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Our country has created the most effective and beneficent, the most productive and the most just civilization in the history of the world, by forming laws based upon that shared truth: compassion no less than greed will, in the hands of the State, cause misery. It is not the job of the State to be compassionate, but to be just.
Mamet, David. The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture (p. 191). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
David Mamet wrote this in 2011. In 2008, he came out as a conservative in a courageous essay published in the Village Voice: “Why I Am No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal”. He is one of the most successful and critically acclaimed playwrights of modern times (Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed the Plow, et al.). If you haven’t read The Secret Knowledge, I highly recommend it – practically every sentence is worth highlighting.
Discussion (10)
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Mamet wrote in a retrospective of his “coming out” that some of his friends became acquaintances, his acquaintances became enemies, and his enemies became demons.
Sounds like what happened to me.
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C.S. Lewis wrote several times about the danger of busybodies who run government or schools supposedly for the good of others. It's very hard to shake a person loose from a policy when he is convinced that he must take away a freedom for your good.
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Exactly.
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I heard either this quote or a similar one many years ago. It was one of those quotes that caused me to stop and ponder, because in my foolish youth, I thought certainly sometimes compassion is called for. But as I pondered it, I realized it was correct because then application of the law was arbitrary and therefore unfair. If one judge felt sorry for you and another didn't, oh well. And it imbued way too much power in judges, because they could dismiss the law in the name of compassion.
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That's why on all the traditional statutes of the lady representing law and justice, she wears a blindfold. Helps in being dispassionate in dispensing justice.
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