THE PHILIPPIC

MAKING SENSE OF THE SENSLESS SINCE 2004

  • The Rise of the Jerk in Tights

    A guy with a couple of decades of office avoirdupois pumps up on his $3,000 touring bike, sporting about $500 worth of highly flammable stretch material in 15 garish colors, covered with the logos of his “sponsors.” “Passing on the left,” he quacks as he goes by on the sidewalk, where it is illegal to…

  • Where’s the Culture?

    Activism is now like poetry or philosophy. Few people take it seriously. These days the activist, like the poet or philosopher, has no public. And as the poet and philosopher have lost their power to engage, educate and entertain, so has the activist lost the power to effect progressive change—assuming progressive change is the objective…