The Big Answer

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The Amazon blurb says that NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

“Savagery appeased can only grow. Once you give in to it, it must escalate, like a fire searching for air.”

The man who won the Pulitzer Prize for Glengarry Glen Ross, who wrote the classic films The Verdict and Wag the Dog sounds his alarm about the Visigoths at our gates.

In Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch he calls out, skewers, mocks, and, most importantly, dissects the virus of conformity which is now an existential threat to the West.

Mamet calls out, skewers, mocks, and, most importantly, dissects the virus of conformity which is now an existential threat to the West

A broad-ranging journey through history, the Bible, and literature, Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch examines how politics and cultural attitudes about rebellion have shifted in the United States in the last generation. By screaming down freedom of thought and expression, Mamet explains, we kill invention and democracy – the foundations of security and growth.

A wickedly funny, wistful and wry appeal to the free-thinking citizen, Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch is a vital warning that if we don’t confront the cultural thuggery now, the commissars and their dupes will transform the Land of the Free into the dictatorship at which they aim. [See Leftist Fascism]

If we don’t confront the cultural thuggery now, the commissars and their dupes will transform the Land of the Free into the dictatorship at which they aim

From the Wall Street Journal review by Micah Mattix we get: "His recurring concerns are—as they were in “The Secret Knowledge”—freedom and the folly of equity. Conservatives are losing the battle on free speech, he tells us, and need to show some courage. “Observe that every conservative who employs the preface ‘This may not be politically correct but’ is not only acknowledging but aiding the forces of thought control.”

Conservatives are losing the battle on free speech, Mamet tells us, and need to show some courage

"He also laments the increasing heavy-handedness of Hollywood and Broadway, where audiences are subjected to “hectorings called dramas.” “Tourists may come to New York to see musicals and enjoy the pageant,” he writes. “But who would devote his vacation to sermons?”

Mamet laments the increasing heavy-handedness of Hollywood and Broadway, where audiences are subjected to 'hectorings called dramas'—why do writers think audiences want to hear sermons?

"The problem is not politics per se but a paranoid didacticism. Mr. Mamet’s own plays have always been political and have become increasingly so since at least “November”—a scathingly funny rendering of a day in the life of an American president that opened on Broadway in 2008.

"In Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch,” Mr. Mamet hopes that America, too, will be spared and will rise from its political and cultural decadence, however unlikely that seems." (Source: ‘Recessional’ Review: Lest We Forget!, Micah Mattix, Wall Street Journal)

In this book, you will learn the author’s opinions on cultural thuggery and the implications of not taking action against the dictatorship that threatens democracy; here, an oligarch (Soros?) buries democracy

"No matter your political position, party, or views, listen to the unique style in which author, playwright, and Emmy Award-nominated writer and director, David Mamet shares his opinions on the current state of the United States in Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch. In his typically comical and profound way, Mamet dissects the virus that has infected the minds and very ground on which the country has been founded, bringing chaos and unrest to the American people. In this summary collection of Mamet’s essays, you will learn the author’s opinions on cultural thuggery and the implications of not taking action against the dictatorship that threatens democracy. Take a walk with Mamet as he travels through time and history, relating the Bible and other literature to the circumstances we now find ourselves in." (Source: Summary of Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch by David Mamet: Review, Apple Books Preview)

George Floyd riot where their point was made but then thugs like leftist Antifa started violence and destruction

"For decades, the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, director, author and screenwriter brought us terse and confrontational dialogue that crackled with energy and truth, in Glengarry Glen Ross, Hoffa, Wag the Dog and the Untouchables, to name just a few of his dramas. But in recent years, David Mamet has turned his intellectual vigor and trenchant sarcasm even more directly onto the tenor and challenges of our times, from political correctness and media bias to religion and global warming. Upon the publication of his new book, the alternately funny, angry and wistful Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch, he joins us to issue a stark warning about the liberal Visigoths at our gates whose “cultural thuggery” is killing not only free thought and expression but democracy itself. (Source: David Mamet: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch, The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center)

The anti-American radical leftist Marxists have a very special plan for the Founders—flush them down the nearest toilet, along with the Constitution and our rights

"Mamet proved to be no mere provocateur or dabbler, but a serious, committed, and unusually unafraid conservative convert. In 2011, he set down his extended thoughts on the issues of the hour in The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture, and since the pandemic began, he has been found regularly in the pages of National Review, one of that great magazine’s most notable and, if you knew nothing of his political transformation, unlikely correspondents since Joan Didion. Those essays, brilliantly brittle and piercingly perceptive in the expected Mamet mode, form the spine of his latest collection, Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch.

