David Mamet_ Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' _ Village Voice

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David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a'Brain-Dead Liberal' An election-season essay

By David Mamet Tuesday, Mar 11 2008

John Maynard Ke ynes was twitted with c hanging his mind. He replied, "When the facts

change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?"

My favorite ex ample of a change of mind was Norman Mailer at The Village Voice.

Norman took on the role of drama critic, weighing in on the New York premiere of Waiting

for Godot .

Twentieth century's greatest play . Without

bo the ring t o go , Maile r calle d it a piece of

garbage.

When he did get a ro und to see ing it, he

realized his mistake. He was no longer a

Voice columnist, however, so he bought a

page in the paper and wrote a retraction,

praising the play as the masterpiece it is.

Every playwright's dream.

I once won o ne of Mary Ann Madden's

"Compe titions" in New Y ork magazine. The

task was to name or create a "10 " of anything,

and mine was the World's Perfect Theatrical

Review. It went like this: "I nev er understo od

the theater until last night. Please forgive

every thing I've ever written. When you read

this I'll be de ad." That, of course , is the o nly

review anybody in the theater ever wants to

get.

My prize, in a stunning exa mple of irony, was

a year's subscription to New Y ork, which rag

(apart from Mary Ann's "Competition") I

considered an open running sore on the body

of world literacy—this due to the presence in

its pages of John Simon, whose stunning

amalgam of superciliousness and savagery,

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over the years, was appreciated by that readership searching for an endorsement of

proactive mediocrity.

But I digress.

I wrote a play abo ut politics ( Nov ember, Barrymore Theater, Broadway , some seats still

available). A nd as part o f the "writing process," as I believ e it's called, I started thinking

about po litics. This comment is not actually as jejune as it might seem. Porg y and Bess is a

bunch a go od so ngs but ha s no thing to d o with race relatio ns, which is th e flag o f

convenience under which it sailed.

But my play, it turned out, was actually about politics, which is to say, about the polemic

be tween p ersons o f two o ppo sing v iews. The arg ume nt in my play is be twe en a pre side nt

who is se lf-inte reste d, c or rupt, s ubor ned , and realist ic, and his le ftish, lesbian, ut op ian-

socialist speechwriter.

The play, while being a laugh a minute, is, when it's at home, a disputatio n between re ason

and faith, or perhaps between the conservative (or tragic) view and the liberal (or

perfectionist) view. The conservative president in the piece holds that people are each out

to make a living, and the best way for gov ernment to facilitate that is to stay out of the way,

as the inevitable abuse s and failures of this system (free-market eco nomics) are less than

those of gov ernment intervention.

I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.

As a c hild o f the '60 s, I ac ce pte d as a n artic le o f faith that go vernme nt is c or rupt, t hat

busine ss is ex plo itat iv e, a nd th at pe ople are gene rally good at he art .

These cherished precepts had, over the years, become ingrained as increasingly

impracticable pr ejudices. Why do I say impracticable? Because although I still held these

be liefs, I no longer app lied them in my life. Ho w do I kno w? My wife info rme d me . We were

riding along and listening to NPR . I felt my facial muscles tightening, and the words

be ginning to form in my mind: Shut the fuck up. "?" she promp ted. And he r terse, e legant

summation, as always, a wakened me to a d eeper tr uth: I had been listening to NPR and

reading various organs of national opinion for years, wonder and rage contending for pride

of place. Further: I found I had been—rather charmingly, I thought—referring to myself for

y ear s as "a br ain-d ead liber al," and to NPR as "Nationa l Pale stinian Rad io."

This is, to me, the synthesis o f this worldview with which I now found my self disenchanted:

that everything is always wrong.

But in my life, a brief review rev ealed, ev ery thing was not always wrong, and neither was

nor is always wrong in the community in which I live, or in my country. Further, it was not

always wrong in previous communities in which I lived, and among the various and mobile

classes of which I was at vario us times a part.

And, I wonde re d, ho w co uld I hav e sp ent dec ade s thinking that I tho ught ev erything was

always wrong at the same time that I thought I thought that people were basically good at

heart? Which was it? I began to qu estion what I actually tho ught and found that I do not

think that people are b asically goo d at heart; indeed, that view of human nature has both

prompted and informed my writing for the last 40 y ears. I think that people, in

circumstanc es of stress, can behav e like swine, and that this, indeed, is not only a fit

subject, but the only subject, of drama.

I'd observed that lust, greed, envy, sloth, and their pals are giving the world a good run for

its money, but that nonetheless, people in general seem to get from day to day; and that we

in the United States get from day to day under rather wo nderful and privileged

circumstances—that 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, c orrupt, inspired—in short, human) individuals living under a

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spectacularly effective compact called the Constitution, and lucky to get it.

