And I’ve always disagreed with the liberal view that all people a basically good. So, I was pleased to read:

And, I wondered, how could I have spent decades thinking that I thought everything was always wrong at the same time that I thought I thought that people were basically good at heart? Which was it?

Which was it indeed! You can’t believe that, for example, Bush is a lying monster and all people are basically good at heart. I was also pleased to read that Mamet agreed with me on the Founding Father’s reasoning for the separation of powers. And I’d ask, if all people were basically good why would that separation be necessary?

Like the right, “mooing about faith,” I find my answer in my faith. People are not basically good. I think Mamet would say they’re essentially decent and I’d say what we accept as decent is only the product of a system that assumes people are essentially indecent and is designed to check those baser tendencies. To ensure that the indecent are continually fighting with one another for primacy. That way, knowing that we’re not going to get all that we want (to frak the other guy over for our own benefit without consequence), sometimes a genuine good may be produced.

Of course, I readily admit, this is a rather bleak outlook on society but I think if it’s not the most realistic, it’s at least the safest.

Assume you’re going to be mugged and you’re going to take precautions against it. That way, if it occurs you’re ready and if it doesn’t let no one fault you for being paranoid. Their skin isn’t on the line – yours is – so who cares what they have to say anyway?

Maybe that is why so many people really likee to read what you have to say ;-)

My sister in law is Colombian, and she has expressed both marvel and frustration – marveling why it works so well here and frustrated on why it works so poorly at home.

Letting one group dominate the others leaves less liberty for anyone.

Of course, there were still the little thugs that needed to be squashed, but at least I had the energy left to do that without worrying about the rest of the kids.

Base your structure on the material you are working with, and things go a lot better. Sounds like Mr. Mamet learned that late.

I’d generally been thinking that liberals were heavily “emo”, or maybe engaging in theatrics so nobody would notice their self-supposedly defective souls.

A person who never changes his mind, is a person who has stopped learning, is a closed mined ideologue, or is dead.

Special effects bore me. Give me a good story!

(Hey, that’s almost on topic. Mr. Mamet’s work is story-rich.)