Harold Macmillan (who read Greats at Oxford), when opening a lecture course in 1914, recalled the philosopher J.A. Smith thus: “Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in after life – save only this – that if you work hard and diligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education”.

(Letter to the Daily Telegraph from Rev David Johnson, Oxford).

Got it in one! And this is the difference between us cynical and suspicious Epicureans and those who believe in fairies, angels, celestial harps and the possibility of winning the war in Afghanistan (or anywhere else, if it comes to that). We cast a critical and jaundiced eye on nationalists, weird religionists, modern journalists and politicians and note their feet of clay and their hidden agendas. We do so humbly, expecting no reward, resigned to being societal outcasts, branded as godless by the godly.