“Mei vexandi causa est nescire”
“Ignorance is the cause of my annoyance.” As a classicist, I have had to put up with the adolescent sneer of my contemporaries, in whose eyes the study of the Greek and Latin languages, culture, history, literature, philosophy, politics, sociology, art and architecture and mathematics (pretty much just Pythagoras, to be honest) are not worth serious and dedicated study. To these philistines, the subject serves no purpose, is a waste of time, belongs in the dusty past.
Yet I feel no compulsion to explain myself in the face of such a cretinous attitude: if some dolt or other decides that Mozart is rubbish, without ever having heard a note, and consequently abstains from listening to some of the most beautiful and sublime music ever written, it in no way impedes or mitigates my enjoyment of, say, Don Giovanni. In denying him/herself the pleasure, satisfaction and stimulation to be derived from Classical study, the only one who suffers is s/he; meanwhile, I’m laughing all the way to the library.
