Who Needs an Art Critic: Law and Art Criticism, Part I

Meanwhile, writing for the Village Voice in March of 2008, David Mamet explained why he’s “no longer a brain-dead liberal.” Quoting John Maynard Keynes, Mamet explains, “When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?” In this article, Mamet explains the he was a child of the ‘60s, and thus took on a liberal view for decades, accepting as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart. However, he notes that that these ingrained precepts had become “increasingly impracticable prejudices” because he no longer applied them in his life. “No,” Mamet declares, contrary to popular liberal belief, everything is not always wrong. People are not genuinely good at heart. In fact, given the right amount of stress, he notes, they can certainly behave like swine. So how does one counter these pigs? The U.S. Constitution Mamet answers, “[f]or the Constitution, [written by men with some experience of actual government], rather than suggesting that all behave in a godlike manner, recognizes, to the contrary, that people are swine and will take any opportunity to subvert any agreement in order to pursue what they consider to be their proper interest.” (One may note that Mamet’s keen insights on the U.S. Constitution mirror his infatuation with law via film and stage set, as seen in Oleanna, Homicide, House of Games, American Buffalo, and of course his most recent production, Race.)

Continued tomorrow!

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