Why Mamet's no longer a liberal

David Mamet, a lifelong liberal, began writing a play about politics. And guess what happened?

Mamet's November centres on the argument between:

A president who is self-interested, corrupt, suborned, and realistic, and his leftish, lesbian, utopian-socialist speechwriter.

And he found his own politics shifting, shifting, shifting:

I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philospoher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson and Shelby Steele, and a host of conservative writers, and found that I agreed with them: a free-market understanding of the world meshes more perfectly with my experience than that idealistic vision I called liberalism.

Comments

[John Allen]

Please. Most of the people he names are liberals. Are we going to go the same way as America and always say 'liberal' when we mean 'left wing'?

[Marilyn Terrell]

A brilliant and funny essay. Thanks for linking to it. None of the major news sources in the US have dared to!

[Mary Tovey]

Americans and their obsession with anything "liberal" fascinate me. They don't know the difference between a socialist or any left leaning person and a communist, and frequently label anyone who expresses a belief that wealthy people should pay more taxes,or that a free medical system for all that is paid for from taxes is the fairest and most humane way to go - is a communist, a person to be attacked, belittled and denigrated beyond all reason.
I thank God I live in a country that used the British Parliamentary system as it's guide to decency,fairplay and justice.
Our elections are run by the Commonwealth Electoral office not by
states and party leaders who change rules and leave their election of government open to all kinds of gerry mandering and skullduggery.
There is nothing wrong with having a point of view that favours taking care of the have nots first, is why America has so many people living below the breadline, so many homeless, and prisons full to overflowing.

[David Ippolito]

The far left view of the world is nothing more than a political "religion". Far left views are more emotional than rationale. I say that because its proponents and their views cannot stand up to scrutiny and are not open for civil debate. Thos who question their assumptions are attacked and then labeled as some kind of social perirah. Once they've labeled their critics - the can be marginalized. Mr. Mamet and Mr. David Horowitz have much in common - courage and integrity - to be willing and able to weather the rath of their liberal friends They should write a book together.

[GHL]

Reply to Mary Tovey: by the Lisbon Treaty you are nothing but a state. Your responsive government won't even let you vote on whether to lose your rights, freedoms. That's New Labour for you, liberal, socialist. Your British Parliamentary system you think so highly of just sold you out. You will be a third world "state" soon unless the House of Lords saves your backside.

[Don]

"wealthy people should pay more taxes"

The differences between the US and the UK aren't quite as pronounced as one might think. Ask yourself whether the rich actually DO pay more in tax in the UK than in the US. I suspect the difference is very little if one counts all taxes. Consider the council tax for an example. Capped at a low level no matter how outrageous the value of a property has become. Most locales in the US have no such cap on the property tax. Also consider the 10% tax rate on capitalists here, which ensures that they pay less on their incomes than their domestic servants pay on theirs.

The UK tax burden is notably higher than in the US, but that burden falls upon the working class, middling classes, ranging up to the moderately rich. As in most countries the truly rich have their ways of escaping the tax burden in the UK no less than the US....

[David Brown]

Isn't Mamet simply the last in a long line of intellectuals, who having made a lot of money out of radical journalism or drama, now find themselves with a comfortable or even wealthy lifestyle, and suddenly "discover" they are right-wingers after all? Marx would have called it class interest...

[Stephen Fox]

To add to what GHL says, perhaps it has escaped Mary Tovey's notice, but under the system she is so proud of the Labour government has absolutely engaged in gerrymandering, so that the Conservatives would need a considerable majority of votes to win as many seats as Labour. Governments always do it as soon as they get power.
And if we voted in a 'leftleaning' government in 1997, we now apparently have the highest tax regime in Europe, a hectoring nanny-state, and a culture of cringing appeasement and self hatred so pathetic that a quarter of a million indigenous Britons leave every year.
Like Mamet, I was brought up as a leftwing person, and like him, I have changed my mind. I've thrown away my telly so as not to have to pay the BBC licence fee, and listen less and less to the radio, because our so-called 'national treasure' epitomises that self-hating, cringing culture, and I just don't want to hear it anymore.

[Fernandez]

Mamet has thrown away the popular slogans of youth and started thinking. Congratulations.

(And, why shouldn't he use the word 'Liberal' with a capital L in the American sense, he is an American.)

Mary Tovey - Congratulations on your British Parliamentary System. "Our elections are run by the Commonwealth Electoral office not by states and party leaders who change rules and leave their election of government open to all kinds of gerry mandering and skullduggery."

