise from recurring expectations rather than prior distinction (similarity 0.79)