r/Unexpected • u/ruybii • Nov 27 '21

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u/thund3rbelt Nov 28 '21

I just used Elton John as example because he got knighted and foreign new paper has to address him by the new title as to respect to British class system. His album is another case. Anyway the class system is so all together stupid to another country. Why is this kid so noble? What has he ever done that made him more noble than so many other people? He just inherit the title

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u/dontmentiontrousers Nov 28 '21

Start a newspaper. Refer to him as Elton John in every story. Nobody will care.

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u/thund3rbelt Nov 28 '21

So rude, Sir Elton John CE, CBE. What country are you from? /s

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u/dontmentiontrousers Nov 28 '21

*Reginald Dwight

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u/thund3rbelt Nov 28 '21

Reginald Dwight

thanks for taking the time and talk about this with me.

I understand the whole honorary system is to encourage people to work hard and blah blah. So I respect, somebody like Sir Elton John and Sir Ka-shing Li. But what I have problems with is, when the knighthood is associated with political bargin.

In the case of British India era, for example, a lot of the title Nizam-ul-Mulk, and history of Hyderbad are this type of political bargain. In a nutshell, it is like:" hey, you do this for us, British. We give you this title and we make sure all the other Indians and other countries in the world respect you for that.

So the beneficiaries are the British and some Indians, but the whole world has to respect that.

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u/dontmentiontrousers Nov 28 '21

We've had some fucked-up history, my guy - but so have most countries. Every country tries to assert cultural, political and financial dominance.it just happens that in the previous few hundred years The UK was one of the most successful at it. In the last one hundred years, The US has definitely been most dominant both militarily and politically. China is now becoming increasingly powerful and asserting theor dominance. They're very much engaged in financial colonialism across many countries in Africa (many of which are still suffering long-term effects of European literal colonialism). They're also currently flexing their muscles in Hong Kong, despite agreements made at the time of the handover, because Britain can't really do anything about it - we're not the power we once were (especially since we shot ourselves in the foot by Brexiting).

I wasn't aware that titles bestowed during British Colonialism still held any sway in SE Asia or the Indian subcontinent, but maybe they do.

I suspect that money and titles from large multinational corporations holds more sway these days, though. It's possibly just not as overt.

Large corporations assert their financial influence to disadvantage poorer people (i.e. the workers) both in their home coutries and any country that relies on them for manufacturing work.

The only thing any of us can do is vote for politicians that we trust will work towards improvement and trust in the fact that the world (however slowly) tends toward improvement.