Tell me, when did you elect Gordon Brown? Or did that have somthing to do with party leaders? The EU Constitution, erm, Lisbon Treaty, when's the referendum? No skullduggery or changing rules there, eh? Lecture Americans on democracy when you live in one, luv.

[jon livesey]

The way I read the interview, he became more conservative once he began to think.

[Jack MacDaddy]

Good on you Stephen, I pray that there are more of us. However, it's wrong just to tune out and drop out, it's important that the voice of dissent is heard somehow: the internet may be one of those ways, but it shouldn't replace human contact; good old fashioned face to face debate; and the cameraderie of a public march in protest!

Certainly, Telly is one of the great socially destructive forces of the modern world; fortunately, BBC ratings - and to an extent all non-internet media ratings (other than radio) are in freefall.
Technology is a double-edged sword though: it offers the democracy of a pure laissez-faire market; but also opportunities for Orwellian state data-mining and dissent disruption and suppression. Hopefully the human spirit shall triumph nevertheless.

[Clare]

Interesting post. Having spent some time in the US, some "liberals" I came across actually were socialists. They belived in a nationalised health service and the re-distribution of wealth. They were too frightened to use the term. The term socialist has been used though in some US films and tv shows- so parts of the US media are happy to use the word.

[J Cline]

Good for Mamet. I hope he absolutely skewers the self-hating, class-warring traitors on the Left, for whom our own cultures are always the greatest evil.

[gareth d]

Conservative at 18 - No Heart, Socialist at 40 No Head

George Bernard Shaw I believe

[andy o'donnell]

A free market understanding of the world is as Utopian as any liberal dream. No more no less.The concept of a free market is the most liberal of all ideas.Free from government shoring up failed banks, free from goon squads breaking up worker strikes. Free to chose not restricted by monopolies.
No gated communities, no restricted beach fronts, yes a wonderful idea.The rich free to sleep under bridges just like the poor. Wonderful. Free to down load and enjoy... I could go on but I must work since I am not free to refuse to pay taxes.

[US Tax Payer]

I don't understand the belief that the wealthy in the US don't pay more than the middle or lower income earners.

The bottom 50% of taxpayers only pay 3% of the federal income tax, which means the top 50% pay 87% of the federal income tax, and the top 1% pay almost 40% of all federal income taxes.

If we want to tax the rich, tax the billionaires who pay next to nothing in taxes because they shelter it in trusts that their current and future family members will live off almost tax free.

Most of these same billionaires complain that the rich don't pay enough in taxes, when they are freely able to right a check to the Treasury anytime they like, but instead they shelter their money in family trusts to escape the death tax.

[Bernard Kells]

So many wrong-headed comments about distinctions between "Left" and "Liberal". What Mamet has realised is what some of us have always known. Liberals believe humankind is perfectible. We on the right know that it is not. That is the only difference that matters -- the rest is smoke and foolishness.

[Peter Bolt]

One of the truly great myths of the last 150+ years is that left wing & liberal policies are the "friend" of the poor and Trade Unions are the "warriors for the working class"
Utter nonsense The only trouble is
I also believed that for the first 60 of my 70 years.
For that I blame my (grammar school)education.

[Guessedworker]

I agree wholehearted, with John Allen.

The zeitgeist is to individualism. All is liberalism, and has been since the Reform Act. In Coningsby Disraeli recast the antecedents of true Conservatism as a Burkean liberalism of the right - something no staunch Tory would have ever conceived.

The direct consequence today - disastrous for us in so many ways - is that we have a choice only between left-liberalism (social democracy, pursuit of radical self-authorship) and right-liberalism (free market capitalism, pursuit of happiness)

It is Conservatism we should be careful about naming.

[Mike Schinkel]

Reply to David Ippolito:

Don't you find it just a tad ironic how you state that "the far left" labels "those who question their assumptions" and "attack(s) them ... as some kind of social perirah(misspelling yours)" yet you employ the label of "liberal?" Since right-leaners have banded together to use the term "liberal" to demonize anyone that disagrees with *their* assumptions, seems to me a textbook case of collectively "marginalizing" anyone whose views differ from *your* own.

Looks like the pot is calling the kettle black.

[Dunmatime]

Power and money corrupt. The radicalism of youth becomes tainted by the self interest of maturity rather than a dispassionate assessment of political theory. Communism, socialism, Christianity all creeds that require self sacrifice fail because of the inherent self-interest and greed of man, it is in the genes.

[joey big time]

So unhindered free-market capitalism would have provided work place safety laws? How about paid lunches and breaks? Vacations? Child birth leave? Police & fire departments? Clean water? Universal education? I don't think so. We would live in a world of corporate fiefdom's, unfortunately close to what we seem to be moving towards now. Mamet is brain-dead if he can't see the world around him and that government forces liberalism for the benefit of all .i.e., the great equalizer.