For the Constitution, rather than suggesting that all behave in a godlike manner, reco gnizes

that, to the contrary, people are swine and will take any opportunity to subvert any

agreement in order to pursue what they consider to be their proper interests.

To that end, the Constitution separates the po wer of the state into those three b ranches

whic h are for mo st o f us (I inc lude my sel f) the o nly thing we r ememb er from 1 2 y ear s of

schooling.

The Constitution, written by men with some experience of actual government, assumes that

the chief exe cutiv e will work to be king, the Parliament will scheme to sell off the

silverware , and the judiciary will consider itself Olympian and do ev ery thing 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 ac hieve 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

be ings in Washington do ing the business of their emp loy ers, th e pe op le, b ut 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.

I found not only that I didn't trust the curre nt gove rnment (that, to me, was no surprise),

but tha t an im par tial r ev iew r ev ealed t hat the fau lts o f this preside nt—whom I, a good

liberal, considere d a monster—were little different from those o f a president whom I

revered.

Bush got us into Iraq, JFK into Vietnam. Bush stole the election in Florida; Kennedy stole

his in Chicago. Bush outed a CIA agent; Kennedy left hundreds of them to die in the surf at

the Bay of Pigs. Bush lied about his military service; Kennedy accepted a Pulitzer Prize for a

bo ok writt en by Ted Sorenson. Bush was in bed with the Saudis, Kennedy with the Mafia.

Oh.

And I began to q ues tio n my hatr ed fo r "the Corpor atio ns"—the hatre d of which, I foun d, wa s

but the flip sid e o f my hung er fo r those go ods and se rv ice s the y pro vide and w itho ut which

we c ould no t liv e.

And I began to q ues tio n my dist rus t of the "Bad, Bad Milit ary " of my y outh, w hich, I saw,

was then and is no w made u p of those m en and wo men who ac tually risk t heir liv es t o

protec t the rest of us from a very hostile world. Is the military alway s right? No. Neither is

government, nor are the corporations—they are just different signposts for the particular

amalgamation of our country into separate working groups, if you will. Are these groups

infallible, free from the possibility o f mismanagement, corruption, o r crime? No, and

neither are y ou or I . So, taking the tragic view, the question was not "Is ever ything perfect?"

but "How c ou ld it b e bett er , at w hat c os t, an d ac co rding to who se d efinit ion ?" Put into whic h

form, things appeared to me to be unfolding pretty well.

Do I speak as a member of the "privileged class"? If yo u will—but c lasses in the United States

are mob ile, not static, which is the Marxist v iew. That is: Immigrants came and continue to

come he re penniless and can (and do) beco me rich; the nerd makes a trillion dollars; the

single mother, penniless and ignorant of English, sends her two so ns to co llege (my

grandmother). On the other hand, the rich and the children of the rich c an go belly -up; the

hegemony of the railroads is appropriated by the airlines, that of the networks by the

Internet; and the individual may and pro bably will change status more than once within his

lifetime.

What ab out the ro le o f gov ernme nt? Well, in the abs tra ct , coming fro m my time and

backgr ou nd, I tho ught it was a r athe r go od thing, bu t tal ly ing up the ledger in tho se t hings

whic h affec t me and in tho se things I o bserve, I am ha rd-press ed t o see an ins tanc e whe re

the intervention of the government led to much bey ond sorrow.

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4/15



But if the gov ernment is not to interv ene, how will we, mere human beings, work it all out?

I wonder ed and read, and it occ urred to me that I knew the answer, and here it is: We just

seem to. How do I know? From experience. I r eferred to my o wn—take away the director

from the staged play and what do y ou get? Usually a diminution of strife, a shorter

rehearsal period, and a better production.

The director, generally, does not cause strife, but his or her presence impels the ac tors to

direct (and manufacture) claims designed to appeal to A uthority —that is, to set aside the

original goal (staging a play for the audience) and indulge in politics, the pur pose o f which

may be to gain status and influence outside the ostensible goal of the endeavor.

Strand unacquainted bus trav elers in the middle of the night, and what do you ge t? A lot of

bad dr ama, and a sha ke-a nd-b ake Ma yflower Co mpa ct . Each, inst ant ly , add s wha t he o r she

can to the solution. Why? Each wants, and in fact needs, to c ontribute—to thro w into the

pot what gifts each has in order to achiev e the ov erall goal, as well as status in the new-

formed community. A nd so they work it out.

See also that most magnificent of schools, the jury syste m, where, again, each brings

nothing into the room save his or her own prejudices, and, through the course of

deliberation, comes not to a perfect solution, but a solution acceptable to the community—

a solution the community can live with.

