David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'

Village Voice ^ | March 11th, 2008 | David Mamet

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

John Maynard Keynes was twitted with changing his mind. He replied, "When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?"
. . .
And I realized that the time had come for me to avow my participation in that America in which I chose to live, and that that country was not a schoolroom teaching values, but a marketplace.
. . .
Aha," you will say, and you are right. I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, and Shelby Steele, and a host of conservative writers, and found that I agreed with them: a free-market understanding of the world meshes more perfectly with my experience than that idealistic vision I called liberalism.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

This article explains how a famous Leftie playwright reads some political theory while writing a play about politics. He discovers, more or less to his own surprise and horror, that he is actually a conservative!

[Uncledave]

“ABC. Always Be Conservative. Always...Be...Conservative.”
/mamet

[gorush]

That is how it happens...all the facts are there, one just has to be honest enough with ones self to respect the truth. Arguing with a liberal serves no purpose and is in fact, detrimental to your health.

[xkaydet65]

I was involved in a “liberal’s” epiphany too. Several years ago one of the guys I taught with, twin brother of a famously large NYC congressman, asked me to take a political questionaire. He quizzed me for about 20 minutes and calculated my results as being somewhat right of center. No surprise there, but another colleague was listening as I was quizzed and apoke up that there must be some mistake. She was an avowed liberal yet was in agreement with the vast majority of my responses.

[RepoGirl]

One of my favorite writers — Glengary Glenross is amazing. This is pretty interesting (and maybe heartening for us deeply closeted conservatives working in the arts.)

[RepoGirl]

Coffee is for closers! :-)

[wideminded]

This article explains how a famous Leftie playwright ...

I've seen quite a few of the films written by David Mamet. They are always good, but I'm having trouble thinking of any themes presented in them that are specifically leftist.

[relictele]

Does this mean David Mamet will be sharing the good leads with us?

[SoCal Pubbie]

Wow. Aside from the ideas expressed, for a supposedly great writer, his words in this case are rather overwrought and hard to follow.

[Pontiac]

The argument in my play is between a president who is self-interested, corrupt, suborned, and realistic, and his leftish, lesbian, utopian-socialist speechwriter.

The conservative president in the piece holds that people are each out to make a living, and the best way for government to facilitate that is to stay out of the way, as the inevitable abuses and failures of this system (free-market economics) are less than those of government intervention.

It seems rather odd that a Conservative President would have a utopian-socialist speechwriter.

But I guess it would set up a few comic situations.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

First prize is the cadillac, second prize is the steak knives, and third prize - well anyone who knows the play knows what third prize is!

[Bender2]

Re: To that end, the Constitution separates the power of the state into those three branches which are for most of us (I include myself) the only thing we remember from 12 years of schooling.

The Constitution, written by men with some experience of actual government, assumes that the chief executive will work to be king, the Parliament will scheme to sell off the silverware, and the judiciary will consider itself Olympian and do everything it can to much improve (destroy) the work of the other two branches. So the Constitution pits them against each other, in the attempt not to achieve stasis, but rather to allow for the constant corrections necessary to prevent one branch from getting too much power for too long.

Rather brilliant. For, in the abstract, we may envision an Olympian perfection of perfect beings in Washington doing the business of their employers, the people, but any of us who has ever been at a zoning meeting with our property at stake is aware of the urge to cut through all the pernicious bullshit and go straight to firearms.

Truer words were never written... and I wish to God I'd wrote them first!

But then again, he is David Mamet and I--

I am--

I am Bender2

[CaptainK]

They become overwrought when they leave the upper eastside plantation.

It means bad seating in the best restaurants.

[redhead]

"That is how it happens...all the facts are there, one just has to be honest enough with ones self to respect the truth. Arguing with a liberal serves no purpose and is in fact, detrimental to your health."

This is how it happened with my (then) silly liberal twit son. He loved his father and I, and respected our opinions, except in politics. Eventually, however, he realized that the opinions we held were what made us wise enough to counsel him, so he gradually began reading and educating himself about the truth about Conservatism. Now, he's even listening to Rush!

[LegendHasIt]

Pretty good.

I have ALMOST liked several of his varied ‘works’, but something about them just missed being good to superb.

Sort of like this article. There are a few things that he doesn’t quite understand; that he still believes the liberal skewing of history.

Maybe in the future he will be able to achieve something I consider to be superb now that he he realizes that he was a very literate, but nonetheless ‘brain dead liberal.

Things like his epiphany and the publication this article give me a little hope for the future of America despite the sorry state of affairs of our political ‘leaders’ and the mostly brain dead electorate.

[aft_lizard]

Wow, I am surprised at this. Oleanna is a brilliant work by him, but it had alot of liberal talking points in it. Although I always have thought the student was just an evil feminazi. Or perhaps that is wha he wanted people to get out of it?

[aft_lizard]

Bluedog Dem(like Zell Miller) or something where he would have to hire a real leftist speechwriter to speak to the base, otherwise I agree why would a conservative president hire a commie?

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Welcome, my friend!

[max americana]

David Mamet in an interview recently also said that after he made SPARTAN with val Kilmer and saw how the Special Forces operated that he acquired a more “patriotic” view of America.

This guy wrote WAG THE DOG, and GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS.

He currently is the producer and creator the The UNIT. he is also an avid UFC/MMA fan.

[dfwgator]

Warning: Extreme Profanity

If you liked Glengarry, Glenn Ross, you'll love Glen & Gary & Glen & Ross