Victor Davis Hanson Interviews David Mamet

Summary

Podcast Summary: Victor Davis Hanson Interviews David Mamet The Victor Davis Hanson Show | Episode: "Victor Davis Hanson Interviews David Mamet" | Release Date: June 7, 2025

In this enlightening episode of The Victor Davis Hanson Show, host Victor Davis Hanson engages in a profound conversation with acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, and author David Mamet. The discussion delves into Mamet's latest work, "The Disenlightenment," and explores the complexities of contemporary political and social landscapes, particularly focusing on the repercussions of Enlightenment ideals, the rise of Wokeism, and the deteriorating state of American universities.

---

1. Introduction to David Mamet and "The Disenlightenment"

Victor Davis Hanson opens the episode by introducing David Mamet as "probably the greatest combined screenwriter and playwright and author in America still living." He highlights Mamet's new book, The Disenlightenment, setting the stage for a deep dive into the themes and critiques presented in the work.

2. Defining Disenlightenment and Critiquing Wokeism

Mamet begins by clarifying the concept of "disenlightenment," emphasizing it as a response to the misapplication of Enlightenment principles. He frames Wokeism as a perversion of these ideals, leading society "down the road to Sodom and Gomorrah" ([04:51]).

David Mamet [04:51]:
"It's kind of ironic. Yeah, it's a homage to the horror and the tragedy of Woke ism of the people who have taken the Enlightenment and chased it down the road to Sodom and Gomorrah."

3. The Equality Debate: Result vs. Opportunity

The conversation shifts to the contentious debate between equality of result and equality of opportunity. Mamet critiques the Marxist underpinning of Wokeism, which categorizes individuals into binary roles of "victimizer and victim," undermining personal accountability and fostering division ([05:09]).

David Mamet [05:39]:
"We have this binary between victimizer and victim and then we put everybody in this category..."

4. Historical Parallels: Open Cities and Power Vacuums

Mamet draws parallels between contemporary political chaos and historical instances of open cities during wartime, such as Paris in 1944 and Moscow in 1812. He likens the current American political landscape to these tumultuous times, where multiple factions vie for power in the absence of strong leadership ([07:15]).

David Mamet [07:31]:
"The Biden administration was a coup that then decamped. So what you had was a vacuum of power, an open City..."

5. The Decline of American Universities: Lowering Standards and Affirmative Action

A significant portion of the discussion critiques the current state of higher education in the United States. Mamet argues that universities have lowered their academic standards in favor of affirmative action and diversity initiatives, resulting in graduates who are less competitive and well-prepared for the workforce ([15:44]).

Victor Davis Hanson [18:05]:
"The response... Larry Ellison... He said, how? To the audience, how many satellites does the EU have... that's Elon. Yeah. So he's done things that nobody, Henry Ford didn't."

6. Political Landscape: The Trump vs. Biden Administration

Victor and Mamet explore the contrasting approaches of the Trump and Biden administrations. Mamet expresses skepticism about Biden's strategies, particularly regarding foreign policy with Iran, suggesting that Biden's administration lacks cohesive leadership and is reactive rather than proactive ([23:15]).

David Mamet [23:15]:
"We're in a fight. So in a real fight, we don't know where it's going to come out... it's with the gods."

7. California's Crisis: Infrastructure, Homelessness, and Governance Failures

The dialogue intensifies as Victor and Mamet discuss the multifaceted crises plaguing California, including rampant homelessness, failing infrastructure, and dysfunctional governance. They highlight specific examples such as the high cost of gasoline, ineffective disaster response, and the exodus of talent from the state ([51:27]).

Victor Davis Hanson [52:08]:
"California is sort of the first example of a dystopia or decivilization that's happening across... it's almost apocalyptic."

8. The Erosion of Public Confidence in Higher Education

Mamet and Hanson discuss the diminishing public trust in higher education institutions, attributing it to the perceived decline in academic rigor and the embrace of progressive ideologies. This erosion is reflected in hiring practices, where employers prefer graduates from less prestigious institutions who are deemed more competent ([34:16]).

Victor Davis Hanson [34:16]:
"They're not competitive and they're not hiring as much... 60% now have no confidence in higher education."

9. Hollywood's Transformation and David Mamet's Career

Shifting focus to the entertainment industry, Mamet laments the shift from a studio-dominated system to a fragmented, committee-driven model. He shares his personal experiences of navigating this changed landscape, noting increased difficulties for conservatives in Hollywood and the challenges of independent filmmaking ([43:11]).

