Noah Charney: “Some might say that it’s … part of a long tradition that hails back to the Vandal tribe sweeping into Rome in A.D. 455 to strip it of its culture and leave a smoldering (but ‘radically reformed’) ruin in its wake. … I don’t feel the need (or have the energy) to argue how important the arts are. To some readers, I’d be preaching to the converted. For others, whatever examples I present would be insufficient to change inert minds.” (Is that the best way to say this?)