I suppose it is hardly a mystery to anyone with a working brain that so much of life consists of smug, witless philistinism in pursuit of money, but I just recently listened to an astonishing example of it uncovered by Daniel Barenboim and delivered to the world in the second of his BBC Reith Lectures, first delivered to the world on April 14, 2006.

I can’t quite do justice to Barenboim’s remarks with a transcription, so I urge you instead to listen to the critical excerpt by clicking on the player below:

Comment is superfluous, unless burying my head in my hands counts as comment.

You can download the entire lecture by right-clicking and doing “save as” here or see all the lectures by visiting the BBC Reith Lectures archive page.