THE ARISTOCRACY OF TALENT

Part One of the text describes the pre-meritocratic society, where social
status and job positions were determined by tradition, patronage, nepotism,
inheritance, and purchasing power. Poets criticized those who pursued personal
gain at the expense of divine order, and influential individuals handed out
important positions arbitrarily. Governments even sold civil service and military
jobs, while less qualified individuals obtained prestigious fellowships at
universities due to family connections. Simultaneously, a new world was
emerging, characterized by intellectual elites, scholars, self-made bureaucrats, and
innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs.

CHAPTER 1: HOMO HIERARCHIUS

Play the quote from Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida
In this extract of the play, pre-modern European society is divided into estates and
degrees, and its people are born into a fixed place in the world (reference to the
Bee movie)

THE THEORY OF INEQUALITY

The pre-modern world saw itself as a hierarchy of social groups defined by their
relationship to 2 great verities:
+) Social function: 1. Those who prayed; 2. Those who fought; and 3. Those who
worked
+) Their position of hierarchy status was decided by God in heaven

In this hierarchy, occupations were divided into three categories, with manual
labor at the bottom and roles resembling priests, such as men of letters, lawyers,
and teachers, at the top. Despite the increasing complexity of society and the
emergence of occupations like merchants and entertainers, people still adhered to
this status hierarchy based on their relationship with manual labor. Even if
individuals in lower positions became wealthy, they were seen as lower in status
because they worked with their hands, and money couldn't erase the stigma of
manual labor.

Individuals held a particular social position, or status, which came with a set of
rights, privileges, duties, and legal capacities enforced by the government. Nobles
were exempt from certain taxes, citing their contribution through military service.
The hierarchy of social status was intertwined with a hierarchy of honor. Honor not
only influenced how people were treated – the more honor an individual had, the
more respect they were entitled to receive – but it also dictated how one should
treat others, requiring a certain level of politeness and civility in interactions.
Honor was a demanding concept; if someone insulted your honor, it could lead to a
prevalence of duels, which often had fatal consequences.

When talking about this type of society, Aristotle said that there were ‘natural’
rulers and ‘natural’ slaves: some people were designed to rule, some to obey and
that was just the way of life in the pre-modern times.

HOW HIERARCHY WORKED

In a society in which the most important economic resource was not the brain
inside your head but the land under your feet, the most powerful people were the
ones who owned that land.

The principle of hierarchy governed every social relation. Masters ruled over serfs.
Husbands ruled over wives and children. Men ruled over animals.

The social order was built on a system of entitlement, where individuals received
specific treatment based on their identity rather than their accomplishments.
Aristocrats believed they were superior to the common people due to their
hereditary lineage and a history of selective breeding over generations.

Margraf Karl Friedrich von Baden said: “If there are races among animals there
are races among men. For that reason, the most superior must put themselves
ahead of others, marry among themselves, and produce a pure race: that is the
nobility.”

The basic unit of society was not the individual but the family. The aristocratic
family's identity was rooted in its connection to two existential aspects: place and
time. Possessions were seen as something the family belonged to, not the other
way around. They were not just wealth, but heirlooms held in sacred truth. To
them, land and lineage were the most important as land owners were seen as the
bearers of the family’s legacy.

In this society, nobles were never meant to do any kind of manual work, like
farming or trading. People believed that work was a punishment from God due to
Adam and Eve's disobedience, and being an aristocrat meant you should never do
such degrading tasks. Some places had laws that forbade noble people from
working for money, while in other places, it was just a matter of social
expectations.

They showed this by wearing fancy clothes that were impractical for working, like
long dresses for women and silk pants for men. This was similar to Chinese
officials with long fingernails covered in silver to show they couldn't do any
practical work. (picture)

We have to understand that the family was not only the basic social unit of pre-
modern societies. It was the basic political unit as well.

CHAPTER 2: FAMILY POWER