23 December

Every age has its aristocracy. I didn’t realise for a long time what the function of an aristocracy is, they just look like daft rich twits. But it turns out the true function is to make a country open to ideas from outside (because the aristocracy look to outside the country for inspiration), which can then be imitated by others copying the aristocracy, as a status game. Today’s aristocrats are often celebrities, we don’t always see the continuity with past social roles.