The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture

( 41 )

Overview


For the past thirty years, David Mamet has been a controversial and defining force in theater and film, championing the most cherished liberal values along the way. In some of the great movies and plays of our time, his characters have explored the ethics of the business world, embodied the struggles of the oppressed, and faced the flaws of the capitalist system.But in recent years Mamet has had a change of heart. He realized that the so-called mainstream media outlets he relied on were irredeemably biased, ...
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The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture

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More About This Book

Overview


For the past thirty years, David Mamet has been a controversial and defining force in theater and film, championing the most cherished liberal values along the way. In some of the great movies and plays of our time, his characters have explored the ethics of the business world, embodied the struggles of the oppressed, and faced the flaws of the capitalist system.But in recent years Mamet has had a change of heart. He realized that the so-called mainstream media outlets he relied on were irredeemably biased, peddling a hypocritical and deeply flawed worldview. In 2008 he wrote a hugely controversial op-ed for the Village Voice, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal,'" in which he methodically eviscerated liberal beliefs. Now he goes much deeper, employing his trademark intellectual force and vigor to take on all the key political and cultural issues of our times, from religion to political correctness to global warming.Mamet pulls no punches in his art or in his politics. And as a former liberal who woke up, he will win over an entirely new audience of others who have grown irate over America's current direction.
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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

One doesn't expect to see a book by David Mamet in Current Affairs. The Pulitzer Prize playwright and director is, by any measure versatile, having not only written plays and films, but also created children's stories, memoirs, guidebooks on acting, an examination of anti-Semitism, a book of verse, and even a graphic novel. In this collection of short, informal essays, he describes the reasons for his disillusionment with "brain-dead" liberalism. Another round of batteries in our cultural wars.

Publishers Weekly
American playwright and filmmaker Mamet is a wide-ranging author (including children's stories, a volume of verse, and even a graphic novel), but he excels at the coolly acerbic essay, which best shows off his contrarian streak. This set of short, informal essays elaborate on his recent political awakening from "brain-dead" liberalism, a foray into what used to be called the culture wars. It feels a couple of decades tardy and, despite its author's characteristically terse yet pensive prose, too at-the-knee of the usual neoconservative icons, including Hayek. The title refers to the privileged patterns of initiation into the worldview of the "Liberal Left" Mamet ridicules, often by analogy to adolescent naïveté. But he replaces one set of talking points with another: the familiar argot about free markets, inveighing against any opposition to Israel as anti-Semitism, and the "liberal" attempt to bankrupt us all. Mamet still wields the colorful anecdote and unexpected analogy, and his narrative holds most interest when straying back to his turf on movie sets and theater stages. But as an avenging apostate of liberalism, Mamet offers nothing new. (June)
From the Publisher
"A Manichean analysis from a strident new voice from the Right—-for liberals, something intended to ignite antagonism; for the like-minded, a buttress against the opposition." —-Kirkus
Kirkus Reviews

A Pulitzer Prize–winning showman and "reformed Liberal" rants about the precarious state of the nation.

In 39 short essays, playwright, screenwriter and director Mamet (Theatre, 2010) discusses many of his least-favorite things, including taxes, sloth, foreign aid, the notion of global warming, big government, taxes, the present Democratic administration, liberals, taxes and "social justice" (quotes his).Did we mention taxes? With the mood of serious discussion, the author weights this jeremiad with stilted argot and copious footnotes that are simply more of the same arguments in reduced typeface. But Mamet is sharper than the conventional scold, and, like his most memorable stage characters, he offers a mashup of notions, some commendable, supported by reference to very selective history. Unabashed in making blanket, unfounded assertions, the gifted dramatist erects nincompoop straw men easily demolished with clever, impassioned rhetoric. Detection of undeniable flaws in liberal logic, rightly derided, gives way to ad hominemargument,post hocreasoning and faulty classification—it's disputation, not evidence. In a monolithic, elitist Left—one surely not as cohesive and close-minded as Mamet depicts, one more liable to agree with him on, say, the benefits of capitalism (albeit, perhaps, with more legal safeguards—he sees hypocrisy. Surely, community values and the unfettered marketplace of ideas are important to liberal and conservative alike. Sweetened with personal history, a couple good jokes and some pointed insights, Mamet's polemic yields no secret and scant knowledge. He does, nevertheless, raise the volume with incontestable dramatic talent.

