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Converting Mamet
The Weekly Standard ^ | May, 2011 | Andrew Ferguson

Posted on 05/14/2011 7:11:04 PM PDT by AustralianConservative

Three decades ago David Mamet became known among the culture-consuming public for writing… […]

And then Mamet thought some more, and looked in the mirror.

“I never questioned my tribal assumption that Capitalism was bad,” he writes now, “although I, simultaneously, never acted upon these feelings.” He was always happy to cash a royalty check and made sure to insist on a licensing fee. “I supported myself, as do all those not on the government dole, through the operation of the Free Market.”

He saw he was Talking Left and Living Right, a condition common among American liberals, particularly the wealthy among them, who can, for instance, want to impose diversity requirements on private companies while living in monochromatic neighborhoods, or vote against school vouchers while sending their kids to prep school, or shelter their income while advocating higher tax rates. The widening gap between liberal politics and liberal life became real to him when, paradoxically enough, he decided at last to write a political play, or rather a play about politics. It was the first time he thought about partisan politics for any sustained period.

“This was after the 2004 election,” he told me in an interview last month. “I’d never met a conservative. I didn’t know what a conservative was. I didn’t know much of anything.

“But I saw the liberals hated George Bush. It was vicious. And I thought about it, and I didn’t get it. He was no worse than the others, was he? And I’d ask my liberal friends, ‘Well, why do you hate him?’ They’d all say: ‘He lied about WMD.’ Okay. You love Kennedy.Kennedy didn’t write Profiles in Courage—he lied about that. ‘Bush is in bed with the Saudis!’ Okay, Kennedy was in bed with the mafia.”

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy; Political Humor/Cartoons; US: California
KEYWORDS: davidmamet; hollywood; mamet; pages; playwright; republican; thesecretknowledge
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To: Nevadan

Haha. Send Mamet’s book his way. Or order one for his local library (if possible). You never know.


41 posted on 05/15/2011 1:07:05 AM PDT by AustralianConservative
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To: MarkL
You would think that they would appreciate individuality above almost everything else.

This one sure does.
I love Mamet.

42 posted on 05/15/2011 1:21:54 AM PDT by b9
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To: AustralianConservative

Good idea. I was toying with the idea of sending the article, but it would probably be rejected because of the source.


43 posted on 05/15/2011 1:26:17 AM PDT by Nevadan
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To: AustralianConservative
When I first saw this film I thought ...."the screenwriter has to be conservative". That's before I ever heard of Mamet.

Screenplay by Mamet

44 posted on 05/15/2011 10:03:12 AM PDT by Donald Rumsfeld Fan ("Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." Richard Feynman father of Quantum Physics)
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To: AU72

Ping


45 posted on 05/15/2011 10:52:51 AM PDT by Truth is a Weapon (If I weren't afraid of the feds, I would refer to Obama as our "undocumented POTUS")
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To: AustralianConservative
Magnificent article that everyone should read. I can't resist quoting two paragraphs:


46 posted on 05/15/2011 12:37:23 PM PDT by denydenydeny (Rage all you want, looters & moochers, but the gods of the copybook headings are your masters now.)
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To: AustralianConservative
Whatever one thinks of The Weekly Standard, this is a very good article.
47 posted on 05/15/2011 1:05:41 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Ki-hagoy vehamamlakhah 'asher lo'-ya`avdukh yove'du; vehagoyim charov yecheravu.)
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To: Donald Rumsfeld Fan

THE EDGE
Fantastic film!
“What one man can do, another can do!”


48 posted on 05/15/2011 3:41:37 PM PDT by b9
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To: Donald Rumsfeld Fan

Now you’re bringing me back a few years. A great movie. Late 1990s? Thanks for the reminder.


49 posted on 05/16/2011 3:43:55 AM PDT by AustralianConservative
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To: denydenydeny

Baa. Baa.


50 posted on 05/16/2011 3:45:15 AM PDT by AustralianConservative
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To: denydenydeny

Interesting. Guess who just mentioned this article in a tweet today and called it a “a good read”?


51 posted on 05/16/2011 10:57:23 AM PDT by jeltz25
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To: AustralianConservative

Great. Another limousine liberal who finally sees the light. Now that he has his millions after proverbially kicking honest folks in the teeth, he can bear leaving his old lib-pals and hob-nob with new ones.

It’d be something if a he wrote screenplay that skewered the Left and became something of a hit.

Until then, keep swimming, David!


52 posted on 05/16/2011 10:14:12 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: AustralianConservative

bump


53 posted on 05/17/2011 2:49:48 AM PDT by lowbridge (Rep. Dingell: "Its taken a long time.....to control the people.")
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