12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Mus

The test of time can be misleading. Historical happenstance, political/economics and cultural nationalism have as much an influence over what art survives hundreds of years as the quality of the art.

Classical music - the highest achievement in western history? Very debatable, at best. My short list of higher ranking achievements:

collected works of Wm. Shakespeare
theory of natural selection
men landing on the moon/Voyager 1 & 2
"Moby Dick"
KAJ's skyhook
the Allied victory over the Axis
Albert Einstein

It clears the mind and washes the spirit in beauty,enobling the human spirit to embrace truth, compassion and love,in the religious meaning of that,in a
manner and to a degree nothing else can.

Great description of the power of art, but I'm not sure it's true, at least universally so. Germany is the central nation regarding classical music. Germany produced Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Wagner and Mahler, yet Germany also produced Nazism and the final solution. Classical music was championed by the government as an example of German greatness during the Nazi regime. Being awash in the beauty of the human spirit doesn't stop some people from starting genocidal war.