A Manichean analysis from a strident new voice from the Right—for liberals, something intended to ignite antagonism; for the like-minded, a buttress against the opposition.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781595230973
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
  • Publication date: 8/28/2012
  • Pages: 256
  • Sales rank: 97,846
  • Product dimensions: 5.40 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 0.80 (d)

Meet the Author


David Mamet is an acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, film director, and essayist. Some of his most famous works include the films The Untouchables and the Academy Award nominees The Verdict and Wag the Dog. He is also the author of many plays, including American Buffalo, Speed-the-Plow, and Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Johnny Heller has won two prestigious Audie Awards and has earned numerous Audie nominations. He has been praised for his adult, personal development, history, comedy, and children's book narrations. Named a Best Voice of 2008 and 2009, as well as one of the Top 50 Narrators of the Twentieth Century by AudioFile magazine, Johnny has earned almost twenty Golden Earphones Awards. Two of Johnny's audiobooks have been picked by AudioFile as Best Audiobook the Year, and he has won two Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards.
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Table of Contents

Preface xi

1 The Political Impulse 1

2 The American Reality 8

3 Culture, School Shootings, the Audience, and the Elevator 11

4 Alcatraz 21

5 Lost Horizon 29

6 The Music Man 34

7 Choice 38

8 The Red Sea 50

9 Chicago 53

10 Milton Friedman Explained 58

11 What Is "Diversity"? 62

12 The Monty Hall Problem and the Contractor

13 Maxwell Street 71

14 R100 74

15 The Intelligent Person's Guide to Socialism and Anti-Semitism 80

16 The Victim 84

17 Puritans 88

18 The Noble Savage 91

19 Adventure Slumming 96

20 Cabinet Spiritualism and the Car Czar 100

21 Rumpelstiltskin 104

22 My Father, Al Sharpton, and the Designated Criminal 111

23 Greed 116

24 Arrested Development 123

25 Oakton Manor and Camp Kawaga 129

26 Feminism 134

27 The Ashkenazis 146

28 Some Personal History 156

29 The Family 164

30 Naturally Evolved Institutions 167

31 Breatharian 172

32 The Street Sweeper and the Surgeon, or Marxism Examined 177

33 Self-Evident Truth 190

34 Hope and Change 196

35 The Small Refrigerator 202

36 Bumper Stickers 206

37 Late Revelations 210

38 Who Does One Think He Is? 216

39 The Secret Knowledge 221

Acknowledgments 225

Bibliography 227

Index 233

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 41 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(20)

4 Star

(6)

3 Star

(7)

2 Star

(1)

1 Star

(7)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 41 Customer Reviews

  • Posted June 10, 2011

    A must read for all Liberals!

    Wow! - What a powerful book. I have read many other books by new converts to conservatism but I think this book will really speak to liberals. It is beautifully written in a manner that will appeal to the liberal intelligentsia while at the same time preaching to the proverbial conservative choir. I could not put it down. A great gift for any open minded liberal. Welcome aboard Mr. Mamet!

    12 out of 15 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 19, 2011

    NAILS IT!!

    The usual carping from Lib reviewers. That's because they can't touch the substance!! Someone has finally, in plain English, made it clear how "mindless" so many people have become. It's going to be hard work to get back to common sense and integrity after so many years of listening to politically correct drivel from the so-called "smart people". Mr. Mamet has my heartiest congratulations on work well done. Concise and effective.

    10 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 20, 2011

    Essential

    Whether you are liberal or conservative, this is an essential read. Mamet does a brilliant job of demonstrating the foundations of his conservative conversion.

    7 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted July 9, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Inescapably and brutally honest, you will not be able to put Mamet's "The Secret Knowledge" down...

    I think Mamet has done everyone a great service with this unselfish and very brave bellringer. Every human being with a conscience and a belief in fairness hard won, will be buoyed by this work. And every person preoccupied with political correctness, the new socialism and the systematic ridicule of all things Right Wing, should they actually have the good fortune to read this, will be enlightened beyond the slightest doubt, that they are a sorry, pitiful tool. But this is where the re-education begins, as I hope and believe it will, if this book is read by the many individuals who've lost their conscience and ability to think for themselves. Bravo, Mr. Mamet. Bravo.

    6 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 10, 2011

    Really?

    Was Mamet ever really a "liberal (th a small "l")? Mamet writes as if he were typical "first time" callled into the Rush Limbaugh show, proclaiming "I voted for Obama but now I am a rightwing conservative." Sure and I have some land in the Westbank that I want to sell you. His unique minimialist style and subject matters for his plays and movies are all conservative. His movie "Hoffa," for example, who was supporter of Richard Nixon, scourages Kennedy, both Robert and President Kennedy (one the Right's biggest whipping boys).

    The book, while well a collection of stylistically well written essays, is a bit dated in history. Using Susan Sontag, as a typical liberal, undermines the main thrust of Mamet's view that liberalism has gone too far in recent years, since Sontag was a liberal critic of the sixties and has been dead for almost a decade.

    The other aspect of Mamnet's view is a typical mistake between "liberalism" with a small "l" and "Liberalism" with a big "L." Mamet should not be blamed for this, as it is a typical error of modern neo-con philosophy. He contaminates Marxism with liberal and then with Democrat Party definitions, as if they were interchangeable which they are not. For a artist such as Mamet to abuse and misuse the language as he does in this collection of essays is a bit disturbing to me a reader.

