It's More Than Noble

It’s More Than Noble

John Paul Derryberry

Make a good movie about the nobility of knights, and I'll watch it. Make a bad movie on the nobility of knights, and I'll watch it. The allure of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and the appeal of Robin Hood, have stood the test of time. Both are based on the notion that people with great power do the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing. In reality, when you research Knights during their heyday, they were enforcers for hire for the lords and kings. There was nothing really noble about them, just people climbing social ladders with the leverage they had. Maybe it's true the more things change, the more they stay the same.

As I have heard repeatedly, "well, it's the noble thing to do, but not our thing to do"; which has always come across to me as an odd statement. It basically admits to knowing what the correct course of action is. You acknowledge it's a morally good act, but it's really someone else's problem to tackle. And look, I know there is a line of expertise around staying in your lane, but when almost everyone passes on the noble thing to do, one has to wonder who is left to do the right thing.

The voters will do the right thing. Another agency should help the homeless. The government should raise the minimum wage if people want to earn more. It's really the police's problem to fix the bad part of town. Translation: I can't be bothered to engage in the noble cause until it benefits me in my pocketbook, my status amongst my peers, or brings me glory. Make sure those cameras are rolling when I swing by the homeless shelter for a pop-in; even though I could provide a rent-free place for a homeless family for a year without even noticing it missing from my bank account.

My educated guess is we all understand the inconvenient truth around noble causes. They are really freaking hard to complete. They are mentally draining, emotionally exhausting, financially a sunk cost, and some of the folks you are helping don't really care for the help to begin with. It's why so many of us throw out that line to start with: It's really a noble cause, but... Yet a few great ones pick up those noble causes and try their hardest to make the world a better place.

They are this generation's knights, actually aspiring to the code of ethics from King Arthur's fame and the Knights of the Round Table. Yet they need reinforcements and more people willing to realize society would be better off if we all took a little less and gave a little more. It's not just that it's the noble thing to do; it's because it's the right thing to do. And we need more people doing the right thing now than ever.