David Mamet [47:40]:
"The business changed, and people don't want to touch me because I'm a conservative."

10. Elon Musk: A Hero of Modern Innovation Amidst Backlash

In a spirited exchange, Hanson praises Elon Musk for his groundbreaking contributions to technology and society, likening him to historical innovators like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. Mamet echoes this sentiment, criticizing the leftist backlash against Musk despite his significant achievements ([60:34]).

Victor Davis Hanson [60:35]:
"He's revolutionized... these rockets are incredible."

David Mamet [62:41]:
"It's savagery."

11. Closing Thoughts: The Path Forward

As the episode nears its conclusion, Hanson and Mamet reflect on the dire state of American society and institutions, yet they hint at a cautious optimism fueled by the resilience of individuals and the potential for meaningful change. Mamet mentions his new movie, Henry Johnson, and encourages listeners to engage with his recent work ([64:23]).

David Mamet [65:33]:
"It's amazing."

---

Notable Quotes:

• David Mamet [07:31]:
  "The Biden administration was a coup that then decamped... an open City."

• Victor Davis Hanson [34:16]:
  "They're not competitive and they're not hiring as much... 60% now have no confidence in higher education."

• David Mamet [43:11]:
  "The business changed, and people don't want to touch me because I'm a conservative."

• Victor Davis Hanson [60:35]:
  "These rockets are incredible."

---

Conclusion

This episode offers a compelling critique of contemporary American society through David Mamet's incisive analysis. From the distortion of Enlightenment ideals to the systemic failures within higher education and governance, Mamet provides a thought-provoking perspective on the challenges facing the United States. His insights call for a reevaluation of current policies and a return to foundational principles that uphold meritocracy and individual accountability.

For those interested in exploring these themes further, David Mamet's latest book, The Disenlightenment, and his new film, Henry Johnson, are highly recommended.

Transcript

[Sponsor Representative]

If you're like me, you have a lot of product on your bathroom counter. Well, I have found the secret serum and it's Vibriance Super C Serum. The ingredients in this one bottle can replace your day creams, eye creams, night creams, neck creams, wrinkle creams, and even dark spot reducers. Made in the usa. With the highest quality ingredients including vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, vitamin B5 and vitamin E, Super C Serum delivers noticeable results. Simplify your skin care routine, get a healthier complexion and minimize wrinkles and age spots with Vibrance. I just began using Super C Serum last week and I love it. My skin feels so much better, soft, moist and fresh. And by the way, it smells beautiful like the orange blossoms outside my kitchen door. Give it a try and you'll love it too. And if you don't find it better than your current skincare routine, you'll get a full refund. Go to vibrance.com victor to save up to 37% off and free shipping. That's Vibrance V I B R I A n c e vibrance.com Victor and we'd like to thank Vibrance for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

This is Victor Davis Hansen on the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I'm solo today with one of our interviews. Jack and Sammy will be with us soon and it's my pleasure to announce that David Mamet, I think probably the greatest combined screenwriter and playwright and author in America still living, is our guest and today is the Pub Pub date of his new book the Politics, Horror and Entertainment.

[OpenPhone Representative]

In today's fast moving world, your team needs to stay connected to your customers without mixed messages, communication silos, Slow Phone Systems A flexible and efficient business phone system isn't just nice to have, it's essential to succeed. Enter OpenPhone. OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. It works through an app on your phone or computer, so no more carrying two phones or using a landline. With OpenPhone your team can share one number and collaborate on customer calls and texts on like a shared inbox. That way any teammate can pick up right where the last person left off, keeping response times faster than ever. Plus, with AI powered call transcripts and summaries, you'll be able to automate follow ups, ensuring you'll never miss a customer interaction again. So whether you're a one person operation drowning in calls and texts, or have a large team that needs better collaboration tools, Openphone is a no brainer see why over 50,000 businesses trust Openphone to manage their businesses calls and texts. Openphone is offering our listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com Victor that's O P E N P H O-N-E openphone.com Victor and if you have existing numbers with another service, Openphone will port them over and at no extra charge. Open Phone no missed calls, no missed.

