The edwardian "aristocrats" (aristotle would have disowned the decayed nobles) and the "conservatives" are the same.

both forget that guarding civilization is first and foremost a matter of will & sword. The european "Aristocrat" forgets he is a successful viking, as do American conservatives that they are wealthy frontiersmen.

And indeed they are not. Their ancestors were. They have decayed to less.

.

An aristocracy where it is legitimate must ever be and can only ever be an extension and merger of the various petite bourgeoise, the small business owners, the lesser adventurers, the struggling entrepreneurial intellectuals, the junior officers.

As soon as they start to think of themselves as separate from the upper rungs of the middle classes instead of thinking of themselves as their most natural and noble extensions, as soon as the large landowner looks down on the small landowners, the corporate titan on the shopkeeper, the generals on the lieutenant and sergeants, not as themselves in miniature but as a separate class... then that aristocracy is in decline.

Such an Aristocracy is not hurting that lower class but hurting themselves, they are decaying into palace politics and forsaking the virtues that let them rise to begin with. Inevitably they even begin to side with the most unvirtuous and depraved lower classes against the middle classes which still embody the ancient noble ideals of a people

Such a decayed aristocracy is inevitably setting up their overthrow and ensuring that when it comes they will deserve it.