FROM THE AUTHOR: “Will this election reach the point where any and all criticism or opposition to Barack Obama will be labeled “racism”? It seems the Illinois senator still prefers to avoid that.”
ANSWER: From „Bambi vs. Godzilla“ by David Mamet, c. 2007, pp 132-135
“The talentless, misguided, or exploitative have long employed supradramatic devices in the construction of the drama, … as these very human virtues, practiced in the wider world, are understood (subconsciously) by the viewer to trump an interest in mere entertainment.”
“ ’Do you appreciate the film, or do you hate the deaf/gays/blacks?’ This is the (again, conscious or unconscious) mechanism of the issue drama.”
“Imagine, similarly, a candidate for office who asks for your vote because she is blind. ‘Yes,’ one might think, ‘that is certainly a shame, but I, the voter, pay taxes and so am entitled to representation. I will cast or withhold my vote according to my understanding of how this candidate’s views reflect or inform my own; I fail to see how her affliction enters into this equation.’ “
“But we are biddable. The suspension of disbelief necessary to the dramatic transaction opens the door to its misuse by both the criminal and the well meaning.”
“The ancient joke has a member of the majority culture taking a shortcut home through a dark alley in which he encounters a member of a despised minority. The minority fellow threatens the other with a knife, the proposed victim produces a revolver and says, ‘Isn’t that just like a (insert favorite racially derogatory term) to bring a knife to a gunfight?’ “
“Well, hijacking of the dramatic transaction is bringing a gun to a knife fight.”