[David Mamet]

Customers Craving your next action packed adventure, Audible delivers thrills of every kind on your command. Like Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir where a lone astronaut must save humanity from extinction. Narrated with stunning intensity by Ray Porter. From electrifying suspense and daring quests to spine tingling horror and romance in far off realms, unleash your adventure aside with gripping titles that'll keep you guessing. Discover exclusive Audible originals, hotly anticipated new releases and must listen bestsellers that hook you from the first minute because Audible knows there's no greater thrill than the one that speaks to you. Discover what lies beyond the edge of your seat. Start your free 30 day trial at audible.com wonderyus that's audible.com wonderyus.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

So it's my pleasure David, that you're with us. Thank you very much. What disenlightenment? And I looked at the essays and we've been told as college graduates that the Enlightenment saved Western civilization and the post enlightenment in its anti religious sense. But what is this use of the prefix disenlightment? What's your. Do you see the Enlightenment? That it was necessary and now it's become. I don't know.

[David Mamet]

Not at all, Victor. I mean it's kind of, it's kind of ironic. Yeah, it's a homage to the, the horror and the tragedy of Woke ism of the people who have taken the Enlightenment and chased it down the road to Sodom and Gomorrah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. You think is it the equality of result? The idea that we're going to make everybody equal or else. Is that, is that the. What is it about Woke that you find the most scary or the most disturbing? The interest? The emphasis on individual appearance, Sexual orientation? Or is it this Marxist idea that we pick. We have this binary between victimizer and victim and then we put everybody in this category and well, you know, I.

[David Mamet]

Thought I came up with this idea but I was reading, reading Tom Sowell's book. It's not dissonance disassembling America. It's dis. I've forgotten it. But he's, he's talking about the same thing 15 years ago and he's talking in piecemeal about the various perfidies, the destruction of the border, that is, the equality of result rather than equality of opportunity, the marginalization of men, et cetera, et cetera. So what I'm. What I'm doing in the book is I'm looking at these various horrors and perfidies and crimes and absurdities and blasphemies and trying to take an overview and saying, what does it all mean? Where do they come together? Okay, yeah. What in the world do the transsexual people have in common with the Free Palestine people? Free Palestine people want to kill them. Right. What in the world do the open border people have in common with the men into women's sports? It doesn't make any sense. So as a playwright, what you're trying to do, what one is trying to do is take disparate scenes or disparate ideas and reduce them to a through line, saying what is actually happening all the time. And that's what a play is. It's as Aristotle said, it's the quest of the affronted protagonist to solve a problem, the clarity of which increases the farther he goes until he finally realizes, oh, my God, it was there in front of me all the time.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Time is the common enemy, the unifying common denominator with all these disparate causes and initiatives and agendas. Is it the white male, capitalist, Western idea that they hate and all of these are manifestations of it?

[David Mamet]

