What a strange world we live in. As we spend the opening of the third millennium running from side to side like brainless sheep, not only have we decided to abandon all notions of objective truth but the second thing to fall by the wayside it that we have decided to abandon any and all sense of obligation that we might have toward one another.
As the centre of the observable universe is 19mm behind people's corners, we are actively encouraged to consider that that we are the most important thing in the universe. As a result of deciding that we are the most important thing in the universe, we are actively encouraged by the media to demand our rights (whatever they happen to be at the time) and to consider that any and all obligations that we might have to each other, are secondary to whatever our heart currently desires now.
The problem with having this as a mindset and a permanent mode of operation, is that the longer maturing products of the soul such as patience, calm, peacefulness, and nobility, never grow any more. You can not grow patience when everything has to be demanded now. You can not grow calm or peacefulness in an atmosphere of perpetual yelling. You can not grow nobility in a ground that constantly changes.
I don't think that we tend to understand the idea of what being noble is very well, any more. Certainly the context which I am likely to find it is in referring to noble gases and noble metals; in both cases they refer to things which are unreactive, untarnishable, and unchanging.
When looking at the element of σεμνός (Semnos), we get to look at a concept which is difficult to nail down. Semnos from Greek has been alternatively described in English as the idea of being revered, august, holy, grave, noble. Those things might be close but still do not quite get there.
On the face of it, someone who is noble has cultivated the quiet personal qualities that people admire and then actively decides to behave the way an admirable person would.
We can assume that a noble person is responsible. In the first instance that means that they're going to take ownership for their actions and if they do happen to have made any mistakes, they will not try and shift the blame on anyone else and own up to what they did.
However, in order to take ownership for their actions, that implies that they already had a sense of duty to own them in the first place. Being responsible requires someone to have taken ownership of the things they do and the commitments they get into and then putting that into action. To some degree that also implies that in fulfilling that duty, they will act independently by making decisions without necessarily needed someone else’s approval in mind.
The logical end point of being responsible is that someone knows what their objectives are and then works towards them. Life is frequently stupid, frustrating, obnoxious, and disappointing; and that means not running away when things get hard. Having an objective and sticking it out, means doing the best they can to fulfill their duties and persevering through the stupid, frustrating, obnoxious, and disappointing things that that life throws at them to reach the goals they’ve set for themselves.
However being responsible still doesn't actually arrive at the description of being noble either. One can very easily argue that that singlemindedness is also a common trait with sociopaths who with tread on whoever the need to, to get their objectives done. The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins power from remorse. The abuse of responsibility is when it disjoins power from kindness.
I think that few would argue against one of the most defining traits of a noble person is kindness. I would hope that most of the time, the bare minimum standard of behaviour is politeness but kindness is that extra step which recognises that the person standing in front of us, is a human who is is just as equally complex as we are. Kindness includes being compassionate and forgiving, perhaps behaving with sympathy and empathy, and knowing how to understand other people and care for other people without the intent of selfish gain as a result.
Kindness and responsibility together, still don't actually at the concept of Semnos. Both Aristotle and Plato use the word in relation to someone being noble in battle; and it is really really hard to be kind to someone if you're trying to hack off their head with a sword. Being noble in battle looks at the enemy, who probably also has a mutual obligation to want to kill you and in fact a duty to do so and then accepting the fact that the duty still exists. Semnos also borders the concept of courage.
Courage is not the absence of fear. Fear is a perfectly reasonable reaction and emotion that a thing or a person has the power to harm or kill you. It is perfectly fine to be fearful. Courage means staring into the face of the scary thing a realising that you have to do it anyway. Fearlessness isn't courage either. Fearlessness might indicate recklessness or a lack of sense in the face of a scary thing.
Courage is not letting one's emotions dictate the circumstance but rather courage demands strength on character because it comes from the place which says that better judgement says that the action or thing worth doing is more important.
On that note, better judgement comes from a place of wisdom. It should be noted that someone who is noble can be intelligent but that intelligence is not congruous to being wise. Wisdom is the almost always learned quality which is gained through experience; which admits that it is impossible to always be right and that there are always things to be learnt from the environment, the circumstances, the people, and the current facts; all of which might be subject to change.
Being noble takes responsibility, kindness, courage, and then transforms them into a unified moral production. A moral person might know the difference between right and wrong and even practice it but being noble takes one's moral values and then does hard things with them. It might require fighting against the injustices of the world and standing firm and in the face of things, for what is right. It might not even be particularly convenient or even the right thing to do in the moment but the right thing to do in the long run. Invariably there aren't any rewards for being noble; it just that the practices of virtue are things which should be done as the own end.