Prior to the midterm elec tions, my rab bi was taking a lot of flack. The congregation is

exclusively liberal, he is a self-described independent (read "conservative"), and he was

driving the flock wild. Why? Because a) he nev er discusse d politics; and b) he taught that

the quality o f political discourse must b e addresse d first—that Jewish law teaches that it is

incumbent upon each person to hear the other fellow out.

And so I, l ike many of the liberal c ongre gation, be gan, tee th gr inding, to attemp t to do so.

And in d oing so , I r ec ogn ized that I held tho se t wo v iews of A mer ica (po litic s, go v ernme nt,

corporations, the military). One was of a state where everything was magically wrong and

must be immediately corrected at any cost; and the other—the world in which I actually

functioned day to day—was made up of people, most of whom were reasonably trying to

maximize their co mfort by getting along with each other (in the workplace, the

marketplace, the jury ro om, on the freeway, even at the school-board meeting).

And I realize d tha t the time had co me fo r me to av ow m y par tic ipat ion in tha t Amer ica in

whic h I c hos e to liv e, and th at that c ou ntry was n ot a schoolr oo m te aching v alues, but a

marketplace.

"Aha," you will say, and yo u are right. I began reading not only the eco nomics of Thomas

Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, and

Shelby Steele, and a host of conserv ative 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.

At the sam e tim e, I was writing my play about a president, corrupt, venal, cunning, and

v enge ful (as I assume a ll of them are ), and two tur key s. A nd I gav e th is fic tio nal preside nt a

speechwriter who, in his v iew, is a "brain-dead liberal," much like my e arlier self; and in the

course of the play, they have to work it out. And they eventually do come to a human

understanding of the political process. As I believe I am trying to do, and in which I believe

I may be succ eeding, and I will try to summarize it in the words of William A llen White.

White was for 40 y ear s the edito r o f the Emporia Gazette in rural Kansas, and a prominent

and powerful political co mmentator. He was a great friend of Theodore Roosevelt and

wro te t he best bo ok I 've ev er read a bo ut the pre side ncy . It 's calle d Masks in a Pagea nt , and

it profiles presidents from McKinley to Wilson, and I recommend it unreservedly.

White was a p re tty cle ar-hea ded man, and he'd see n human na tur e as few c an. (As Twain

http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Theodore+Roosevelt/http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Emporia/http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/William+Allen+White/http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Shelby+Steele/http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Paul+Johnson/http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Milton+Friedman/http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Thomas+Sowell/


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wro te, y ou want to u nde rst and m en, run a cou ntry pap er.) White knew that peop le ne ed

bo th to get ahe ad and to get alo ng, and that they 're alway s wo rking a t on e o r the o ther, and

that gove rnment should most pro bably stay out of the way and let them get on with it. But,

he added, there is such a thing as liberalism, and it may b e reduc ed to these sadde st of

words: " . . . and y et . . . "

The right is mooing about faith, the left is mooing about change, and many are incensed

about the fools o n the other side—but, at the end of the day, they are the same folks we

meet at the water c ooler. Happy election season.

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It is an awkward truth that totalitarianism can arrive under any kind of banner. It isalso an awkward truth that that there are few things more illiberal than a liberal withhe bit of truth between their teeth, but it doesn't follow therefore that Milton

Friedman makes more sense than say JK Galbraith. This won't do David. The rule of law and the constitution are indeed powerful and vital for our political health andwellbeing and when the rich and powerful stop subverting it for the benefit of their bottom line and when the disparity between rich and poor stops widening, I'll be

more inclined to feel persuaded.

ith David Mamet's royalties and his ability to feel like the king in his own littlefiefdom it's probably easier to believe that life is good, while also confusinglysubscribing to the Hobbsian view of nature... He has crawled out of the pit, so ergoit's a fair result? Human nature, is more probably both a biological given and sociallyconditioned... the one doesn't preclude the other. I suggest that Mr Mamet spends afortnight living in the same conditions and on the same income and with the same

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Dec 5, 2013

catz

MAO24

dave_fullerton

alak0926

Einstein

applemask83

pressures as one of the "undeserving poor" his new friends on the right talkpatronizingly about - say, a single parent adjunct professor with two kids, no healthinsurance, and a wage packet well below the poverty line, and see how long it takesbefore he reconnects to the idea that social justice is more than just two lazy wordsuttered by the brain dead. Social Justice does mean something David - but you can'tunderstand what it means while being fitted out by the same tailor that the Emperor

who wears invisible clothes, visits.

Like Reply

From one cartoonish perspective to another.

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I will never watch his movies again the bourgeois pig.

He has lost his mind in his ole age.

No one with at thread of decency could support the capitalist war machine...

He will soon return to the fold in the same way the europeans will embraceCommunism again. It is inevitable.

