Author: Matthew Westphal

Ralph Nader Is Opening A Museum About Lawsuits

“Officially titled the American Museum of Tort Law, the nonprofit attraction will focus on aspects of the legal system that handle wrongful actions that result in injury, otherwise known as ‘torts’.” (Unfortunately, Nader rejected the idea to have “a clock that marks time by having a life-size Pinto erupt in flames every hour, on the hour.”)

Culture’s Dying, Or It’s Already Dead (And It Always Has Been)

“This sentiment has a name: declinism. And it has a history, a scholarly one that amounts to much more than the perennial grousing of adults about kids these days. The notion of studying how things go to hell is almost exactly as old as the modern practice of historiography.” Laura Miller casts a gimlet eye on declinism from Gibbon to Spengler to Vargas Llosa – and points out the one way in which “culture” may indeed be dead (for now).

Is Heckling Ever Good For Stand-Up Comedy? Or The Comedian?

“Probably the closest thing you can compare it to is the fighting in ice hockey. Think about it: an activity somehow both integral and non-essential that many in the audience consider more entertaining than those parts of the performance that require actual talent. But here’s the difference between fighting in hockey and heckling in stand-up comedy, and it’s an essential one: the former is all about the players, while the latter is all about the fans trying to be the players.”

Distraction – And Why We Drive Ourselves To It

“Ever since the Enlightenment, Western societies have been obsessed with autonomy, and in the past few hundred years we have put autonomy at the center of our lives, economically, politically, and technologically … Unfortunately, we’ve taken things too far: we’re now addicted to liberation, and we regard any situation – a movie, a conversation, a one-block walk down a city street – as a kind of prison. Distraction is a way of asserting control; it’s autonomy run amok.”