No, I think it's a lot worse than that. I think what I said. I finally began to achieve some clarity after working on all those essays and making the book over a couple of years, is that I said, aha. I finally recognize the totality. And the totality is the open city. Paris in 1944, Naples in 43 44. Tolstoy writes so beautifully about it in War and Peace, Moscow in 1812. So what we have is a civilization that is decamped, and the administration, the Nazis, for example, leave Paris, and the Allies haven't shown up. And so you have different groups who are trying to achieve power. But my mistake was in first writing the essays, thinking, wait a second, what is the Biden? What is the power the administration, the Biden administration is trying to do? Because obviously someone is shaking the country apart, so there's gonna be nothing left. So I realized it wasn't an administrator. The Biden administration was a coup that then left town. Right. The Obama Marxist, Islamist Bidens were a coup that then decamped. So what you had was a vacuum of power, an open City, in effect, where, just as in Paris, the Marxists were on this street, the Patanists were over there, the resistance were over there, the Trotskyets were over here, the blah, blah, blah, blah. Everyone was saying, leave me alone. I'm going to loot. I'm going to do those things I want to do. I'm going to settle my scores. And once in a while, the Marxists, the Stalinist and the Trotskyites would get together to gang up on the hoopla. Blah. And sometimes they would fight each other. But what I was looking at in the Biden, the years of the Biden horror, was the absence of an overriding power under which different groups are looting. They're looting, they're killing, they're looking for power. And sometimes they coalesce and sometimes they fight each other. But the absence, so that the resistance to Trump was resistance to the idea of a unifying power. Because if the unifying power comes in, you can't give $2 billion. This Sally says, you know what? I'm going to give $2 billion to my friend Stacey Abrams. She said, there's no president there, right? He's in the other room drooling. Okay, yeah. And so they've decided, we got the auto pimp. Sally says, I want to give $2 billion to my friend Stacey Abrams. Right? Jimmy says, well, Jesus Christ. Okay, you want to do that. But you know what I want to do? I don't like war. I want to pull out of Afghanistan right now. Right now. We'll just get out, right? Billy says, well, that's ridiculous. And Jimmy says, yeah, okay, it's ridiculous. But on the other hand, you want to put men in women's sports, I'll vote for you, you vote for me. And so what you have is a cabal stirring the witch's cauldron of, you get to do this, I get to do that. Okay, okay, okay. And just as in Paris, and just as in any open city, you also have people settling scores. The FBI comes in and says, you know what? Fuck Trump. That's what I want to do. Right in the middle. Just like in the open city in Moscow, you had people who didn't have any plan, but they wanted to kill the guy to whom they owed 10,000 rubles to. So that's what I come to in my thinking brings me to. At the end of the book, what we're looking at is an open city. There's nobody home. You look at Fox News every day and or cnn, all the Dems are screaming, but we have to have a message. We have to have a message. Well, they don't even have a party anymore, right?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They do have this. I asked this question in a podcast. Why would they do something like open the border, lie about it, let in 12 million people? That's going to take a generation. I mean, each person is almost guaranteed a Supreme Court appeal. And then you look at the decriminalization in these blue cities. Everybody's leaving them their wastelands, these prosecutors, you know, the Karen Fox. And then you look at the mayors all. And they're destroying women's sports you mentioned. So it seems like they just. Somebody said, I don't like these people. I don't like them. I don't know, Middle America or the average conservative or I don't like people who play by the rules. And I'm going to destroy the system. And it's going to take them a generation after I leave to clean up these cities, to deal with the homeless, to deal with the illegal immigrants, to get the murderers out. And this is what I want. I want to destroy. I want to just throw as much crap as I can. And the free Palestine people as well. They've destroyed the universities. I mean, we've got 300,000 Chinese. Kennedy School of Government's got Communist Party members from China. We've got all these Palestinian people who have invaded and helped with gutter money, you know, these Middle east studies programs. And I think it's kind of a nihilism. They're saying, well, you know, you guys think you're in control and you go do your little pedestrian nuclear family lives and you think you're. But you know what? We don't need a popular vote. We don't need public support. We're down on 20, 80 on every one of our issues. But we have institutional power. We have the media, we have the foundations, we have academia. And we can do a lot of damage to you. We're not constructive, but we can damage you. And I think it's. It's almost an. I don't know, it's out of Satiricon, Petronius, the Satiricon or something. Just a chaotic. Destroy the system. And they hate it. They hate everything about it. I guess I'm prejudiced because I'm at the campus and I looked at the Hamas camps for four months. I walked by and I. Every time I would walk by, I'd say to one of these very affluent Middle east students, I said, the rules are that you can only camp one day here. And then I looked at The Jewish students, and they were counter protesting. They were all well dressed. They had a little tiny table, it was immaculate. And they, when you walked by, they said, would you like to hear about what happened on October 7? And the response, and you said, yes. And you go over there in a very polite term. Meanwhile, the people over here, 10 times their numbers, camping with signs at said, be quiet. Protesters asleep in their little tents. And they were screaming and yelling and they were defying. And then you had these impotent faculty and administrators walking by and you'd say to them, look what they're doing. And then they went to the colonnades at Stanford, and it's sandstone, historic. And they painted Hamas, you know, globalized, the Infinifada, everything. And then a week later, you saw these Mexican American maintenance people with tweezers trying to pick out every little piece of paint because they couldn't sandblast it without injury. And these kids were walking by grinning, and it was almost. It was an assault on every aspect of a university of rules. And they were saying to them, you're not going to do anything to us. You're not going to touch us because of your liberal pieties. And we, we have. We hate you because you're weak and you're appeasing us. And if it hadn't. Trump is the only person, I think, in the Republican Party. I can't imagine a Mitt Romney or a late John McCain or Bob Dole or the Bushes doing what he did to. He basically said, you think you're going to do that? I'm crazier than you are. And we'll see who wins. And that's where we are right now.

[David Mamet]

Yeah, it's absolutely where we are. You know, Shelby Steele said something one time. He said he was in the camp. Where did he go? Did he go to Berkeley? He went to some.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was in Ohio when he went to university at University of Utah, I think.

