Mamet reads Friedman: Obviously Can't Write Anymore

Marvellous stuff - to the point of self-parody- from the Guardian's Michael Billington:

I am depressed to read that David Mamet has swung to the right. In an essay for the  Village Voice, Mamet claims he is no longer a "brain-dead liberal" and increasingly espouses a free-market philosophy and social conservatism. As a citizen, Mamet is free to do as he likes. What worries me is the effect on his talent of locking himself into a rigid ideological position.

Surely shome mishtake? You mean the wong ideological position? Indeed so:

I've always seen Mamet as an inordinately complex writer: one whose apparent tough-guy, Hemingway-esque stance conceals a sensitivity to social and sexual issues. But when Mamet talks openly of his admiration for conservatives like Milton Friedman and Paul Johnson, I begin to worry that he may be painting himself into a corner. Already in his last but one play, Romance, seen here* in 2005, there were tell-tale signs of his talent going off the boil.

You have to love that "last but one" don't you? It means his latest play is fine and, sadly for Billington, uncorrupted by Friedman or Hayek...

*Oddly, Billington's own review of Romance says that while the play may not be one of Mamet's finest it reveals another side to the dramatist: "a passionate moral concern with the state of the nation" and that "It was moving to be reminded that American drama, at its best, has always possessed a strong social conscience - and that, well away from the bright lights of Broadway, writers such as Mamet... are keeping alive the tradition of theatre as a vehicle of radical protest."

[Hat-tip Prospect's First Drafts]

Comments

[ben]

I don't remember knowing or caring about Mamet's political views before, but that's not what this is about. Like most posturing attention-seekers, he isn't writing about politics or economics; he's writing about *himself*. He doesn't have anything to say about Friedmanian economics in particular, but he has a lot to say about David Mamet.

And Paul Johnson isn't a conservative, he's just an imbecile.

[ndm]

I was going to write a sentence just like ben's so I will just steal his. I too don't remember knowing or caring about Mamet's political views before.

However, if Mamet's march to the right means he uses ultra-cliched phrases like "brain-dead liberal" then he will be shedding talent with every step he takes.

[Tim Worstall]

Anybody who would describe Uncle Milt as a conservative is obviously brain dead, whether liberal or not.
Good Lord, the man opposed conscription, wanted drugs legalised and really did not give a flying F*** what happened behind bedroom doors.
He was a classical liberal and all the better for it.