The star writer of stage and screen explains “Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal'” to the Village Voice. The Anchoress now dubs Mamet a “classical liberal.”
That term is likely to explode the head of former Village Voice campaign correspondent Rick Perlstein. Then again, Perlstein once called Andrew Sullivan “gauzy,” so perhaps he should lay off labeling others himself. Perlstein will not take that advice, of course. David Mamet could tell you why.
(h/t HotAir.)
Bush stole the election, outed a CIA agent, lied about military service, etc. Not sure I’m ready to say Mr. Mamet’s brain is alive just yet. But big picture-wise, perhaps there is a faint logical heartbeat.
OT, but I saw this over at HA and I was reminded of nishi’s argument that sexual morality was an outdated “xian” concept. I guess 25% and higher rate of sexual diseases in girls is part of our brave new world?
not a bad essay. I dont agree with it all, but then he set it up so that we shouldn’t. A pretty devastating depiction of his synogogue, to be sure.
McGruder – I was rude to you previously, and clearly, you were not deserving of that. My apologies.
The rest of you are racist, sexist, gleenophobic bigots.
;-)
LionDude stole my thunder. It sounds like Mamet may be just bright enough to have awakened and smelled the coffee, as it were, as he did make a number of good points. But if he still actually believes that drivel about “Bush stole/lied/outed/etc/ad nauseam”, he still has a way to go in his emotional and intellectual maturity, regardless of what The Anchoress may say about his being a “classical liberal”.
It takes a big man to come clean in public like this. Whatever quibbles we might find in Mamet’s essay, he deserves a great deal of respect for the way he’s done this.
David Mamet is one of those people I like whether he’s liberal or not. He is one of those people that are just cooler than I am, even if I get a Wii and let my friend Julia pick out my clothes.
One problem is that many people in the early part of the last century decided that human institutions went bad because humans were bad; and then they decided that the best solution was to get rid of the bad humans and make new humans. Rather than channel the bad in service of the good, they decided to just remove the bad and make a world of true Aryans or New Soviet Men, who would automatically be good.
Thankfully, Mr. Mamet has decided that road isn’t one he should go down.
#6
Yes. A very standup thing to do. Especially for a New Yorker. He is going to be vilified by the ‘salon’ for this.
Well, he didn’t jettison all of the New York leftie meme, so maybe his cohorts will go easy on him…
Bravo, Mr. Mamet. Even if you only move to left of center, it is an improvement. Kindly tell that jackass Perlstein how wrong he is next time you see him.
This will probably put him on the outs with Ricky Jay. Or maybe Jay will finally come around, too.
And I agree with hf: I’ve been a fan of Mamet’s mannered literary output for some time now, counting his House of Games, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Spanish Prisoners as among some of my favorite films. Nice to see he’s a bit of a thinker, as well.
It’s always confused me how the proto-libertarians of the 60s could grow up to become the nannystatist totalitarians of the latest “progressive” movement. Turns out that the answer is that most of them were simply in it for the sex and sexiness right from the get go. And probably the beads, too, come to think on it.
My main motivation for posting this — aside from admiration for some of Mamet’s work — was to draw out our esteemed host, so I feel like I’ve accomplished something today. Besides a HotAir-lanche.
Mamet isn’t good at this. But he knows he needs to try. So, good.
Every woman loves a fascist. –some dead art chick
But almost every man who’s not some kind of nazi isn’t one only because being one doesn’t get you laid (currently).
But today’s nazis aren’t very fascist.
But almost everyone else is.
So.
I just took the Bush stole/CIA/ANG etc. as Mamet describing the set lib talking points.
The best part was the comments most were trying and failing to be Mamet-like. Hilarious.
I don’t unnerstand where the other post went. The Ferraro thinger. I hate when that happens. It’s like when I had to close my eyes during Cloverfield cause I was freaking nauseous and I missed what happened to that one girl, which is probably ok, being that I was freaking nauseous, but this is different, cause of the UR thing and all.
alpuccino – I liked the “tolerant” moonbat that called itself Elvis McElvisberg. Was that you?
I wish.
David Mamet turns a page
Heh.
Elvis McElvisberg seemed to be so far over the top you could not tell if it was a parody, or datadave’s long lost twin brother, separated at birth, but equally batty.
JD-were cool; it happens.
no worries.
mamet’s essay took balls, and i shall try and support that with some principled dvd rentals
Yeah, I know, Mcgruder. Sometimes I can be salty. Usually it is only warranted, but at times, there is some inadvertant friendly fire. And it is rare when I actually apologize, so smile.
Racists.
He probably was in moonbat phase, when he did Spartan, a story about a presidential daughter, kidnapped and sold to Arab slavetraders; with th complicity of said president. His show, the Unit, has possibly the best depiction(with exception of NCIS) of the American fighting manwith the odd exception of the first two episodes that went all moonbat, framing the Delta type unit, to cover up the premature terminationof ‘innocent’Arab
detainees at Gitmo, due to Fmr. Sgt. Eric Haney’s own leftist predilictions.
Not a bad reading list. Wonder if Mamet’s picked up Jonah Goldberg yet.
Maybe, Jonah has slimmed down quite a bit of late…
phat laugh.
“Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher)”
He was a liberal? He sure fooled me. American Buffalo was about the ‘goodness of man’? or that one about the drunk, craven salesmen? A local Vermont Chicago-based journalist disses Mamet all the time as he’s jealous being a failed novelist but with some personal observations of Mamet’s lack of manly competition in the real hard knock world in Chicago and also for Mamet’s “luck”. (name slips me but Dan’s probably knows him on TV’s Vermont Today.) Mamet pretends to be tough but was by all accounts a nerd when younger. Mamet’s got a summer home in Vermont. He’s a potty-mouth cynic with not much to offer being that he never worked that hard. That essay is so tepid and shallow..like he’s finally figured out separation of powers in late middle age? Very clever.
one can see a Norman Mailer copycat here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbelt
dude, former mama’s boy turns tough. Middle aged tough guy! Jeff’s God, no offense.
Admittedly American Buffalo left such a bad taste I might have to recheck Mamet’s later works and Thomas Sowell too. I kind of like Sowell’s writing but not his arguments. He’s in the newspapers quite a bit.
Vermont this Week.
Peter Freyne.
Karl and Jeff:
You’ve probably already seen it, but I followed one of the Mamet comments to Evan Sayet’s speech, “How a Modern Liberal Thinks.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c [Sorry, I don’t know how to do the embedded URL thingy.]
It is an insightful address which buttresses many of the things I have learned here at PW.
Can anyone translate this out of “retard gibberish”? I think I know what the moron’s saying, but I can’t see how it matters what some nobody thinks of Mamet.
go back to the crawford ranch, all shat, no pissle. anyway, I thought maybe dan knew the guy above….a messege not for some cowpoke in Texass.
besides you’re a nobody too. Mamet, the genius, never went to a Prostitute perhaps? I did once.
She wouldn’t let you come back for another? Why am I not surprised?
Mamet’s “great essay†is full of convoluted half truths, ignorance, and several outright lies  much like you would expect from the neocons.
Hollywood’s Newest Neo-Con: David Mamet Chugs the Kool-Aid