For anyone to consider the persuit of knowledge to be beneath them is to demonstrate how desperately they need such knowledge.

The really scary thing is that this pinhead is going to end up being the King of England some day.

@1 -- Your "persuit" begins with spelling class.

I don't get it, in all other areas of animal husbandry, farmers have been able to successfully inbreed to maximize favorable characteristics. Someone needs to explain culling to the royal family. & sorry Charlie, but subscribing to homeopathy should be an immediate cause for sterilization if the goal was to breed an intelligent rulers.

Chuckles is just pining for the days when he would have owned a million-odd serfs.

Poor old Charles. He's showing his age. As for religious traditions, maybe mass murder and the mass rapes of children falls somewhere on his sentimental journey into senility.

let me step up and defend the old boy. what he MEANT, in his clumsy, crusty, fusty way, was that SCIENCE is a tool which has given CAPITAL as way to squeeze every bit of soul out of existence, and reduce it to issues of materiality, and therefore profit. Hitch is willfully misreading the Prince of Wales, as are many. Charles has a point. Doesn't he, Charles?

@3 - LOL, but seriously: I'll take my aristocracy with a functioning brain, thank you. If Henry the Navigator could rebel against the norm way back then, and if our version of aristocracy here in the States could include true scientists like Jefferson and Franklin, I don't see why the British royalty must necessarily be brain dead. Nothing good can come from rejecting science.

@3 I've never pretended to be good at spelling. Nor willing to proofread a comment online. It happens.

@7, SCIENCE is a tool which has given CAPITAL as way to squeeze every bit of soul out of existence, and reduce it to issues of materiality, and therefore profit..

This is really silly. The understanding we have of the universe and of each other because of science has nothing to do with profit or capital. The fact that we can disagree on computers increases my soul because I can experience your point of view (even though I find these particular conclusions silly), and has nothing to do with profit. Or maybe this positive exchange of ideas has everything to do with profit.

Maybe the opportunity for people to interact so quickly, to share art and music and personal experiences in ways never experienced before actually exists because someone saw a chance to make a profit. Profit is like science in that it's a neutral concept, only made evil when evil people utilize it (like in the Gulf). But usually it's a positive thing, leading to better lives for more people, because most people aren't evil.

Let me step up and antagonize the old boy. What he MISSED, in his clumsy, crusty, fusty way, was that RELIGION is a tool which has given CAPITAL as way to squeeze every bit of soul out of existence, and reduce it to issues of false spirituality to be used as a means for profit and manipulation.

I'm not sure of a time in history in which the ruling class of mankind did not objectify nature. It's the most effective attitude to have when concentrating resources.

Placing a value on natural beauty and functioning ecosystems may work better in the long term, but there's a reason why the executives of BP are billionaires and the Nature Conservancy has to beg for money.

Mr. Prince is right that we need to acknowledge an intrinsic value to the ecosystems that sustain our very lives. We only measure value in terms of how a natural resource can make a corporation money.

Prince Charles is an inbred twit. The monarchy is a tourist attraction and has very little to do with running the UK. Thank Imaginary Heaven!