I find david mamet always interesting in his public writing and this is no exception. he describes an existential political state of mind very well; my inference is that if beginning from the conservative state and getting to the liberal one, he would sound very much the same. we all must come to terms with the imperfections of what we want to believe (even in ourselves of course) and this puts that conflict into his words. while we may each have a different point of view, i can admit there is truth here not that difficult to acknowledge.

This is truly one of the most "brain-dead" essays I've read in a while and, more importantly, unwittingly argues that the corporate takeover of the village voice has more or less destroyed the once proud institution. Mamet's essay, while making an awkwardly bigoted stab at humor (NPR is "national palestinian radio" -- wha?), quite correctly notes that one of the intellectual underpinnings of liberalism is the belief in the intrinsic goodness of people. He then proceeds to convince himself that that is folly due to the fact that people behave badly and, moreover, that the greatness of America is partly due to the cynicism of the Constitution, which assumes the selfishness of humanity. This is a bit like arguing that black ... More »