[David Mamet]

Yeah, he was at some place.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

San Jose State. He labored for San Jose State for years, and he was absolutely brilliant. He was the best person in the English department. And he started to voice conservative things. And they tried to believe it or not. And I taught 21 years at the CSU system and you really have to try not to get tenure. It's pretty much a given. And they tried to take it. They tried not to give him tenure, even though he'd published more than the entire department. They hated him so much because he was a confident, black, successful conservative. And they. And they couldn't stand that. And These were white liberal elites that went after him in a very racist fashion.

[David Mamet]

Yeah, no, but I'm referring to when he was a student.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was a student, a university graduate student at University of Utah.

[David Mamet]

I think he was a student somewhere. And he was a radical right and he was very flat powerful. And he said he came into, they came into the president's office and he was smoking a cigarette, Shelby said, and he was jabbering at this, blah, blah, blah, but he dropped a cigarette into the carpet and ground it out with his foot. Right. And what he said was, in effect, he's. It was one of the things he most regrets in his life. But what he seemed to say at the fence, it scared him to death. Right. Because what happens to a kid if the kid knows it's supposed to be disciplined and you don't? The kid becomes terrified and he says, wait a second. And somebody better be in charge here because if these effing fools aren't going to step up, it better be me. And so that's what happened to a lot of these kids because they've never been disciplined.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They've never been given generation after generation too, right? Well, yeah, your parents as well.

[David Mamet]

I mean, this was going on when I was at College in the 60s. And so part of the problem is the Democratic Party just crumbled as soon as somebody on the left said, blah, blah, blah, free Palestine, all the Democratic party, just like a table tipping went to the left. And so then the people who were nobody, the squad and example said, oh, wait a second. You want to give me power? Okay, I'll take it. So there.

[Sponsor Representative]

I would like to take a moment for our sponsor and one of my favorite online stores, Quince. Quince has all the things you actually want to wear this summer, like organic cotton silk polos, European linen beach shorts and comfortable pants that work for everything from backyard hangs to nice dinners. The best part, everything with Quince is half the cost of similar brands. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quince gives you luxury pieces without the markups. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes. Stick to the staples that last with elevated essentials from quince. Go to quince.com Victor for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N C-E.com Victor to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Victor and we love to thank Quince for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen show.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

You know what? We're talking, everybody, with David Mamet. And we all know him as our premier playwright, but I don't think a lot of us appreciate his screenwritings at least some. You know, I was thinking some of my favorite movies of the last 40 years, postman always Rings Twice, the Verdict, the Untouchables, Hoffman, the Edge, and one I don't. You know what? I. My favorite one was Ronan. That you. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I really love that movie. I first met you, David, at Shelby Steel's house. And this is. But Obama was campaigning in 2008 and he was in Philadelphia. And I didn't know at the time that you had written a screenplay for Untouchables. And I said to you, I can't believe this guy. He got in front of everybody and he said, we're going to bring a knife to a gun, don't we? Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. And have you ever heard anything. And you very quietly said, yeah, I've heard that before. I wrote it. And I didn't know that. So it was. That's how I first met David Mamet. And I had no idea. I knew you were a screenwriter, but I had no idea at the time that you've not only the range of your audience is amazing, from people who go to the theater to the average American that loved these movies that you wrote and in a way that appealed to them. And so we're very lucky. We're going to be right back with David Mamet. He's got a new book out, the Disenlightenment.

[OpenPhone Representative]

Time is our most precious commodity. And we've heard from so many listeners who've asked for advice about how they can spend it wisely to improve themselves and the people around them. Hillsdale College is offering more than 40 free online courses. That's right, more than 40 free online courses. Learn about the works of C.S. lewis, the stories in the book of Genesis, the meaning of the US Constitution, the rise and fall of the Roman Republic with a history of the ancient Christian church with Hillsdale College's free online courses. You can even take Victor Davis Hansen's class, the Second World Wars. This free seven lecture course will help you understand this massive and complex conflict in a new way. It will give you a clear picture of why the war was fought and how the allied powers ultimately triumphed in order to save the west from a new form of tyranny. This class is taught by Victor Davis Hansen and Hillsdale's president, Larry P. On the course is self paced so that you can start whenever and wherever. Go right now to Hillsdale Edu VDH to enroll. There's no cost and it's easy to get started. That's Hillsdale Edu VDH to enroll for free Hillsdale Edu VDH Rakuten is the smartest way to save money when you.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Shop because you earn cash back at over 3,500 stores. Fashion, beauty, electronics, home essentials, travel, dining, concert tickets and more. Your favorite stores like Lowe's, Levi's and Nike. Pay Rakuten to send them shoppers.

