by David Mamet
First published 2011
David Mamet spent three decades as a celebrated playwright and filmmaker championing liberal causes through his art. His characters dissected business ethics, portrayed the struggles of the downtrodden, and critiqued capitalism. Then something changed. Mamet began noticing contradictions between his personal actions and political rhetoric. He watched the government stumble through sixty years of domestic and foreign policy disasters. He resented every tax dollar wasted and the suffering those policies created. Most importantly, he recognized that mainstream media sources fed him biased information wrapped in a flawed worldview. In 2008, Mamet published a controversial essay titled "Why I Am No Longer a Brain Dead Liberal" that dismantled his former beliefs piece by piece. Now he expands that argument into a full examination of contemporary political and cultural issues including religion, political correctness, and climate change. Mamet argues that leftist thinking represents a retreat from rational thought into wishful thinking, comparing it to Stockholm Syndrome where captives identify with their oppressors to cope with helplessness. This book captures one man's intellectual journey from theatrical liberalism to principled conservatism.
Genres: american-fiction, political-science, social-issues, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, academic, cultural-studies
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: ideological-shift, intellectual-journey
Period: 21st-Century
256 pages · Hardcover · Sentinel