David Mamet and Political Views

There’s an essay over at The Vil­lage Voice that you want to read before it goes away:
“Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Lib­er­al’ ” by David Mamet Here’s a brief excerpt.

This is, to me, the syn­the­sis of this world­view with which I now found myself dis­en­chant­ed: that every­thing is always wrong.

But in my life, a brief review revealed, every­thing 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 var­i­ous times a part.

And, I won­dered, how could I have spent decades think­ing that I thought every­thing 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 ques­tion what I actu­al­ly thought and found that I do not think that peo­ple are basi­cal­ly good at heart; indeed, that view of human nature has both prompt­ed and informed my writ­ing for the last 40 years. I think that peo­ple, in cir­cum­stances of stress, can behave like swine, and that this, indeed, is not only a fit sub­ject, but the only sub­ject, of drama.

Some thought-pro­vok­ing stuff in there. It’s good to see some­one brave enough to change his views and talk about it polit­i­cal­ly. Since I con­sid­er the Voice a very lib­er­al pub­li­ca­tion, it’s espe­cial­ly inter­est­ing to see the piece there.

Cyn is Rick's wife, Katie's Mom, and Esther & Oliver's Mémé. She's also a professional geek, avid reader, fledgling coder, enthusiastic gamer (TTRPGs), occasional singer, and devoted stitcher.
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One thought on “David Mamet and Political Views

  1. It seems that this essay is some­thing lib­er­al to the point that the per­son who writes it has lost its trust with men in gen­er­al. He might have suf­fered from some­thing dark in his com­mu­ni­ty or per­haps the peo­ple who are around him were cru­el. I think that there is indeed a bad side with men in gen­er­al but if we look at it we can say that is the essence of being human. Even God knows that men have neg­a­tive traits but tend to accept there mis­takes as well as this things because he knows that not all peo­ple have bad side they tend to have on when pro­voke or in some sit­u­a­tion but I always tend to remem­ber that there is always good­ness in even those bad peo­ple as well.

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