David Mammet on His Conversion to Conservatism

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Speaking with Rush Limbaugh on his new book: www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595230769?ie=UTF8&tag=theofficiw0c2-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1595230769

"My interest in politics began when I noticed that I acted differently than I spoke, that I had seen 'the government' commit sixty years of fairly unrelieved and catastrophic error nationally and internationally, that I not only hated every wasted hard-earned cent I spent in taxes, but the trauma and misery they produced..."

For the past thirty years, David Mamet has been a controversial and defining force in theater and film, championing the most cherished liberal values along the way. In some of the great movies and plays of our time, his characters have explored the ethics of the business world, embodied the struggles of the oppressed, and faced the flaws of the capitalist system.

But in recent years Mamet has had a change of heart. He realized that the so- called mainstream media outlets he relied on were irredeemably biased, peddling a hypocritical and deeply flawed worldview. In 2008 he wrote a hugely controversial op-ed for The Village Voice, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain- Dead Liberal,'" in which he methodically eviscerated liberal beliefs. Now he goes much deeper, employing his trademark intellectual force and vigor to take on all the key political and cultural issues of our times, from religion to political correctness to global warming. A sample:

The problems facing us, faced by all mankind engaged in Democracy, may seem complex, or indeed insolvable, and we, in despair, may revert to a state of wish fulfillment-a state of "belief" in the power of the various experts presenting themselves as a cure for our indecision. But this is a sort of Stockholm Syndrome. Here, the captives, unable to bear the anxiety occasioned by their powerlessness, suppress it by identifying with their captors.

This is the essence of Leftist thought. It is a devolution from reason to "belief," in an effort to stave off a feeling of powerlessness. And if government is Good, it is a logical elaboration that more government power is Better. But the opposite is apparent both to anyone who has ever had to deal with Government and, I think, to any dispassionate observer.

It is in sympathy with the first and in the hope of enlarging the second group that I have written this book.

Mamet pulls no punches in his art or in his politics. And as a former liberal who woke up, he will win over an entirely new audience of others who have grown irate over America's current direction.
About the Author
David Mamet is an acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, film director, and essayist. Some of his most famous works include the films The Untouchables, The Verdict, and Wag the Dog, the last two nominated for an Academy Award, and many plays, including American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

[swamp]

There's nothing more annoying than a newly sober drunk...............

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Jun 10, 2011 13:20:56 GMT -5 swamp said:

There's nothing more annoying than a newly sober drunk...............

Perhaps. But they give hope to people stuck in the muck that it can be done.

[EVT1]

Even talented people can be misguided. Like his movies though.

[swamp]

Jun 10, 2011 13:23:23 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Jun 10, 2011 13:20:56 GMT -5 swamp said:

There's nothing more annoying than a newly sober drunk...............

Perhaps. But they give hope to people stuck in the muck that it can be done.

And irritate the rest of us.

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Jun 10, 2011 14:23:01 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Even talented people can be misguided. Like his movies though.

Yep. Fortunately, he's come around.

[marshabar1]

Awesome interview! Some liberals may actually read his book because he is a highly respected extremely talented man. What a miracle. I wonder who was the conservative man to whom he listened.

[Deleted]

I have to disagree with statements like:
Yep. Fortunately, he's come around.
Awesome interview! Some liberals may actually read his book because he is a highly respected extremely talented man. What a miracle. I wonder who was the conservative man to whom he listened
Because:
It would have been fortunate had he come around BEFORE he helped mold a generation of young liberals.
I doubt that he listened to a conservative. From what I've seen you have to grow into being a conservative. Getting old sometimes helps because some people mature mentally (some never do).

Anyway Hollywood is mostly liberal & that's the word they spread. We need to get back to making movies with conservative themes & that teach the difference between good & bad. We got away from them in the past & I think that's a big reason society is the way it is. When's the last time you saw someone working hard to bring in a crop & maybe even defending his land (in a new movie)? They didn't go "Oh well the crops dead so I guess the government will have to feed me". No, they found a way to survive. Society doesn't do that anymore.

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Jun 10, 2011 15:46:54 GMT -5 @marshabar1 said:

Awesome interview! Some liberals may actually read his book because he is a highly respected extremely talented man. What a miracle. I wonder who was the conservative man to whom he listened.

The conservative man to whom he listened was him. Like most people, he didn't really 'become' conservative, he discovered it inside of himself. These ideas are inspired of God, they are inside all of us because our Creator put them there.