[Owen]

For goodness sake, this endless American obsession with the 'liberal threat'.. Has it occured to you that it's the Republicans who've been screwing America for the past 8 years??

[Snorri Godhi]

The most revealing line in Mamet’s essay is this:
"As a child of the ’60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt".

There you see the cognitive dissonance that American "liberals" suffer from: they believe that government is corrupt, and yet they want more of it. That is why I can understand how thinking persons could be communists, but not how they can be "liberals": you can say what you want about the commies, but they don’t have to deal with cognitive dissonance; they just have to ignore the facts, which is much easier and less stressful.

It goes without saying that true liberals, as opposed to "liberals", generally don't have to deal with either cognitive dissonance or inconvenient facts.

[Dan W.]

I think David Mamet is by far the most overrated American playwright.

The "f-word" does not create character. It is the laziest form of playwrighting.

Conservatives can have him.

[harry wolf]

So Mamet is rich now and becomes a Right Winger.
What a surprise.

Now he's rich, the mob may attack his palace any day - better suck up to the Bosses for protection.
Yawn.

[Guy Fox]

Here in the U.$. the word liberal has become synonymous with Satan worshipper. That's one of the reasons why George W. Bush is President. The other reason is that most Amerikans are clueless and ignorant... which further explains the invasion and occupation of "Iraq-nam" and "the great fatness" burning plastic into bankruptcy in the $hopping malls. Rome is burning... and it wasn't the liberals who lit the match.

[wilfred knight]

Mamet is belatedly recognizing the truth .
Churchill said it years ago :
" If a man is not a liberal when he is twenty, he has no heart,
If he's not a conservative when he is forty, he has no brain.".

[Sam]

Reply to Joey Big Time

Quite possibly yes. Particularly if that is generally what people want.

What you may well not be considering is: what is given up in respect of each of those things that you seem to be classifying as automatically "good"? (I'm not saying they are not desirable, just that they are not free.)

A libertarian world would be tremendously more wealthy for starters (note that most libertarians would want there to be a minimal level of government, including police depts and courts).

By the way, I disagree with your corporate fiefdoms concept. Look around and you will see that (unless they are really doing a good job) large corporations need to be propped up by the State to remain powerful through subsidies or barriers to entry to prevent competition.

[terry sullivan]

why should council tax be related to house value? it is a service charge. income tax taxes wealth

[verver tam]

"Isn't Mamet simply the last in a long line of intellectuals, who having made a lot of money out of radical journalism or drama, now find themselves with a comfortable or even wealthy lifestyle, and suddenly "discover" they are right-wingers after all? Marx would have called it class interest..."

or perhaps they just have experienced a bit of the real world and its demands. and have gained a bit of wisdom.

the young are easily fooled. sadly as one can see with the fawning over obama.

[AC]

Dunmatime: The answers to your questions are all yes. oh, and by the way it looks like my water may be medicated soon against my will. Not so clean. And you think we have universal education in Britain now? You are sadly mistaken. Sell the schools.

[Joe]

Social Justice, universal suffrage, equality under the law, fairness, the rights of the individual over the state actually, are left Liberal ideas and ideals and have not come from the right. The right's main aim was, is and always will be to protect the interests of the moneyed and the powerful. I detest the Anti-Americanism, anti-business, anti-success mantra that so annoys Mamet and comes from some of the Left but that does not detract from any of significant and rather wonderful successes of left Liberalism in the West over the last 200 years.

[tari]

This is the accepted authoritative definition of a Liberal:

"Liberalism is an ideology which supports the individual rights of property and freedom of contract, without which, it argues, the exercise of other liberties is impossible. It advocates laissez-faire capitalism, meaning the removal of legal barriers to trade and cessation of government-bestowed privilege such as subsidy and monopoly. Economic liberals want little or no government regulation of the market."

Now can we pleases start using the term Liberal correctly,
MARGARET THATCHER WAS A LIBERAL ask her if she was an admirer Jeremy Bentham and Jon Stuart Mill and the answer will be in affirmative. She was a Manchester school Liberal.
Now I have no idea how the term is used in America is it a term of abuse? but can people please stop displaying crass ignorance and use philosophical political terms correctly its just embarrassing.

[Councillor John Ward]

It can be quite annoying to discover that the world isn't as one thought it was; and it takes courage to admit one was wrong.