    Mamet's Randian philosophy thrives better in a uncontrolled Capitalist. Yet, he wants to have closed borders but open markets. Is America more open than it was 50 years ago. Yes. It is more liberal than it was. No more than it is today.

    5 out of 27 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 20, 2011

    Unconvincing - feels like it is just Mamet attempting to convince himself

    I came to this book with apprehension, thinking that if anyone, Mamet could create a convincing argument for me to at least acknowledge the legitimacy of American conservatism.

    He does not even make arguments - he simply pronounces sweeping generalizations, such as to the perverted schooling of his spoiled generation, "How to turn the nice middle-class boys and girls of my generation into the Killers or the Weathermen?" (there were, what, 9 active Weathermen out of a generation of 90,000,000?).

    Similar to the curmudgeonly Tea Party, Mamet's belief in what good that government can do ends at his own comfy chair - roads and potable tap water are, undeniably, good; universal suffrage is, a priori, good. At such points he doesn't even offer any arguments as to why these creations of government and liberal ideology are good, he just assumes you will agree, and that is that.

    If you believe that liberals worship Marx and Castro, that the Obama administration cunningly commandeered the auto industry and has now destroyed it, and that the size of your bank account demonstrates the strength of your soul... Well, you probably don't have to bother buying and reading this book either.

    4 out of 16 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted August 20, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Fantastic book that shoots from the hip.

    Mamet is a great writer. He's done a number of great screenplays, plays and more. With "The Secret Knowledge," he expands his writing into the super-personal story of his life-changing epiphany: He's a conservative!

    The book is a fantastic read, with Mr. Mamet going through the reasons for his transformation from standard Hollywood-liberal to right-leaning man of reason. He explores the biggest differences he sees in how the left and right view the world, making sure to take stabs at the liberal establishment (media, government, Hollywood, and such) along the way.

    Mr. Mamet's change seems to be wholeheartedly organic, with influences from key people (his Rabbi, Dennis Prager, and others), and comes across so very naturally. I remember reading an early pseudo-review of the book (probably in the LA Times- not known for being centrists or conservative) complaining that the book was very light on specifics, references and data to back up Mr. Mamet's claims regarding bias, policy thoughts, and other aspects of the left he disagreed with now. If anything, the book does its best to keep the story going, with plenty of footnotes (mostly anecdotal continuations of a thought) and a very thorough bibliography at the end. Maybe we right-siders take our time to peruse the bibliography and explore other sources of information more than our left-sider counterparts, but anyway, the book is not meant to be a textbook. If this means The Secret Knowledge has less influence on liberal readers in understanding or being influenced by Mr. Mamet's writing, then that'd be a sad reflection on the reader more than the writer.

    Overall, a great book, definitely worth reading regardless of which side of the aisle you side with.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted August 7, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    A book of Conservative essays

    If you like Rush Limbaugh's book The Way Things Ought to be and See I told you so!, you will like this book of essays. Although the aithor asserts that he is a late comer to Conservatism, he must have worn his Liberal faith quite lightly judging by his past works such as Glengarry Ross. All I can say to Mamet is Welcome Aboard!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted July 14, 2011

    Awesome.

    Brilliantly rationale in presentation and refreshingly direct. This book opened my eyes to the incidious nature of left wing ideology and how it is destroying our culture.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 14, 2011

    Khj

    Fvbb

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 21, 2011

    Beautifully written - not to be missed

    If, like me, you've been longing for a highly thoughtful, intellectually based, yet commonsense defense of conservatism, this is for you. I've always enjoyed Mr. Mamet's work, and my respect for his intellect and talent has increased since reading his outstanding book. If you're conservative and have liberal family and friends who remain mystified about why you hold your beliefs, don't miss this!

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  • Posted October 20, 2011

    A must read for conservatives, uncertain liberals, and politial agnostics

    Eviscerates the liberal "thought" process. Mamet speaks from the perspective of a reformed liberal. His conversion was based on empirical evidence that he could no longer ignore.

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  • Posted September 14, 2011

    Conserative joy, liberal pain

    How does a life-long, typical, show-biz liberal come to embrace political conservatism? Mamet answers that question in a way that will have both conseratives and liberals shaking their heads, but in opposite directions. Fans of Mamet's plays, movies and such are in for a surprise, as Mr. Mamet's descriiption of his journey from one end of the political spectrum to the other is told in a fast paced, self-deprecating style that is neither too scholarly nor too pedestrian. Agree or disagree, an interesting read during this political season.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 15, 2011

    Glitchy Sample

    Must be something wrong with the Nook e-book sample...only 3-4 paragraphs (6-15-11). Can't tell enough about the book to buy it.

    0 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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    Posted August 13, 2011

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    Posted June 5, 2011

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    Posted May 27, 2011

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    Posted July 8, 2011

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    Posted February 17, 2012

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    Posted October 29, 2011

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