Has all decency left the entire planet?

@schubert , it’s good to hear that Germany has survived Angela Merkel.
Due to recent democratic reform almost 50% of young Britains now enter higher education. 40 years ago it was around 3%.

This increased freedom to advance career prospects through hard work and merit must always be welcomed but you also have to account for an inevitable drop in standards too.

Thankfully the advance of digital archiving means that in future we will be able to easily preserve a facsimile of whatever artefacts of civilization we consider worth preserving.

The fly in this ointment though is that these decisions are usually still left to politicians and accountants.

One thing I’d like to see being done now would be uncut in depth interviews with the leading scientists and thinkers recorded for posterity.

Books, records, films, photos etc can be great but little beats a good face to face interview for historical purposes.

Our country is a mess these days.

vote correctly or we’re all doomed in so many ways.


 On a good note, I did stay at a holiday inn express last night!

**.Has all decency left the entire planet? **

Of course not! There are many examples of great decency around us. Now, as concerns this specific deranged act that is probably nothing more than the result of ignorance, why should this be the least bit surprising? The reason for the feelings of horror are ours; we who appreciate the importance of Bach.

If I had to guess, anyone who would muster up the will to do something like that, appreciation of Bach or not, is probably not operating with a full deck. Mentally or ideologically unstable individuals have always existed. Culturally and spiritually important sites and symbols have been targeted by ideologues and the unstable throughout history.

Having said all that, why is it surprising that in an age when there has been a concerted effort to remove God and spirituality from education, that appreciation and respect for a church that is an expression of the actual reason and purpose of Bach’s music should be disrespected like this?

Frogman, your last paragraph has certain ambiguous meaning, at least to me.
Would you be so kind to explain it better?
If I may add something and hoping that it has some relation to the original subject, I would say that by all means any religion has no place in any 'official' education in any secular state.
 

Sorry it seems ambiguous to you, alex. I think the meaning is actually quite clear. Debating here the specific issue that you raise would probably be pointless, but I will point out a couple of things that may help make the meaning of what I wrote less ambiguous for you.

Please note that nowhere did I use the word “religion”. I also think that your use of the word “official” is interesting. Bach was not a secularist. He was an orthodox Lutheran and much of his music was an expression of his spiritual beliefs and conservatism. That aspect of the total significance and importance of that church cannot be simply taken out of the equation. 

I don’t know exactly what caused the perpetrator to do such a thing. However, what I think I do know is that it is unlikely that what leads to respect for and appreciation of the complete history of that church is being taught in “official” education. We can’t have it both ways.