In the mean time discredit this class traitor at every opportunity.

Like Reply

Mr Mamet is still trying to figure it out. Perhaps he will now begin to move from theright to the center. The problem is how to define the role of government clearly (thisis of course just philosophical - there is no clear path for reform anyway). Peopleseek control of the improvement of their lives. Liberals see government as themeans, conservatives the market. Both are correct. The market can work becauseyou can vote with your dollars or start your own business, but not, for example, inhe case of a monopoly. Government plays a good role in this case (well, not if

campaigns are financed by corporations). It's like a basketball game that is wellofficiated. The players and spectators all benefit, but do get frustrated at times withhe officials. The officials are a small part of the game, yet have a lot of control. They

do try to stay out of the way, but if the ball hits them they are considered part of the

game and the ball is still in play. This analogy is pretty good for domestic politics inan isolated society. But our society has competition in it, and is in competition withother societies! This is where the role of government becomes fuzzy and wheregovernment needs to be a lot more nimble by design (representative democracy isvery cludgy). In some cases, under certain circumstances, government can dosomething more efficiently than the market (at least initially). This should bereserved for cases where the market fails to provide that which is needed for competing with other societies (what is necessary to compete is very hard to say,healthcare and education are on the list). Unfortunately, we can't just follow a clear policy of government does this, market does that, we have to watch out for other societies using government to do something to get the upper hand on us (militarily or economically - same thing really). Government should be small and powerful(Democrats make it bigger, Republicans make it weaker), but unfortunately we areneither good at creating or destroying it in a precise or timely manner. So far, our positions of wealth and power in the world have enabled us to absorb our vastinefficiencies in this area.

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Yeah David, the market will solve everything. So says Milton Friedman, a man whoneeded to be pimp slapped but never was.

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Wow! David managed to freak you libs out! It's just an opinion piece and he doesn'tdeserve the ad hominem attacks for expressing it. You're a fairly serious group. Please lighten up and remember: Stop searching for perfection--you'll be muchhappier. Cheers.

1 Like Reply

David Mamet: why I am now a retard

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Dec 3, 2013

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ronco99

ronco99

ajshinn

occupyconsciousnessn

morrissey11

Mar 9, 2014TheMouse

@applemask83 Goes to show you even liberals break their own rules byusing demeaning terms that are considered un-PC by the Left and callinghose who are mentally challenged "retards". Not even me, as a former

Liberal, would use that word. Then again, I've met plenty of socialist pigswho used "fag" and "homo" in my company.

Like Reply

No, just a plain ole pinhead. Calling any American president a tyrant is so

disingenuous.

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No, just a plain ole pinhead. What a putz!

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This is perhaps the most self-serving articles I've read in quite a while. The arroganceis dripping from Mamet's words. It's cool that his worldview has changed over yeyears. But all he does is resort to the same kind of cheap name-calling,misrepresentation and opinion-as-fact nonsense. No logic and no objective evidence

o support his newfound perspective. Just mindless drivel.

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did this !@# wad actually compare bush 2 to jfk??? he has lost his mind.

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Nov 13, 2013Antisthenes

@occupyconsciousnessn Amazing how open and logical the knee jerkliberal is? No? George Orwell warned us of creatures like you.

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Mamet's Chicago School "wake-up" call certainly hasn't helped his creative workany, which is perhaps instructive. Presumably he produced, what many regard as,his most insightful and enduring work when he was a "brain-dead" liberal, while hisrecent work is widely regarded as turgid drivel. The latter we now know was writtenunder the influence of all that Friedman and Sowell ("greatest contemporaryphilosopher? are you kidding me?"), which is useful to know, and may explain agood deal about an otherwise mystifying decline. Here we have yet more turgid drivelin essay form, in the trademark terse (or is that--now finally revealed to be--banal?)bursts, filled with the sort of whining and humorless "irritable bowel" self-righteousness that so often seems to typify this species of conservatism (Chaney'sa classic example, Rumsfeld, definitely Romney and Ryan, the talk jocks FlushLimpdick and Sean Insanity). You need to have a colonoscopy, David, you may haveulcers. Hard to stomach (!) this sort of thing really, post-2008. Where exactly doesMamet live these days? On which particular planet? Can't be close to downtown

Manhattan surely? Aside from the monstrous ethical failings of the "Lords of theFree Market" with whom Mamet now aligns himself, those same crooks andbuffoons also proved themselves to be just about as "brain dead" as it is possible toimagine (a little like the salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross--ooooh, who stole theleads, boys? That's a really hard one!). Still obscenely rich of course (and saved bya "free-market-interfering" government, no less--funny how they suddenly go all "nonlaissez-faire" at such times, eh?), but breathtakingly stupid for all that. Driving thewhole world economy into the wall like men who got into Ivy League BusinessSchools because of family connections but really weren't all that bright (no prizes for getting that allusion)--how's that for certifiable "brain death"? And as if to confirm justHOW brain dead these "realists" are, they cling on to the ridiculous notion that thedisease is the only cure for, well, the disease. Is it okay to conclude in the proper Mamet-esque style? I will anyway, and risk running foul of the moderator: David,you're starting to sound like a cock-sucking mothe-fucking idiot!

