false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1156921667m/481.jpg 481 1 Author Philip K. Howard returns with the same storytelling style and supreme reasonableness that made his first book, <I>The Death of Common Sense</I>, such a smash hit in 1995. He begins <I>The Lost Art of Drawing the Line</I> by noting the damage predatory litigation has done to the communal fabric of the United States: "Social relations in America, far from steadied by law's sure hand, are a tangle of frayed legal nerves." He tells how seesaws have started to vanish from playgrounds, how teachers are banned from touching students, and how emergency-room staff are blocked from attending to patients off hospital grounds--even if they can see them bleeding to death just 30 feet away. These aren't just speculations, a parade of hypothetical horror stories--they are actual trends and events that Howard describes and documents. The ability to weave dozens of anecdotes like these into his narrative is one of Howard's great strengths, and it allows him to make important points in entertaining ways. <p> Yet the book is much more than a collection of outrageous stories or a mere broadside against the legal system--though the legal system does come in for plenty of criticism. Instead, it's a meditation on the meaning of freedom, why freedom cannot exist outside of authority, and why individuals in positions of authority should have the ability to make decisions based on sound judgment. There is a temptation to secure liberty by restricting authority through the law, but this can be overdone, and it carries a high price: "Put law or any other formal construct in the middle of daily dealings, and people will start looking to the law instead of to one another." Then things get much worse: "The more our common institutions fail us, the more Americans want to limit their authority. Through a downward cycle of distrust, legal controls, [and] worse failure ... we drive Americans' governing institutions further into the bureaucratic maw." That is a terrible place to be, where no one is held accountable and antisocial behavior rules. And it has nothing at all to do with freedom. <I>--John J. Miller</I> 4746 29 1 2002 The Collapse of the Common Good: How America's Lawsuit Culture Undermines Our Freedom total:9|5:1|4:5|3:1|2:2| 9 32 15 3 4 0 false false Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 30 18:45:48 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 15 07:42:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 29 22:23:41 -0800 2007 Fri Feb 15 22:40:21 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Jan 15 16:45:30 -0800 2009 Thu Apr 09 19:17:46 -0700 2009
Therefore, the world is going to hell.

A Treatise by Philip K. Howard.

The author raises some interesting issues regarding the (hyper and negative)interaction between laws and society. I understand where he is coming from. A system of laws is definit...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Nov 28 16:25:10 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 28 16:25:10 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Thu Aug 20 06:51:32 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 06:51:32 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jun 22 18:10:41 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 18:10:41 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri May 08 13:10:52 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 13:10:52 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Mar 23 21:43:44 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 21:43:44 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 09 00:08:52 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 09 00:08:52 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Fri Apr 04 15:44:56 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 04 15:45:08 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Mon Mar 03 19:02:04 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 03 19:02:04 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Fri Feb 01 15:23:19 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 15:23:19 -0800 2008 0 0 true false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jan 24 14:10:17 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 24 14:10:37 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Sat Jan 19 19:29:45 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 19 19:29:45 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Tue Oct 02 11:06:12 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 11:06:12 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=481