I cannot agree with the modern knights who believe the only paths lie through their own organizations. It is also true that someone cannot awake one morning and say, I am a knight, and become one. The reason is that the earning of a knight s title lies, in every case, of the building of renown such that the title is earned through deeds. It is not the title of knight that makes a man a knight, it is his renown. Sometimes circumstances will recognize such a gentle with a formal title, and sometimes not.
Modern knights vary in quality as surely as did the medieval ones.
As in the Middle Ages, some follow some kind of romantic ideal while others hold the attitude that only performance on the battlefield counts. Knights of both types all ultimately fail to achieve the perfection of their ideal, whether it be a purely martial image or a more philosophical one, but they can succeed in the betterment of themselves and of their world, and this is the function of knighthood. The true essence of knighthood lies not so much in whether you believe you are a knight. If the answer to this question is yes, then I believe you can claim the title of knight. In so doing you also accept the duties towards acting with the right and striving towards the distant chivalric ideal.