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Aug 2, 2013alabastard

@morrissey11 I think the entire array of juvenile, scatological huffing andpuffing in your own unhinged rant pretty much establishes you as beingunworthy of bringing any reasonable criticism to Mamet's essay. Thefact that you've barely created a single cogent point in all of those wordsconfirms it.

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blowmelibs

leslieann

Dec 18, 2013alak0926

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Dec 1, 2013wizardwerdna

alabastard I agree that his remarks were not written withalanced advocacy, but to say he didn't make a cogent pointwithout a single specific argument on your side, I will observe)sn't true. Still you shouldn't dismiss them:

) Mamet's most widely acclaimed works were written at theutset of his career, and were indictments of the cynicism andonsequences of naked capitalism. For those, he earned hisulitzer. His more recent works, inspired in part by his newonservative faith, have not been well-received.

) Considering Sowell 'the greatest contemporary philosopher's a clear ideology smell -- there is no serious way this pointan be sustained. Sowell is not a serious philosopher, andhile he writes about philosophers' ideologies (the book onarx being a keen example), his writings are not even serious

hilosophical criticism, let alone independent works of hilosophy. Sowell is a brilliant, well-educated and articulatean, a widely acclaimed columnist and economist. But he is

t best a wannabe as a philoospher.

) The use of the phrase "brain dead" is unfortunate, and notn adequate substitute for non-argument whether by Mamet or he OP. I believe the OP was trying to make that point.

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ell said. I wont try to top it.

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So Mr Mamet is now an economist, and can judge who is 'the greatestcontemporary philosopher' to boot, although said philosopher is more of aneconomist than a philosopher, which I guess makes it easier. Maybe he shoulddevote more of his energies to his plays, seeing as they haven't exactly been wildlysuccessful of late.

He might also tell us where he has found those liberals who endorse the slogan'Business Bad, Government Good', and who believe human beings are all basicallygood at heart. Except for President Assad and his henchmen, plus Pol Pot and theKhmer Rouge, obviously. And the Nazis. And the Fascists. And Lenin, Stalin andBeria, and a whole bunch of Communists. And King Leopold's administrators in Africa. Oh, and then there were those guys in the Inquisition, whom no-one expects,admittedly. Some of the Roman Emperors too. In fact, there's quite a long list of Really Not Very Nice People, and we've only just got started.

But of course liberals don't read Thomas Sowell, so they have these crazy ideashat, just as one branch of government should not be given all the political power, so

government needs to let businesses do their thing, but, given that the sole purposeof businesses is to make money, they need to be regulated, to some extent, by allhree branches of government, because otherwise—and this may come as a shocko Mr Mamet—they will, like Grünenthal, Enron, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros., the

BCCI, or Koch Enterprises, not come to a nice negotiated arrangement with us,hough they might do so with each other, producing, not a compromise, but a cabal.

No: they will capture government regulatory bodies and (as Mr Mamet might put it)exploit the f•ck out of the rest of us.

3 Like Reply

Seems like Mr Mamet has lived long enough to start seeing some truth. Good tohear and good to read about this conversion from fantasy to reality. I wish more onhe left would stop for a moment and examine their belief systems as he has.

Moreover, I would like to see some on the left pick up a book by Sowell, Friedman,or Steele and see how the other half lives and breathes. For them it may prove to bea breath of fresh air.

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This editorial was incredibly ponderous. I wonder what a free market playwright readsinto the fact that his latest play, The Anarchist, closed only one day after the officialopening. Your time is past, David. Accept it.

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Nov 13, 2013Antisthenes

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workmanbackup

ronbr2

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wizardwerdna

leavenart

@leslieann I guess Mamet will get the last laugh, he's as popular asever. You best get your hand out for your government cheque!

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@leslieann Antisthenes, you seem to be making it up as you go along.

His popularity waned after the late-90s. His Pulitzer was awarded for hisworks in the 80s, which he rode to get work until the late 20th century. His only 21st century work of note, Anarchist almost closed out of town,but absolutely came down for good in its first week.

