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The Feminist Betrayal of Norma JeaneAdapted from The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture A student, lawyer, teacher, artist, mother, grandmother, defender of animals, rancher, homemaker, sportswoman, rescuer of children — all these are futures we can imagine for Norma Jeane. If acting had become an expression of that real self, not an escape from it, one can also imagine the whole woman who was both Norma Jeane and Marilyn becoming a serious actress and wise comedienne, who would still be working in her sixties, with more productive years to come. But Norma Jeane remained the frightened child...

Conservatives have a new celebrity spokesman-writer-thinker-philosopher. David Mamet, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, movie director and sometime essayist, has come out of the closet. No longer, he declares, is he a "brain-dead liberal." Now he's a wide-awake conservative. Some time after arriving in Hollywood, of all places, and at age 60, he engaged in a conversation with his Republican rabbi (where did he find one?), who gave him the books of conservative writers, such as Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Milton Friedman and Paul Johnson. He had a dramatic political conversion. Mamet re-evaluated his own heroes, starting with the playwright Bertolt...

At the risk of biting the hand that feeds him, acclaimed playwright David Mamet has written a new book likely to enflame the liberal audience that has embraced him since his rise to fame with 1984's "Glengarry Glen Ross." On the cover of "The Secret Knowledge On the Dismantling of American Culture," Mamet proclaims: "The struggle of the Left to rationalize its positions is an intolerable Sisyphean burden. I speak as a reformed Liberal." Mamet, 63, who grew up the son of liberal Jewish immigrants in Chicago, came to his conversion late in life -- he says he spoke to...

David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' An election-season essay A A A Comments (200) By David Mamet Tuesday, Mar 11 2008 John Maynard Keynes was twitted with changing his mind. He replied, "When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?" My favorite example of a change of mind was Norman Mailer at The Village Voice. Norman took on the role of drama critic, weighing in on the New York premiere of Waiting for Godot. Twentieth century's greatest play. Without bothering to...

The author may be making up for lost time with his new book, The Secret Knowledge, but to conservative readers itÂ’s a pleasure to be in the company of a man who can state their agenda in such plainspoken, and endlessly biting, terms. Famed playwright and screenwriter David Mamet came out of the ideological closet three years ago as a newly minted conservative.The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture lets Mamet smash the liberal groupthink he blindly called his own for too long. The book, a scattershot series of essays unified by MametÂ’s striking prose, doesnÂ’t read like...

The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture By David MametPublished by Sentinel (June 2, 2011)Reviewed by Roger L. Simon With all the talk of Hollywood liberalism — the endless leftist blather from Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, the cozying up to Castro and Chavez by Oliver Stone and Danny Glover, the jejune Iranian peace-making by Annette Bening and Alfre Woodard, etc., etc — it’s fascinating that the two leading playwrights in the English language (the smart guys) — Tom Stoppard and David Mamet — identify as conservative/libertarians.For Stoppard — born in Communist Czechoslovakia — this was natural, but...

Three decades ago David Mamet became known among the culture-consuming public for writing… […] And then Mamet thought some more, and looked in the mirror. “I never questioned my tribal assumption that Capitalism was bad,” he writes now, “although I, simultaneously, never acted upon these feelings.” He was always happy to cash a royalty check and made sure to insist on a licensing fee. “I supported myself, as do all those not on the government dole, through the operation of the Free Market.” He saw he was Talking Left and Living Right, a condition common among American liberals, particularly the...

I have long wondered why people are so hostile about Sarah Palin. Women in general and everyone on the left bring to the table their stock jibes, their ad homonym attacks so filled with bile it's palpable. I have come to expect it with regard to George W. Bush, but why is Sarah Palin such a threat? Author David Mamet in his “The Secret Knowledge” explains a lot. According to Mamet, Sarah Palin is a threat for several reasons. One is she's a woman, and the left really doesn't like women. “How do I know? Look at Monica Lewinsky and...

In David Mamet’s recent book, “The Secret Knowledge”, he quotes President Obama as saying, “The individual at some point must be able to say: ‘I have enough money. [Therefore, I no longer need to work, toil, or sweat; after all, I have enough money. I no longer need to earn and pay taxes; after all, I have enough money. I no longer need to plant or harvest; after all, I have enough money. I no longer need to build or produce; after all, I have enough money. I no longer need to use my skills, my cleverness, or my muscles;...

