O'Keeffe - from Amon Carter Museum of Edgy Western Art

Playwright David Mamet, explaining (in the Village Voice, no less)
Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal':

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.

Such are Mamet's impeccable credentials on the left, that, in decades to come, we shall see a plethora of references to

David Mamet's seminal(or scandalous?) political shift in the pages of the Village Voice.

Mamet's essay will be immortalized as a moment when we all (left and right) sat up straight and paid attention.

Mamet's gravitas will legitimize apostasy amongst the arts community. Slowly, slowly, artists will begin peeking heads out of leftist holes. They will creep, ever so slightly, away from the left on certain issues. Individuals will, here and there, publicly test out a pet conservative opinion which it was never before okay to voice. Mamet has made it okay to do so.

To be sure: Mamet will first be scorched by the heat of leftist anger and outrage. He will have to fiercely reassert his leftist credentials - especially on social issues. He will have to criticize and mock conservatives.

Yet, I doubt Mamet will back away from his core assertions in the Village Voice article. I have an instinct about Mamet having character and strength of conviction. A person with those values cannot read Thomas Sowell and merrily return to ignorance.



Note I: I encourage anyone to read the entire Mamet essay. It is not overlong. In fact, as befits exceptional writing ability, it is juuust right - like Goldilocks finding the perfect porridge. The corresponding reader comments are fun to skim.

Note II: I see hints my terrible horrible mood is subsiding - though I did, today, call someone "a despicable buffoon ... who deserves to have a forceful fist applied squarely to your nose." My observation did have the virtue of being 100% accurate. I consider I've played this day pretty much down the side of the fairway; then a decent iron just short of the green; chip; two putts: bogey. Compared to the last couple of weeks: not too bad a day for me.