Quote:
Originally Posted by yezhanquan
Seriously, that is not noblesse oblige as I know it. N.O as I understand it is something like what Andrew Carnegie or Bill Gates did or is doing.
Cui servire est regnare ("for whom to serve is to rule"). I would like to think that the reverse is also true: To rule is to serve.
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That's what I would like to think true noblesse oblige to be, but what I've seen and read in history suggests to be that historical noblesse oblige is more rooted to a self-serving moralist high ground determining the function of the elite in general society (something like the so-called "white man's burden") rather than a true sense of altruism from people in a position who can do good for the real good, and not just to fulfill a mandate on a high pedestal.