I first heard about the “liberals think everyone is basically good and conservatives think everyone is basically selfish” line from Rush years ago. I’ve thought a lot about it and the older I get, the more true it becomes.
It can be a painful thing, going from a deep-seated assumption that people are “basically good” to the realization that they’re not. It requires, as my husband would say, a complete “paradigm shift” that many aren’t self aware enough to contemplate, let alone master by incorporating it into their daily lives.
Good Lord! This is as wordy and unreadable as a William F. Buckley column.
He's still got a long way to go, but the longest journey begins with a single step.
bump
“I read about this article on another thread and sought it out.”
Link to the other article by D’Souza ....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2098526/posts
Excellent, insightful post — thanks for seeking it out for all to see!
My nomination for best line in the article:
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.
"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" - Romans 3:2
and
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8
This reminded me of this quote...
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves. (Pascal’s Pensées, thought #425, edited by Trotter, 113). - Blaise Pascal
I woulda never figured Mamet to go right.
He always seemed one of the worst typical Hollywood leftist guys who continually trot out stilted entertainment to their liking.....
ironically his Jewishness which usually at least in Hollywood lends itself to promoting anti-pluralist leftism is what nudged him
his fear for Israel.
granted it does reek a bit of ‘well, worrying about Israel’s future is more important to me than my former propensity to destroy America”
but I’ll take it
we need all the help out there we can get
he has a handsome wife though..
PS:...he also pit fights...pretty John Wayne for a 60 year old
A very interesting piece. Mamet obviously still suffers from Bush Derangement Syndrome, but at least he’s beginning to get at some of the real issues. Interesting that he likes Thomas Sowell so much.
We were riding along and listening to NPR. I felt my facial muscles tightening, and the words beginning to form in my mind: Shut the fuck up.
...we are not and never have been the villains that some of the world and some of our citizens make us out to be, but that we are a confection of normal (greedy, lustful, duplicitous, corrupt, inspired—in short, human) individuals living under a spectacularly effective compact called the Constitution, and lucky to get it.
Too lucky in a lot of cases because it's so taken for granted that it isn't properly defended by beneficiaries who have the conceit that they can improve on it. Such as:
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.
It's organized chaos. Properly confined it is very effective if not particularly efficient. And we really oughtn't be too surprised if legislators swamp us with laws, executives with direction, and judges with pontification. That is, after all, what we pay them to do. The real problem is that so many of all three have a tendency to forget who their employers really are.
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.
These two paragraphs I thought worth repeating. An excellant article, thanks for posting.
I love Mamet, always have. His book “True and False” is excellent. I started reading “Bambi vs. Godzillar” (about the film industry) but haven’t finished it.
David Mamet woke up to reality, and his article is well worth the read.
PING for later reading.
Interesting article. There is a lot of truth about a tragic view of life vs. a utopian view of life. and how this makes people see things differently. Some people have noted that liberals compare America against a hypothetical utopia, thus they find America wanting and they condemn America in absolute terms for not being perfect. On the other hand, they view America’s enemies in an idealistic way that blots out almost all problems - the Soviet Union was the wave of the future and Stalin only made a few mistakes, communism will work when the right people are put in charge, Pol Pot was an agrarian reformer, the Islamic realm is a utopia of peace and tolerance, but unfortunately it is the extreme evil of the U.S. and Israel that causes Islamists to react in an extreme way, etc.
Mamet from the Village Voice. Now a conservative. Color me stunned. Good read, thanks!