An impoverished nobleman who became a cook or lackey did not thereby definitively lose his nobility: it only became latent and could be awakened again by a favorable turn of fate. But once he became a craftsman, his nobility was destroyed. This is entirely contrary to the modern conception, which separates the person from his achievement and, therefore, finds personal dignity to be preserved best if the content of subordination is as objective as possible. Thus, an American girl, who would work in a factory without the slightest feeling of humiliation, would feel wholly degraded as a family cook.

XREF: Relates to Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism — both examine how occupational categories and status perceptions shift with modernization.

XREF: Contrasts pre-modern status embedded in personhood with modern separation of person from achievement — echoes Foucault on discipline and Weber on social stratification.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 350