Ultra-liberal playwright David Mamet published an article last week in the Village Voice titled, Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’. The meat of the lengthy piece is here:As a child of the ’60s, I accepted as an article of faith that governme…

Your complaint about “free” vs. “regulated” markets is ridiculous. For you, a truly “free” market is like a true vacuum, which would be as deadly and cold as interstellar space. By your logic, a true vacuum would be bad; therefore ANY pressure differential would ALSO be bad. Vacuum cleaners ought to be outlawed, because they simply suck.

Throwing out any semblance of a “free” market because of your aversion to your dystopian notion of anarchy is ludicrous — and ignores the body of evidence that the freer the market, the BETTER the overall living conditions of “the people.”

There are TWO elements required for prosperity: freedom to trade, and a rule of law that enforces freely-entered contracts in a fair and just manner. You’re ditching one end of that equation entirely.

I’m not extensively familiar Mamet’s earlier work, but it does seem that his shift in worldview may already be evident in his work. I’ve greatly enjoyed all three seasons of Mamet’s “The Unit”, which is refreshingly unlike most other recent Hollywood fare in its treatment of U.S. soldiers and the work they do, portraying them as neither monsters nor victims, but dedicated, flawed, heroic, ordinary, exceptional human beings. I highly recommend the show. It’s nice to see someone in Hollywoodland cheer for the home team for a change.

“Free market” is a lie. There is no such thing. Volumes are written about this all the time. Your market doesn’t exist in a vacuum, divorced from the rest of society.

Real world abuses of the “market” are common, and have been common here. We have progressed beyond such a horrendous society thanks to the struggles of the working classes AGAINST your free market capitalists.

The free marketers have responded by exploiting workers in places where they have less protections, such as China, Mexico and Indonesia. Our government has promoted this, and helped ship millions of US jobs overseas, and helped to depress wages here. Is all this new to you?

The distinction that’s important here is between a “free” market where anything goes vs. a regulated market where there is a referee (the gov’t) empowered to safeguard people’s rights.

Mamet’s “journey” should have examined all these issues in some more depth before he spewed his propaganda across the media.

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You lost me when you started bashing anything and everything “free market” with the most outlandish and extreme examples to make your point.

You clearly disagree with some of Mamet’s premises, which is your right to do. But you lost any authority to examine his reasoning, his path of logic, when you resorted to Straw Man. Mamet’s piece was about a journey — and you bashed the trip because you didn’t like the destination.

Go learn a little bit about critical thinking and logic, then get back to us. Mature adults “agree to disagree” all the time, when they can respect the reasoning of the other.

Hollywood’s Newest Neo-Con: David Mamet Chugs the Kool-Aid

Critic and Curator are the new art forms, haven’t you heard?

Because we need more artists who can help us see the world differently with our own eyes. They can give us hints, fingers pointing at the moon – but ultimately we have to see for ourselves.

It would be nice if we could also get out from under the critics and art galleries. I think in many cases they’re more interested in promoting their own interests than in providing us with great art.