No doubt his early work was pimp, and his associations with his first wife,Lindsay Crouse, William Macy and Joe Mantegna led to some amazingsynergies. His unique approach to dialogue inspired many modernscreenwriters and playwrights. That was then. No doubt he wrote a bit inhis century, but nothing approaching the level of critical appraisal of his

earlier works. Indeed, his most popular writing of recent note was the2011 screed announcing the history of his early 21st century discovery of conservatism.

Unless you mean that his earlier classic works, like Glen, remain popular,here is no support for your proposition that HE is popular as ever.

Can you provide any evidence to the contrary?

1 Like Reply

@leslieann If a failed attempt means so much to you, who do you listenoo? Look up the list of great playwrights and count their failures,... .... if

you can count that high.

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His name escapes me, but I recall hearing a liberal publicly say that on one thing hehad to admit, and that is from his observations, "Conservatives have a better understanding of human behavior". Coming to that conclusion makes me think thathe too, may be at the beginning of his journey to becoming more of a conservative.The deeper you think about it and the more you observe mankind the more youunderstand how much of liberal philosophy undermines the very hard wiredsubconscious essence of who and what we are. Humans don't only need to be fed

and kept warm. We have a certain pecking order that we establish subconsciouslywith each other just like other animals do. We need purpose in our lives and we havehrough tens of thousands of years developed transactional skills between us. We

instinctively have give and take attitude and each of us has something we can takeaway or offer to the other that usually keeps things in balance. We al have egos, andwe all have roles to play.

Related to all of this, while watching Book TV this morning, a very liberal author wasplugging her new book titled "The End of Men: And the Rise of Women". I thoughtabout how different I interpret the same information. Much of what she discusses isrue, but she can't see how big a role our government now has in our lives and the

impact this has. The government has not only become the elephant in the room inevery household in America, but in truth it's now the Alpha Male in every home. Ithas separated us all into groups and it, not the husband and father is the one whohas to be negotiated with. I first saw this happening when the state got more andmore involved in separation and divorces. There was no longer the balance of power hat keeps both parties reasonable and sane with each other. This argument goes

on and on, and and the consequences manifest themselves in many ways to eachand every group we are divided into. None of them service our needs as freeindividuals with hopes and dreams and aspirations nor our need to work and love andbe loved and simply do our job as a free human being.

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If you're not a liberal at twenty you don't have a heart . If you're not a conservative by40 you don't have a brain..........Churchil.

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Mar 29, 2014TrojanHorace

@ronbr2 two Ls in Churchill... who was a reactionary at twenty and acloset liberal at 60

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clive.younger

MysticMan

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If Mr. Mamet at one time truly believed that “everything is always wrong” then indeedhe truly deserved the self-imposed title of “brain dead liberal”. He goes on toillustrate that Washington politicians who are perfect beings willing to work tirelesslyand perfectly for the common good are an abstraction (which of course, such beingsare) without admitting that the Constitutional provisions for checks and balances topromote stasis don’t amount to much more than a historical abstraction when takenfrom the modern perspective. His viewpoint is a gross over-simplification, and asabstract to the modern reality of politics as an airplane made out of donut holes; sosimplistic in fact that I find it difficult to locate a single opportunity to acknowledge

any of his claims. He even throws in the term “Marxist ” as if that term has any sortof functional value to anyone except for some babble-mouthed, McCarthyist punditlooking to use emotionally laden catchphrases to scare up some ratings. “Marxist”is as anachronistic a term as “Whig”; it has absolutely zero bearing on modernpolicy, and as soon as someone utters the word, I have to wonder what they are upo. Static vs. mobile class systems? In stating that most Americans “probably will

change status more than once within [their] lifetime” Mamet is dead wrong. Thereality is that Americans think of themselves as far more mobile than they factuallyare. Research shows that most people start life in a specific income bracket andhen stay there, the single biggest determinant of one’s class identity as an adult

being his father’s occupation and income, not their education level or job. This isn’to connotatively suggest that “everything is always wrong”—the connotation here is

simply that relevant and complex social factors are at play and it is worthwhile toexamine them in order to find solutions that fit the complexit y of the problem. Thesolutions do not always call upon ever more zealous government interventions anymore than they always call upon ever freer markets, and a real solution likely liessomewhere cooperatively in between the two. Mamet is “hard-pressed to see an

instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow”? Dohe 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution mean anything to him?

