How a Hollywood Liberal Converted to Conservatism
Posted: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:50:33
I like John Stossel. Here's an opinion piece with some interview mixed in that he did on FOX Business.
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Hollywood mocks capitalism, which seems odd because the people who make movies are such aggressive capitalists -- competing hard to make money. But Hollywood's message is that capitalism is shallow and cruel.
Take the 1992 movie "Glengarry Glen Ross" (based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play). It's about cutthroat real estate salesmen who work for a heartless company. It was written by the celebrated playwright David Mamet, author of "American Buffalo," "Spanish Prisoner," and more than 50 other plays and movies.
I assumed that Mamet was another garden-variety Hollywood lefty, but then a few years ago, I was surprised to see an article he wrote titled, "Why I'm No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal." Now he's followed up with a book, "The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture."
What turned a "Hollywood liberal" into a conservative? I invited Mamet on my Fox Business show last week to ask.
Was he a brain-dead liberal? The newspaper, not Mamet, put that headline on his article.
"I referred to myself as one," Mamet told me. "Political decisions I made were foolish."
Foolish because he wasn't really thinking, he said. Since everybody around him was liberal, he just went along.
What changed?
"I met a couple conservatives, and I realized I never met any conservatives in my life. ... (O)ne started sending me books. His books ...made more sense than my books."
Mamet was suddenly exposed to ideas he had never encountered before.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/07/ ... z1T7JR96lN
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Hollywood mocks capitalism, which seems odd because the people who make movies are such aggressive capitalists -- competing hard to make money. But Hollywood's message is that capitalism is shallow and cruel.
Take the 1992 movie "Glengarry Glen Ross" (based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play). It's about cutthroat real estate salesmen who work for a heartless company. It was written by the celebrated playwright David Mamet, author of "American Buffalo," "Spanish Prisoner," and more than 50 other plays and movies.
I assumed that Mamet was another garden-variety Hollywood lefty, but then a few years ago, I was surprised to see an article he wrote titled, "Why I'm No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal." Now he's followed up with a book, "The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture."
What turned a "Hollywood liberal" into a conservative? I invited Mamet on my Fox Business show last week to ask.
Was he a brain-dead liberal? The newspaper, not Mamet, put that headline on his article.
"I referred to myself as one," Mamet told me. "Political decisions I made were foolish."
Foolish because he wasn't really thinking, he said. Since everybody around him was liberal, he just went along.
What changed?
"I met a couple conservatives, and I realized I never met any conservatives in my life. ... (O)ne started sending me books. His books ...made more sense than my books."
Mamet was suddenly exposed to ideas he had never encountered before.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/07/ ... z1T7JR96lN