What does he think of Barack Obama? "The question is can he run on his record in 2012 and the answer is no, because it's abysmal. He took a trillion dollars and where it went, nobody knows. He dismantled health care, he weakened America around the world, he sold out the state of Israel. All he's got to run on is being a Democrat So who would he prefer as president? He replies that he is "not current" with the Republican contenders until I mention Sarah Palin. "I am crazy about her," he answers immediately. "Would she make a good...

David Mamet's provocative new book, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture, explores in greater length and considerably greater depth the themes he announced in his 2008 op-ed for the Village Voice, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal.'"  It comes complete with a bibliography of 117 books listing virtually every work relating to his topic. The bibliography -- and Mamet's explication of the issues involved in his turn to conservatism -- is particularly impressive since Mamet says he "never knowingly talked with nor read the works of a Conservative before moving to Los Angeles, some eight...

The Pulitzer-winning playwright explains his turn to the political right People of the statist left—and to some extent the statist right—will find much to decry in David Mamet’s new book, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture, a token of his late-life conversion to conservative political views. In fact, the sound of heads exploding is already being heard throughout the Liberal Village. Libertarians, on the other hand, may find the book to be an unexceptional checklist of familiar positions—curious, perhaps, in its shout-outs to Glenn Beck and Jon Voight, but admirable in its championing of Friedrich Hayek. Personally,...

[Q] 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? [A] 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. [Q] Years ago, you described “American Buffalo” as being about “how we excuse...

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...

... Mr. Mamet has written a book-length, raucous coming-out party: "The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture." (If only the Voice editors had been around to supply a snappier title.) Hear him take on the left's sacred cows. Diversity is a "commodity." College is nothing more than "Socialist Camp." Liberalism is like roulette addiction. Toyota's Prius, he tells me, is an "anti-chick magnet" and "ugly as a dogcatcher's butt." Hollywood liberals—his former crowd—once embraced Communism "because they hadn't invented Pilates yet." Oh, and good radio isn't NPR ("National Palestinian Radio") but Dennis Prager, Michael Medved and Hugh Hewitt....

I was surprised by the respect for a fallen team member (military) in tonights repeat episode (2007) of "The Unit" (Play 16).

John Maynard Keynes was twitted with changing his mind. He replied, "When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?" My favorite example of a change of mind was Norman Mailer at The Village Voice. Norman took on the role of drama critic, weighing in on the New York premiere of Waiting for Godot. Twentieth century's greatest play. Without bothering to go, Mailer called it a piece of garbage. When he did get around to seeing it, he realized his mistake. He was no longer a Voice columnist, however, so he bought a page in the...

The presidential contest is not simply an election about who rules America; it is also an election about which set of principles defines American politics. For the past two and a half decades, conservatism has set the agenda. Is the left making a comeback? I don't think so. Notice that Democrats avoid terms like "the left" and even "liberalism" like the plague, while Republicans routinely associate themselves with the "right" and the "conservative" label. Also the left is now defined by shrieking demagogues like Michael Moore, while intelligent people are keeping their distance or moving out of this menagerie. In...

We had always assumed that the playwright David Mamet was, as he described himself recently, “a brain-dead liberal.” But, lo! it is the season of Easter, miracles are abroad, and Mamet, in the pages of The Village Voice no less, revealed himself to have undergone a political metanoia. Mamet’s account of his achievement of what a friend of ours calls “political maturity” is noteworthy. It is a chrysalis-to-butterfly evolution we’ve witnessed often in intelligent people of good will and sound instincts. “I took the liberal view for many decades,” Mamet admits, “but I believe I have changed my mind.”...

The American playwright David Mamet wrote a piece for the Village Voice last week titled, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal.'" Mr. Mamet, whose characters famously use the f-word as a rhythmic device (I think of it now as the "Mamet-word"), didn't himself mince words on his transition. He was riding with his wife one day, listening to National Public Radio: "I felt my facial muscles tightening, and the words beginning to form in my mind: 'Shut the [Mamet-word] up.'" Been known to happen. Toward the end of the essay, he names names: "I began reading not only...