I agree entirely with what  Lord Attenborough says about the "pornography of violence" being projected onto our cinema screens (Lord Attenborough hits out at films glamourising violence, 22 October 2000) , but this is hardly something new. What has changed is the film industry's ability to portray violence so realistically. 

Years ago I remember thinking how unrealistic films were when it came to people being shot and killed, and that making them more so would horrify people into wanting such scenes cut out altogether. Instead, the more realistic it becomes the more many people seem to like it.

Death, violence and sex evoke deep human emotions, which is why they fascinate, and why they sell so well.

But Lord Attenborough is being very naive deploring the "purely commercial reasons [for succumbing] to the pornography of violence". Our world revolves around making money, and a successful film, by definition, is one that makes lots or money -  the more it makes the more successful it is considered to be. 

The utter perversion of this equation does not seem to bother many people, least of all those in the media - probably because it would call into question the validity of their own "success".

So is it any wonder that so many people see making money as the ultimate achievement, for which all else may be sacrificed?

The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars annually on promoting their addictive and pernicious products because it brings them money and "success", while in America, despite all the deaths guns cause, the industries that produce and market them fight for the right of all Americans to bear arms - because selling guns brings them money and "success".

And these are just two particularly obvious examples of how pecuniary interests and financial "success" are placed above all other considerations. When it comes down to it, almost everyone puts his business, his job and his source of income above everything else. And it seems to make little difference whether they are struggling to make a modest living or striving to join the super rich.

Money doesn't only make the world go round, it also determines where it is going - which at the moment is towards oblivion.

It is not money itself, of course. Money is just a means, albeit a very important one. 

Alongside fire making and writing, money must rank as one of man's most useful and powerful inventions. He has a long way to go in learning to use it responsibly. Instead he has struck a Faustian bargain with the Devil:

I remember smiling and brushing it off as a communist joke when I first heard capitalism defined as "the Devil finding work for idle hands". Now I think it was a case of many a true word being spoken in jest.

Greed - which few would deny is what Capitalism is based on - has motivated man to produce so much wealth that there is plenty to share out and to do a lot of good with, but that does not change the primitive (rather than evil) human instinct on which it is based.

It appears to have worked so well - at least for many of us - because it has had a seemingly endless supply of natural resources to transform into goods and services, and a planet capable of absorbing a great deal punishment and abuse. But these times are coming to an end.

A free society and a healthy economy must be based on the individual's self-interest, but self-interest - or rather, enlightened self-interest, and this is a vitally important distinction -  is not synonymous with "greed".

The tobacco industry is prepared to sacrifice peoples' health and lives for its narrow self-interests, just as many industries squandering our planet's natural resources and placing non-sustainable demands on its life-supporting ecosystems are prepared to sacrifice the well-being and perhaps the very survival of coming generations for theirs.

Yet it is in no one's enlightened self-interest to harm their children or to threaten their future.

But this is what most of us - in pursuit of our not-so-enlightened self-interests, i.e. non-sustainable investments, jobs and lifestyles - are doing.

This all sounds very pessimistic and depressing, I know, which is why so few people want to hear it. It is much easier to consider me a fool.

However, it is not our situation that is hopeless, but the direction in which we are headed.

We can still change that direction and avoid the horrors that otherwise await us and will make the 21st Century even more tragic than the 20th.

I don't suppose you will, but if you would take a fool's advice, this one can tell you how.