[OpenPhone Representative]

And Rakuten then passes on a part.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Of that payment to its members as cash back. You're already shopping at your favorite stores. Why not save while you're doing it?

[OpenPhone Representative]

It's a no brainer. Membership is free and easy to sign up. Get the Rakuten app now and join.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

The 17 million members who are already saving cash back. Rates change daily.

[OpenPhone Representative]

See rakuten.com for details.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That's R A K U T E N your cash back really adds up. And we're right back again with David. David, are you optimistic, neutral, wary, pessimistic about the next three years of the Trump administration? Can he make any headway at all?

[David Mamet]

Well, you know, what it is, is, and you said it very early on, I think on the, on the 6th or 7th, you said we haven't won the fight, but now we're in a fight, they're going to have to get beat several more times. And that's where we are. We're in a fight. So in a real fight, we don't know where it's going to come out. We just know what our, what we're going to do, which is we're going to fight and we're going to do the best we can. And after that, it's with the gods. And Rebecca west said it's not if you were in a fight, it's not whether or not you fought, but if you would have fought had it come to you. Right. It's not whether or not you went. Well, that's what she said. Right. The question is if it's necessary to fight, would you stand up and fight? And the answer for us on the conservative side, to the largest extent and the differing extents is yes, right. That we're fighting for the life of our country. And we just seen this phenomenal resurrection of the ability to fight because had they stolen another election, the country would have been over. And so the question, as you said, are we going to win the Next couple of fights and we'll see.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be very difficult. Only, I mean, all the traditional levels of levers of power, the presidency and for now until the midterms at least the House and the Senate, although thin margins for all the criticism. The Supreme Court, it's more conservative than not. But all of that and the popularity of the issues, as I said earlier, it's pledged against this administrative, these institutional powers. One thing about the university I've noticed, it's kind of like a mossy rock. It looks really impressive and you turn it over and it's ugly underneath, worms and decay. And I don't think they're going to win this because just from my experiences at Stanford, every issue that they are contending with Trump, they're going to lose for the 2022 Supreme Court. They have separate graduations. They call them auxiliary. But you and I know that if they had a European American separate graduation, they would shut it down in two seconds as racist. They have theme houses by race. They're violating the Supreme Court. They had a People's Liberation army colonel that was on the faculty a few years ago. They didn't report Chinese Communist money. Betsy DeVos fined them in the first term. They, I think it's pretty clear that they were charging up to 50% surcharges on federal grounds. That's going to cost them 183 million that they were counting on. They ran Judge Duncan out of the law school. They shouted him down. They hijacked his lecture. The DI person did at the law school. And then the trans students said they hope. They yelled at him, we want your daughter to be raped. There were no consequences to any of them. I mentioned the Hamas. They had a lot of liberal faculty did an anti Semitic study, David, at Stanford, 900 pages. And they, everybody thought they would whitewash it, but it was so egregious that even they had to say that Stanford was institutionalized anti Semit, had institutionalized anti Semitism. They posted in kind of a bragged, braggadocious fashion that they were letting in 9 to 10% of the incoming class allow post George Floyd as white males. And even though that's a 33 to 35% demographic. So they've got so much exposure that and they have a new president. But that's typical of all these campuses and the public doesn't know any of that. And they're kind of like illegal immigration. People say, okay, Trump is trying to do it, but almost every day it's been so egregious. You get a murder or you get this guy in Colorado or. And the same thing with the universities. So, you know, you learn that these two Harvard students that roughed up a Jewish student, the divinity school made one the grand marshal of the graduation and the other guy in the law school, they gave him 65,000. It's almost. It would have been a lot more honest if Harvard said we have a beat the Jew award and we're going to give it this year to two guys who got 90 days long, cut a deal with the D. A. They were found culpable, but they were so brave because they roughed up a Jewish guy that we gave one guy, he won the Jew beat the Jew ward in the law school and this guy won the beat the Jew. That's what they're doing, basically.

[David Mamet]

And well, it's funny you say as if, but it's not as if it's.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

No, it's true, it's true.

