I’m a firm believer in cultural momentum, which, conveniently enough, is my two-word answer to Tyler Cowen’s question: “Why don’t they boo more at the opera?”

From the original Freakonomics post:

Terry Teachout, meditating on a rare outburst of booing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, wonders if classical music and theater are being diminished by a superabundance of standing ovations and a scarcity of negative feedback. What if theater and orchestra audiences behaved more like blog commenters?

(Before we proceed, I must say that the phrase “diminished by a superabundance of standing ovations” makes me indescribably happy.)

Professor Cowen raises three possible explanations: “older people are less grumpy,” “signaling refined taste” and signaling “magnanimity.” He wisely discounts the first, but gives the latter two their due diligence. My answer, “cultural momentum,” simply says “they don’t boo more at the opera, because that’s not what people go there to do. They go there to give standing ovations, just like they did the time before.”

Indeed, you don’t hear many boos at any kind of live music performance, opera or not (cultural momentum: that’s just not what you intend to do when you head out for a show, just like last time). The one act I saw harassed offstage opened up for Tool in Dallas, late in the Aenima tour. I’m 99% certain it was The Melvins, but memory may not serve. I’ll let the reader decide for himself if it was just: