People say the same thing is happening everywhere, even though there are local variations; all over the world the study of the ‘humanities’, and even of languages (other than the new lingua franca, American English), is going through an unprecedented crisis that may rightly make us fear for their very survival into the future. In Europe, probably never since the Renaissance has the threat of a return to barbarism or vacuity (the difference is not very great) in education been so clear.