Mamet sees the modern Left as an army that seeks total victory without being bothered to do battle; this leftist just had a conservative disagree with her; she's too 'woke' to let that slide

"True to form, in these pieces Mamet presents himself as something of a brawler, a man eager for drama, debate, and dust-ups. Perhaps it’s because he knows he could emerge victorious. “My professional life has been dedicated to the depiction of conflict,” Mamet writes in the introduction, but he sees the modern Left as an army that seeks total victory without being bothered to do battle. “But how may a debate (a discussion, a trial, an election) take place in which one side rejects not its opponent’s position but his right to exist?” Mamet asks. Worse, he sees the Left demanding not merely the adoption of its positions but the adoption of evermore extreme versions thereof." (Source: David Mamet's artistic freedom to troll, Peter Tonguette, Washington Examiner)

This palace is where the Venezuelan leaders live, while the common people starve in slums, enduring hyperinflation (53,798,500% between 2016 and April 2019), escalating hunger, disease, crime and mortality rates, and mass emigration

Venezuela used to be doing fine until they were led down the garden path by slick-talking con artists—now their lives, economy, futures, etc., are all ruined. But the leaders? They live like kings—which was the plan all along, WHICH IS THE SAME PLAN THE WOKE LEFTISTS IN THE USA ARE USING!

The liberal narrative represents what Orwell's 1984 would call rightthink while everything else is wrongthink, which the liberal fascist Thought Police intend to detect and abolish, as the image depicts. You can see this in how radical leftists treat conservative thinking and First Amendment rights. This is an ugly portent of what is to come

Conservatives are losing the battle on free speech, Mamet tells us, and they need to show some courage. They are all afraid of the leftist radicals, activists and fanatics but they haven't yet figured out an effective strategy to respond to their brazen words and their lying accusations. The left expects the right to capitulate to their demands and they insist their ideas are adopted as well. Mamet bravely confronts their bullying and attempted canceling and insists that conservatives stand up for our values and principles and our Constitution. The alternative is we degenerate from a democracy to a socialist tyranny, becoming as pathetic as Venezuela. Mamet recognizes the leftists as the same thugs, thieves, cheats, and whores with whom he’d been doing business all his life.

Why socialism instead of our democracy? To gain power and wealth for the leaders as it removes power and wealth from the populace! Perhaps you are seeing what Kamala Harris' insane laugh is REALLY about!

The central characteristic of all socialism is failure. Then why do leaders keep choosing it? The answer is ugly: To gain power and wealth for the leaders as it removes power and wealth from the populace! Perhaps you are seeing what Kamala Harris' insane laugh is REALLY about! [See Leftist Fascism]

Leaders in a fascist takeover (disguised as social justice) live like kings—which was the plan all along, regardless of their 'for the people' lies

Liberals use colleges and high schools to indoctrinate their Marxist ideas into our young, then use these poor brainwashed sheep as useful idiots to keep them in power

The conservatives value free-thinking, dissent, and the open exchange of ideas, as did the Founders and the Enlightenment scholars. The liberals value only conformity, indoctrination, propaganda, Marxism, socialism and force. While civics courses used to let us know that debate and discussions are the way a democracy is supposed to decide things, leftists prefer propaganda, lying, and arm-twisting as the way to settle things. The left prefers to rely on fear of cancelation as their method of achieving conformity to their ideas. This is shown in the perverse way they have infiltrated schools and colleges and adopted cancelation fears as their preferred method of forcing compliance. They do not want to teach people to think. They instead want people to conform, to obey, and to become indoctrinated with the tenets of the liberal narrative.

Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch is a good book except for the overuse of big words and unfamiliar concepts. Mamet shows great courage and insight in calling the leftists on their woke ugliness and wrongheadedness.