I've been there and done that, and am myself now a Conservative -- much to my own surprise! Life is of course a voyage of learning and discovery, but it can still be disconcerting to be reminded that none of us "knows it all"... It takes maturity to accept that and not be fazed by it.

[JILL]

IN RESPONSE TO A COUPLE COMMENTS: 1: IN THE U.S. THERE REALLY IS NOT MUCH DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BELIEF SYSTEM OF A LIBERAL, SOCIALIST, COMMUNIST, ETC. THEY VIEW THE WORLD FROM AN IDEOLOGICAL FANTASTICAL PERSPECTIVE, DEVOID OF REAL WORLD FACTS. THE BELIEF SYSTEM IS ENTIRELY FROM MENTAL PROCESSING AND NOTHING FROM CLEAR PERCEPTIONS OF THE WORLD AROUND THEM. 2: THE FOREGOING BEING THE CASE, IT ISN'T THE CASE THAT A LIBERAL SIMPLY WANTS THE WEALTHY TO PAY MORE TAXES (IN THE U.S. THE PEOPLE IN THE TOP 10 PERCENT OF INCOME PAY ABOUT 97 PERCENT OF THE TAXES). IT WOULDN'T BE ADEQUATE IF THEY PAID ALL OF THE TAXES, BECAUSE THEY WOULD STILL EXIST AS A PERSON WITH MORE WEALTH THAN THE LIBERAL, AND THAT SIMPLY ISN'T "FAIR"! THIS COMES FROM THE MENTAL CONSTRUCT THAT THE WEALTHY GOT THAT WAY BY HOOK, CROOK, OR ACCIDENT, AND NOT AS A RESULT OF HARD WORK OR SMART MONEY MANAGEMENT. FOR THE MORE DIABOLICALLY MINDED LIBERALS (MAYBE EVEN MOST OF THEM?) IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER THAT THE WEALTHY GOT THAT WAY BECAUSE SOMEONE PLAYED THE SURVIVAL GAME MORE SMARTLY THAN THEY DID, BECAUSE THE LAWS OF NATURE, SUCH AS "THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTER" DON'T MATTER, BECAUSE THEY DON'T FIT INTO THEIR MENTAL MACHINATIONS OF EQUAL ECONOMIC STANDING (NOT JUST EQUAL OPPORTUNITY), WHICH IS THE FOUNDATION OF THEIR LIBERALISM, AND WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WORLD AS IT IS. THIS IS, OF COURSE, ADOLESCENT, IT BEING MORE IMPORTANT WHAT I WANT (THE WAY THINGS SHOULD BE), RATHER THAN THE WAY THE UNIVERSE WORKS.

[Tom Anderson]

American Liberals may believe that government is inherently corrupt, but they attribute that corruption, not to the true cause, various forms of state intervention, but to business, which they label a "special interest" and from which they pretend to "save" the little guy, by passing more "social welfare" legislation.

[MARK KLEIN, M.D.]

While I share Mammet's admiration for conservative thinkers like Sowell and Friedman, I'm disappointed in how the "conservatives" governed once power in America. Conservatism in practice here means relentless failed warmaking financed by irresponsible borrowing and spending. No way can we have a family values agenda when spendthrift government policy destroys the middle class.

[Juggy]

As one reads through the comments linked to this article, I am reminded of Ian Paisley's certitudes and that scientists are said to have isolated a set of genes responsible for humanity's propensity to "believe" in anything ranging from a god, flying saucers or an infallible economic theory.In France a "libérale" is someone who believes in "laissez faire" economics. An individual should be free to make economic decisions based on rational pragmatic thought and enlightened self interest. In France the Health system provides excellent care, in both public and private hospitals and clinics which is jointly financed by social contributions and private insurance.Enlightened self interest allowed me to benefit on my arrival in France from a very expensive operation,which allowed me to get back to work and "pay back" what I owed to the system and now contribute to the welfare of the other contributors. Of course there are non contributors like children , old people and the unemployed who are taking advantage of my generosity but the pragmatist in me sees I am nevertheless behaving in my own enlightened self-interest. So after having lived in the Celtic Tiger and in the US (where I wasn't able to afford the expensive operation) I now "believe" in a balanced approach to Economic theory and practice and this is long after the scales fell from my ageing eyes.

[Kate]

Having gone through the same conversion, myself, a number of years back, I am delighted to have Mamet's essay on hand for college colleagues (invariably liberal) who believe no intelligent, sane person could be a conservative.

To Mark Klein, there are varieties of conservatives in America and it HAS been shocking to see what the recent lot have done when in power. Power corrupts principles and that is human and a pity. But as David Mamet suggests, consider the alternative to electing the most conservative possible candidate! That would be to embrace a political vision that requires so much hope and wishful thinking as to be dangerous. The conservative idea that we limit government, because government is made of corruptible and flawed men, makes much more sense than to enlarge such a government to control that which we cannot control - our own flawed humanity.