The Social Security Act? The intervention of US military in fascist Italy andGermany (and the subsequent massive government trade deficits that bore us out of he Great Depression)? To hear Mr. Mamet make such base generalizations is t ruly

disappointing to me since I have such a great deal of respect for him as anintellectual and consider his social commentary to be typically peerless.Unfortunately, in this instance, Mamet gives himself exactly enough rope to hanghimself with—marking himself as out of touch in the process—but what is even moreegregious and counter-intuitive given his history is that he isn’t even slightlysophisticated, original, or deeply critical in his approach to being out of touch, whichis why I label him a “brain dead conservative”. All this Paul on the road toDamascus, scales falling away from the eyes, sudden conversion story leaves mewith is the impression that Mamet is politically naïve and should stick to what heknows best; crafting socially relevant stage productions with snappy dialogue—which apparently would sell more tickets if it weren’t for that pesky director foulingeverything up…

6 Like Reply

Jan 13, 2014leavenart

@clive.younger If you needed to impress, you could have used fewer words, but people of liberal bent need many words to allow for the nuancewhen challenged with actual events or facts.

This was simply about a man who sees things more practically as heages. You seem either young or attached to your need to seem relevant. All liberals experience this, and some come to see how elitis t is really is.

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I am also late to the conversation which I found mentioned in one of the onlineconservative magazines. I was looking for an enlightened reaction to Obama's victoryand not the "God sucks" response that babbled out of Glenn Beck's blazing mouthor other similar belches. However, after reading Mamet's epiphany, I realized I juststumbled upon another simplistic , historical moron. Over-simplification and blatantgeneralizations make me wonder, about the depth of his transformation. MiltonFriedman!!??? Paul Johnson? Mamet must be hanging with too many Americanbuffaloes and growing fat with lucre. You don't have to be a liberal to realize Mametis looking through the large end of the telescope.

4 Like Reply

Nov 8, 2012 jguild3

@MysticMan If you are really looking for enlightenment, then you woulddo well to re-read or at least review and understand all of the "great" or notable economists from Adam Smith to Marx, Keynes, Hayak, and yes,Friedman. There are others as well, and they have engaged in an ongoingdialogue, each building on the works that their predecessors left behind. Dismissing Friedman without logic or explanation makes you look asfoolish as Phil Donohue did when he thought he had t rapped Friedman ina logic corner, and then Friedman deftly sidestepped the trap and turned

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Nov 5, 2012miltonb1

Jan 13, 2014leavenart

he trap on Donohue -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76frHHpoNFs

In fact, find a youtube clip of Friedman that you can logically or factuallydisprove, if you can; I've watched over 20 clips and have yet to find onehat I have a serious problem with.

YouTube

3 Like Reply

@Myst icMan Oh, yes you do. ("have to be a liberal) But like all liberalsyou have this need to think every one actually agrees with you. We don't.

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1. This is what happens to many young liberals as they grow older and becomewealthy.

2. I don't know many liberals who believe everything is wrong.

3. Most people do not have the opportunity to experience more then one class in alife time.

4. This article is a severe case of projection as generalization for a whole society.

6 Like Reply

Nov 7, 2012mmsands

@miltonb1 This is what happens when young liberals try to join aconversation beyond their years and experience.

Incidentally, I'm not wealthy and yet feel exactly the same way Mr.Mamet does. As for having the opportunity to experience more than oneclass in a lifetime: in this country you have the option of making your ownopportunities -- or at least, you did up until now.

hen you're as good a writer and thinker as Mr. Mamet, try again.

4 Like Reply

Nov 9, 2012miltonb1

@mmsands @miltonb1

If I understand your reply to my comment you are under thempression that I am a young liberal. Your reply is exactly the

rojection I'm talking about. Hoping to not reveal too much of y identity I will give you some idea as to how off base your

ssumptions are. I am 64 years old and the son of immigrantsho came here in 1947 penniless. I have spent my entire adult

ife in the corporate world, most of it as a highly paid senior xecutive. As far as being a good writer is concerned, I am aublished writer who has won a few awards but gave up writingany, many years ago. I certainly did not get close to the

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Nov 7, 2012

Nov 10, 2012

michaeljsouth

bflake

uccess of Mamet. I never tried. But I'm sure we can agreehat today's successful artist could very well be forgottenomorrow. So if you are going to comment at least cut out thessumptions and insults.

6 Like Reply

@miltonb1 you know your number 3 item there? That kind of emo/tragic sounding lament about something high-falutin'ly called "lack of class mobility" or whatever? I would bet that THAT is precisely whatMamet was referring to in your item 2, how there's always some systemicproblem that's forcing people into the status quo.

Actually your 1 is probably also an example. This tragic thing wherepeople start out young and liberal and then they get old and wealthy. This is Something Wrong. and then you follow it up with your number hree how it's bad that that doesn't happen.

Everything is wrong. See?

1 Like Reply

Jan 31, 2013balzarfriesen

michaeljsouth @miltonb1 another confused southoner on't surprise many. Class, as in bucks and politics be twoifferent things, Bubba.

Like Reply

@miltonb1 RE: 3:) and under socialism no people will have any oportunityo experience more than one class.

