They say you can't study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.
Liberalism is a religion. Its tenets cannot be proved, its capacity for waste and destruction demonstrated. But it affords a feeling of spiritual rectitude at little or no cost.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that liberalism operates on faith rather than provable principles, offering a sense of moral superiority without significant sacrifice.
David Mamet's quote critiques liberalism, characterizing it as a belief system akin to a religion. He argues that its core beliefs cannot be empirically validated, and the consequences of its implementation are often negative. However, he notes that it provides adherents with a sense of moral correctness and personal righteousness at minimal expense, presenting a paradox in which individuals may blindly follow a movement that lacks substantive evidence.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a political debate to highlight the challenges of liberal ideologies.
More from David Mamet
All quotes βMy alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.
You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'
It's hard for a Jew of my generation, an American Jew, who is philo-Zionistic, not to romanticize Israel.
You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history.
Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.
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Everyone is the other and no one is himself.
The contradiction [trying to use Russian model to reshape Italy] grew to such an extent that I felt totally cut off from the communist world and, in the end, from politics. That was fortunate. The idea of putting literature in second place, after politics, is an enormous mistake, because politics almost never achieves its ideals.
The "discovery" of poverty at the beginning of the 1960s was something like the "discovery" of America almost five hundred years earlier. In the case of each of these exotic terrains, plenty of people were on the site before the discoverers ever arrived.
If you do not think well of Him because His qualities are beautiful then think well of Him because of the way He treats you.
Behind Joy and Laughter there may be a temperament, coarse, hard and callous. But behind Sorrow there is always Sorrow. Pain, unlike Pleasure, wears no mask.
Until you can see everything in the world as your friend, your work is not done.