[Floyd Rudmin]

The present fiscal crisis is due in large part because "liberal" laws of regulation and over-sight were rescinded, in favor of let-the-market-decide. The banks began gambling, and now the market has decided that they should go bankrupt. But, now we hear bankers calling for government intervention, for public funds to be wasted in private enterprise, all of which we used call "liberal" or "communist". The Nordic nations (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark) show that leftist nations work well. The USA and UK show that rightist nations do not work well.

[TLW]

Concerning Mary Tovey's response: I am interested that those referencing the original assumed that use of the phrases 'British Parliamentary system' and 'Commonwealth Electoral Office' implied that Mary was British, and referring to elections in Britain. Many countries other than the United Kingdom employ (variants of) the British Parliamentary System, and to my knowledge we in Britain do not have our elections overseen by the Commonwealth Electoral Office. I fear that attacks on the British Parliamentary System citing a claimed NuLab's selling of the UK into European bondage are as clear-sighted as attacks on democracy citing Mugabe's selling of Zimbabwe into penury. Both democracy and the BPS are capable of failures, but I would still claim democracy as the 'least worst' political system we have tried.

As to New Labour being Liberal and Socialist, I would refute the Liberal epithet strongly. New Labour are authoritarian, as many British Socialists are in my experience. NuLab however are despised by most traditional British Socialists I know; it may be their intentions were Socialist but I cannot see that the results have been. Perhaps they are just incompetent implementors of an impossible ideal?

I consider the terms Liberal and Conservative to be massively misused, to the extent of being valueless. I did not see David Mamet claiming now to be an American Republican or a British Tory just as a result of discarding American Liberal ideals. I would claim to be a Libertarian, but have met no-one who knows what I could mean by that. In truth, it seems we need to continue fighting against entrenched positions, to continue questioning our governments and to play an active role in political discussion. All of this is hard in the party political morasses most of our contries occupy.

[tari]

Shock horror! cool hip young playwright
has his fun, takes the plaudits then turns into a right wing bigoted grumpy old man. Same old same old!

[PacificGatePost]

Mr. Mamet,

Evidence, and history, suggests that "balance" is the better part of valor in all our endeavors. Extremes tend to enjoy only fleeting moments of glory.

While we cannot rid the world of “lust, greed, envy, sloth, and their pals” there are some basic common sense elements that must be re-injected into our capitalist system we all know and love.

Let’s start near the top of the economic food chain – the BOARDROOM and the dramatic change that swept through all of North America's boardrooms over the past 30 years. It is one of the underlying causes of the headache the economy is now feeling, but more importantly, it has resulted in the general feeling of "disconnect" felt by most Americans... you know the one, the feeling that will soon sweep through Europe?

Due diligence and oversight long ago slid out the window. No one was watching and we are now enjoying the results of this self-serving governance.

Time to do something about it. So here's a challenge:

Instead of lauding adulation on CEO's, how about pressing for restructure of their boards of directors.

All of them.

"WE THE SHAREHOLDERS OF YOUR COMPANIES......

 http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/03/letter-to-ceos-of-fortune-1000-cos.html


.... time for writers and bloggers to move mountains. Please pass it on.

James Raider

"RAIDER of The Lost Bark"
-----------------------------------

[ALF]

David is a nice guy when he's on his home ground, but like many of us when he tries to speak of important things the way important people do, and not as an artist, he turns into a putz.

[Joe Penny]

I make a lot of money playing poker with liberals...so naive...so ignorant of human nature...so easily deceived...and when the game is over they call it "bad luck" rather than the inevitable result of matching wits with people who understand the world as it is, not as they wish it was.

[thomask]

Blimey! So many arguments over labels, surely we should get trading standards to have a look at the claims.

Truth be said, socialist, conservative and liberal ideas all compete in a triumvirate of different emphases: liberals want liberty but won't decide to use power to impose freedom; conservatives conserve their own liberty at the expense of others freedom and property; socialists argue over what to call their group while trying to avoid paying the bill.

It's a merry-go-round.

[Snorri Godhi]

Floyd Rudmin: I am not sure what you mean by "rightist". If you mean that the UK is a free market, then you are wrong. To see what I mean, if you are American, try to rent a place to live and open a bank account in the UK. If you are British, try to do the same in the (presumably "leftist") Netherlands.

Surely, banking and housing have something to do with the current fiscal crisis?