[David Mamet]

So I think we were talking years ago about them Forest and Dublin, right. Was a great populist economist of University of Chicago. And he's famous, of course for writing a theory of leisure class. Read a lot of great books. One of them is called the higher learning.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Orson Veblen. Yeah, he was a great writer.

[David Mamet]

Yeah. But he was looking at what was happening in higher education in 1914. He said it's a scam. He said it's an absolute scam. The universities. He was in the universities City of Chicago, which has just been fund funded 20 years previously. He said it's a scam. He said it's basically, it's all a diploma mill. But what they're doing is saying come, come to our. So what they're doing is competing against each other in giving out treats to attract students. One of the tweets was this professor who won a Nobel prize. Well, you're never going to see him, right. You're going to see his teaching assistants. Teaching assistants. And as this goes on through the years, we get. We're going to give you credit for life experience, right. Which is selling diplomas or we're going to give you credit for an essay that everybody knows you didn't write. Or we're going to get. We're going to give you a football team. And so as you see over the last 100 years, the school keeps giving out these greater and greater inducements. Exactly. As if they're a resort, which in effect they are. So the, the latest inducement of these schools is, guess what? You get to. Get to beat up Jews. Yeah, that's what this. That's what.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

No, it is.

[David Mamet]

It is.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

You can.

[David Mamet]

It's the. It's the. It's the little submarine, the plastic submarine in the. In the. In the. Kellogg's cornflakes.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

You know what? It's funny. I was. Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, they always. At Chicago, they always advertised that up until George Floyd, that our median SAT score is 780, that we evaluate your GPA by the caliber of your high school. We're very, very rigorous. We take 6,5%. Then we have these curricula that are so hard that no one else can do it. A guy at Fresno State would flunk out. Da da da, da da. And that's why we get our prestige. We have no. But once they went down this road, they had been going down it, of course. But when they got rid of the SAT for five years and they stopped ranking comparative GPAs and they went into what they would call privately reparations admissions. So these groups that were not, say, 200 points down the SAT or they were there, either their GPA was not competitive or it was from a high school, it was not competitive, and they put them all in. It's been a great experiment. So you talk to faculty, and I try to always talk when I visit, and they say something like the following, David. They said, I'm not going to die on the altar of standards. I only have three choices. I either watered down the content or I watered down the grade and Stanford and Yale gave 80% A's or I got to bring in new ridiculous courses. And if I don't, the DEI auditors find that I have a systemic prejudice against certain groups. So I was telling everybody, I was talking to four or five Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, pretty well off guys. And I said very naively, if they sold these cattle brands, that you could go to Harvard or Yale or Chicago or Duke, whatever, because of their rigorous. And then for a while at least, people, maybe they didn't learn anything, but they had to do well in these tests or something. So they had the semblance of education. So when you hired them at Google or Facebook, they spoke well or they were good in analytics. Now they can't guarantee that. So what will happen to the prestige? And this guy, he said, where in the hell have you been, Victor? You are so far behind. If I have a choice between a Georgia Tech, a Virginia Tech, a Texas A and M graduate, and a Stanford, you think I'm crazy. I know those guys are well trained. They had to earn their grades. And they don't go to HR on the first day and complain about me. And we're hiring those people. And I think they don't realize that Trump is the kind of the. He's the end of the beginning. They don't understand that he's just a symptom of why they caused. And he's accelerated. He's a catalyst. But I think their whole prestige and how they settle as an entree into the wealthy elite class is. Is over with. I really think that a lot of people are going to say, you know what?

[David Mamet]

I hope so.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It's a joke. It's a joke. Your degree is. Is a joke.

[David Mamet]

And let's see, I've been doing it. I'm glad to hear you say that, because I've been doing that for years, because when we're making a movie of a lot of people, young people would come up and say, oh, give me a job, give me a job. If I look at one of the elite universities, I'm going to say, you know what? No, somebody went to the Santa Monica Community College. I'm going to, I'm going to say, okay, sit down and let's talk. But you know, Tom Sowell, of course, wrote this book about black education 30 years ago. He said, the tragedy is when you lower the standards, the kids who have the lower standards can't do the work, and then they can't get a job. And it's going to mean that other black people who are going to be tied with the same brush of saying, oh, I guess that you're an affirmative action graduate of Harvard. It's terrible. But part of the problem, what's going to happen is the parents got to stop saying, I'm not going to give a million bucks after taxes to send you to go protest and come out with a degree that's not fungible. So that's what's got to happen. Just.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And it's happening. I think it's happening when these employers see that the graduates that are turned out are not competitive with places south of the Mason Dixon line.