2 Like Reply

Nov 12, 2012miltonb1

@bflake You're right. So let's make sure that the middlelass starts to grow again and people in poverty are given aetter opportunity to rise out of poverty.

3 Like Reply

Nov 12, 2012

Feb 6, 2013

May 10, 2013

Jun 8, 2013

michaeljsouth

w96ladypilot

jmacdougall

nanunanu

@miltonb1 @bflake Really, it would be just as good a titleo say "cold hearted liberal" as it is to have "brain-dead liberal"I realize, though, that the context in the article is a phraseamet jokingly applied to himself in the first place, and I don't

now at all whether he came to the same conclusion I'mointing out here]. My main objection to what liberals advocateolitically is the profound and long lasting damage it does tohe people they think they are trying to help.

2 Like Reply

eople in poverty will never rise out of poverty on the backs of he taxpayers, no matter how much they are taxed.

2 Like Reply

w96ladypilot People who rise out of poverty becomeaxpayers. It's called investing in the nation.

2 Like Reply

w96ladypilot A lot of the economic data indicates that theest way to help people out of poverty is to raise taxes on theich... not for the sake of adding that money to governmentoffers, but because if a rich person has a choice betweenaying a sum of taxes to the government or using it to grow hisusiness in a manner that functions as a tax write-off, he willenerally grow his business, and that will create jobs that can

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Nov 4, 2012g_love

Nov 20, 2012workmanbackup

ut people in poverty to work.

Like Reply

@miltonb1 I am 65 years old, and while I don't know of and studies toconfirm this or prove otherwise, from what I've seen I'd have to say it hasalways been common in America to experience more than one class inone's lifetime. I will agree with you this may be far less common now andin America's future. It's very difficult to leave the plantation.

1 Like Reply

Great article, David. I made a similar journey, but it focused more on liberty vs.yranny as I studied Constitutional Law in law school. I originally felt the government

could help those who needed help and I believed capitalism was inherently immoral.I still hold those opinions (ideologically) but you can't truly analyze the situationwithout thinking about freedom or liberty. If we support the government getting moreinvolved in our lives then we accept that the government is going to take more of our money and, more importantly, our freedom. If the government weren't corruptible thenI would be okay with that, but it is not. Risking our freedom is not worth anygovernment program. Capitalism, on the other hand, leaves people behind -regardless of the reason - some people just can't or won't compete at a basic level.That is sad and to support a system that "allows" that seems wrong. But, after life,liberty is our greatest right and Capitalism - with its problems - allows the mostliberty of any system of government or economics. So, while I am still not a huge fan

of Capitalism, I support it as the most appropriate and beneficial system available byfallible men and women.

1 Like Reply

Nov 4, 2012michaeljsouth

@g_love That's a very thoughtful analysis. In my opinion, capitalism--real, free-market capitalism, not the crony capitalism that the robber barons were participating in with their sweetheart government deals, etc--is the best system we are going to be abel to come up with given that wehave fallible human beings. The *best* system, in my opinion, might bedescribed as voluntary communism, where people of their own free willhave agreed to truly give to the best of their ability and only receiveaccording to their needs. You need virtuous people for this to work.

The benefit that capitalism provides is that if a person is not virtuous, theystill have a motivation to make the best product they can--perform to thebest of their ability, and be productive--simply to enjoy the benefits of theprofits that can be made from that.

Similarly, customers can be entirely selfish--refuse to pay any more thanhey absolutely have to for something, mercilessly switch to a competitor

if they offer something better at a lower price--and it encourages virtuousbehavior on the other side, offering customers more for less, etc.

There is, of course, the question of what happens to people who don'thave a marketable skill, etc . The only answer for that (besides the facthat the market is going to be the most efficient way of providing

_something_ for people to do, so there might be, under a complete freemarket, a lot more opportunity than we see now where we take thesepeople out of the equations by giving them alternate streams of support),in the end, is compassion. No system is going to work well if people are,generally, bad.

You have to have at least partly good people, or at least part of your people have to be good, or you won't have a good system. There is noway around it. The beauty of capitalism is that it _can_ work withoutcompletely virtuous people. That makes it an incredible system, one tobe celebrated.

But as human beings we should realize that we have the capability of being more than animals, and not just taking the shortest path topleasure every time it is presented. We should choose this, because, inhe end:

There is no virtuous way to force people to be virtuous.

Again, thanks , g_love, for your thoughtful exploration of this idea.

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Anyway--just wanted to say hi, express my support, and mention those videos. (Another great primer is "Philosophy of Liberty", also on youtube.)

I hope you'll be writing more on this topic, and that I get a chance to see your play.

1 Like Reply

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David Mamet_ Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' _ Village Voice

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