David Mamet Explains His Shift to the Right

[cali]

By ANDREW GOLDMAN
Published: May 27, 2011


While reading your new book, “The Secret Knowledge,” I thought, My God, in crucifying liberals, this guy is going to infuriate a huge chunk of the people who pay money to see plays. Are you concerned that you’re alienating your public?
I’ve been alienating my public since I was 20 years old. When “American Buffalo” came out on Broadway, people would storm out and say, “How dare he use that kind of language!” Of course I’m alienating the public! That’s what they pay me for.

Years ago, you described “American Buffalo” as being about “how we excuse all sorts of great and small betrayals and ethical compromises called business.” In this book, you defend enormous payouts to C.E.O.’s working for failing corporations. You seem to have changed radically.
I have. Here’s the question: Is it absurd for a company to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to a C.E.O. if the company is failing? The answer is that it may or may not be absurd, but it’s none of our goddamned business. Because as Milton Friedman said, the question is not what are the decisions but who makes the decisions. Because when the government starts deciding what’s absurd, you’re on the road to serfdom.

<snip>

You wrote that Karl Marx “never worked a day in his life.” But how is his writing “Das Kapital” fundamentally different from the way you make a living? You realize you’re not a plumber, right?
Jesus Christ. Listen, here’s the thing about an English degree — if you sat somebody down and asked them to make a list of the writers they admire over the last hundred years, see how many of them got a degree in English.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/magazine/david-mamet-talks-about-his-shift-to-the-right.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. Real answer: I'm well-off and hang out with rich people now. They finance my plays (which suck

more than they used to also....because i no longer have anything interesting to say since adopting a ruling class pov)

[joentokyo]

5. You have absolutely defined his change correctly!

[Johonny]

13. +1

[WCGreen]

21. +2

Cranky old fart...

[RandomThoughts]

2. There is an interesting comment in there.

The comment that it is not anyone's business how some business spends its money.

That is a thought built from a flawed axiom of thinking the 'capitalist system' is perfect, and as it distributes, so someone owns.

To say a 'business' or any private sector, or even person, can do with any money they can get, what ever they want, implies the money is theirs, but if you go back a level in that argument, you can show they never earned, it nor deserved it, and in many cases did much wrong to get it.

Unless they claim they have it by divine distribution, an excuse used often. However by making that claim, they also define what actions they believe the divine favors, and what they think the divine is.



And I am due beer and travel money, so they don't have a case anyways.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Interesting Is A Most Kind Adjective

I would have used the descriptor "idiotic".
GAC

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Man, What A Duplicitous Jerk

A slimy, slippery answer for everything as long as he can justify his jerkiness.
GAC

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[Golden Raisin]

7. The "uh-oh" tip-off

(as well as the taste of vomit which filled my mouth) was when I got to, "Because as Milton Friedman said..."

[GCP]

8. I liked this comment from Jim in Boston

Hot air is still hot air whether it's blowing from the left or the right. Maybe the problem is that he stopped drinking and reading newspapers. Now he's still grumpy and ill informed as well.

[progressoid]

24. This is a good one too:

Hilarious. He found Ayn Rand after many of us his age became enamored of her and then grew up -- 45 years ago.

[Generic Brad]

9. I used to admire Mamet

But now he is nothing more than the Dennis Miller of playwrights - a sell out and a pale imitation of his earlier self.

[Paladin]

10. Douchebag (n/t)

[LeftishBrit]

11. To summarize it more succinctly:

'Then, I was poor. Now I'm rich. I'm all right Jack, and to Hell with everyone who isn't!'

[MorningGlow]

12. I has a sad

Mamet used to be my all-time favorite playwright; I acted in one of his plays in college, and I did my senior thesis on his artful use of profanity. I am now accepting applications for the position of MG's Favorite Playwright. :(

[Skidmore]

14. Never heard of him.

[jorno67]

15. Fuck you David Mamet

He hasn't written anything good in a long time anyway. If I want edgy theatre I look to Sam Shepard and John Patrick Shanley.

[DavidDvorkin]

16. Never thought much of him as a writer

And now I think little of him as a human being.

Karl Marx worked as a journalist and did so in a foreign country. I suspect he had to work reasonably hard to make a living.

[senseandsensibility]

17. TAXPAYER MONEY WAS USED TO SAVE THESE JERKS

And now we're just supposed to roll over and take it? We paid for them to stay in business. What is it about that idiots like this don't understand?

[Marr]

18. Actually, you're "heading to serfdom" when those failing companies

are so grafted onto your government that they can run one careless Ponzi scheme after another on Wall Street, assured of a taxpayer bailout when the music stops playing.

His opinion would be more interesting if he showed some sign of understanding the systems he's supporting.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

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[Canuckistanian]

20. He sounds like he delights in pissing people off

It takes precedence over any kind of personal belief or political position.

These are the people I despise the most.

[RagAss]

22. An American Assclown !

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

23. It becomes our business when we BAIL THEM OUT

Fuck you, asshole. Guess you finally entered the magic tax bracket that allows you to be a stupid selfish fuck.

[BeyondGeography]

25. He always had a thing for cruelty

[Blue-Jay]

26. That answers the question "What does David Mamet think about stuff".

Thank you, Mr. Mamet! I was going crazy about what you think about stuff. Now I can sleep easy.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. Never heard of him.