David Mamet wrote of his transition from 'braindead liberal' to apparently 'more braindead conservative' in the Village Voice. His transition is being lauded in the Comments section of the Village Voice online for his enlightenment by the online conservatives, and Drudge has a link to it. I'm sure he'll get plenty of invites to Dick Cheney's ranch now, and he seems quite pleased with himself now. No big loss for the progressive side.
But so much of what he says is misguided, or misleading. More after....
Having seen him on Bill Maher's HBO show last season, one could tell Mamet had taken a Dennis Miller-esque turn to the right. His Manichean world view became apparent, and he drew a line in the sand for Jewish people (like myself, I ought to reveal) and their level of religiosity. It was like Heidi Klum saying 'you either in, or you out'. You're either a hardcore religious Jew, or you're a waste. It was a tad off-putting, cocky, and smug. Like most religious zealouts.
His newfound respect for his 'conservative rabbi' (which he discusses frankly in his latest piece) might have something to do with his more militant religious views (he labels NPR as 'National Palestinian Radio-- without backing any of it up with evidence of bias on NPR's part)....and his newfound respect for Milton Friedman and for George W. Bush.
I went to grad school for Theater, and Mamet was one of the more vital writers around at the time, the early 90's. Not the best, imo, but he certainly captured the cynical side of mankind. I think that suits his new found world view. But to clear up some of his misconceptions..
"I found not only that I didn't trust the current government (that, to me, was no surprise), but that an impartial review revealed that the faults of this president—whom I, a good liberal, considered a monster—were little different from those of 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 book written by Ted Sorenson. Bush was in bed with the Saudis, Kennedy with the Mafia. Oh."
Lies. JFK didn't GET us into Vietnam. We were already there. He escalated it, yes. But that is very deceptive, simplistic language on the part of a supposed wordsmith. Kennedy didn't leave hundreds of CIA agents to die-- he allowed Cuban refugees who were part of an operation that was well underway before he came to office to proceed, as ill planned as it was. So big deal, eh? The sins of Kennedy's 3 years negate the sins of Bush's 7 plus years-- while he conveniently ignores the fact that we were attacked under Bush's watch, the economy has tanked, our debt is owned by China, Bush has divided the country-- but hey, it's all the same. Don't worry about Civil Liberties-- just keep making fun of NPR and how 'braindead' people who value the Bill Of Rights really are.
"And I began to question my hatred for "the Corporations"—the hatred of which, I found, was but the flip side of my hunger for those goods and services they provide and without which we could not live."
Sounds like he did a lot of research. Doubt he lives in Alaska-- wonder if he might have a problem with Exxon's refusal to pay families for damages done because they were too cheap to get a double hulled oil tanker. I feel like Ralph Nader might have a few moer examples. And no liberal that i know is going to say that every corporation is BAD. That is wrong for him to imply.
No liberal is saying that people are inherently good. In this progressive/ liberal's opinion, though I'm libertarian on a host of issues when it comes to Civil LIberties, which shows how meaningless Mamet's labels can be, it is BECAUSE people can be so called 'swine' (a claim he makes repeatedly in this article) that is why we need democratically elected government regulators. He seems to think gov't intervention is now the problem. Doesn't mention Lincoln Savings and Loan. Doesn't mention Enron. Doesn't mention Mike Milken or a host of other proofs that deregulation comes at a terrible cost sometimes.
Anyway, it's late. I have an audition in five hours and I've been procrastinating studying my lines. Mamet should keep pumping up his ego and writing whatever plays he writes. Ann Coulter will have seats waiting at the box office, I"m sure.