[David Mamet]

Yeah, indeed.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. And they're not competitive and they're not hiring as much. And I know I was on a hiring committee and we had 900 applicants to the Hoover Institution. And I was just stunned that when we interviewed people, some from German universities, some from British universities, and some from state universities versus the regular Stanford, Harvard, the other ones were just much more realistic, well spoken, not crazy, not esoteric, not arrogant as a general stereotype. And it's but the public, 60% now have no confidence in higher education. They're way ahead of the universities. The university people still think they have this allure or this power, this prestige. But I think the general public is done with them and Trump has kind of lit the fuse of an explosive that was already there.

[David Mamet]

Excellent.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I think it's, that's hopeful. David, what are you working on right now for your next project?

[David Mamet]

Well, I just, I finished the movie. I, I did a, I did a play with Shia LaBeouf in a little theater, 100 seat theater over here and it was very, it was good plays really. And at the end of the run, Shia said, and Evan, Evan Jonakite who was his co star said we can't, we don't have the theater anymore. Let's do it as a movie. So we did a movie based on this place called Henry Johnson just came out. People can watch it on henryjohnsonmovie.com henryjohnsonmovie.com and I'm really happy with it. It's, it's about this, this guy who's so goodwill that A, everybody takes advantage of him and B, he ruins everything he touches. Which is to me an example of the liberals, you know, because I think it was Arnold Bennett said there are old fools and young fools, sad fools and happy fools, but there never was a fool who was not cruel.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Robert Gates, remember he said that about Joe Biden. Joe Biden's been on the wrong side of every major foreign policy decision for the last 30 years and he's been rewarded for it.

[David Mamet]

Well, yeah. Oh, speaking of that, just between two guys, right, In a private conversation, what's our president doing about Iran? I mean, how can there possibly be a deal that they'll keep? Or is he just playing poker with them?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I'm hoping he's playing poker. I think his strategy is I've got this maga, Candace, Owen, these people, and they are non intervention neo isolationists and we all know that Iran, you can't talk to Iran. They're proverbial liars, they want to destroy Israel. But if I do a preemptive raid before it's clear that they're going to reject everything. So I think what he's doing, and I don't know if it has a self, unfortunately it might have a self like a drone that's gone on its own mission. But I think he thinks he's going to tell the American people that he's exhausted trying to talk to them and that, you know, it's Kind of like Obama, to tell you the truth. I'm going to talk, talk, talk. And at some critical point, somebody's going to come to him in the summer or fall and say, Mr. President, they've got 12 bombs that they can. They're at enrichment. You either have to act now or you can't act because they don't have any air defenses. Hezbollah is inert. Hamas is inert. The Houthis are inert. This is the only chance you're going to have. There's a lot of dissension, so this is the time to do it. And that. And I think that would be some. I've talked to people and they seem to think that he wants to. It's sort of like the Ukraine thing, that he was playing Art of the Deal, that, hey, everybody, nobody's heard Putin's side of the story. And people came to Trump and they said, why don't you insult him? Why don't you call? And he said, no, no, no, you don't insult your people, but we're going to go through this. And then he learned that, you know, that Putin is not going to settle a deal. And now he's got credibility if he wants to, you know, help Ukraine. I'm not going to get into whether he should or not. I think he should, but the point I'm making is I think he feels he's got to exalt. He did that with Baghdadi and isis. He said, I'm going to bomb the crap out of ISIS and I'm going to solve the isis. And then he's starting to go negotiating. Then all of a sudden, and. And he said the same thing about Iran. And then all of a sudden, Soleimani was vaporized. Baghdadi was vaporized, ISIS was vaporized. And then they came to him and they said, the Wagner group is running amok in Syria. They're killing everybody. And now they've attacked. An hour ago, they attacked the American installation, this base in. Sir. In Iraq. And. And people said, in Syria, excuse me. And they said, we can't do anything. And he said, kill them all. And they said that you'd kill more people than we lost, than we did in the entire. It'll kill more Russians than we did during the whole Cold War. He said, kill them. And they killed anywhere from two to 400 of them. So I think that's what he's doing. And to the degree that I'm being objective or optimistic, I don't know.

[David Mamet]

Thank you.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I'm hoping he's doing that because it will be a blank, blank disaster if you try to negotiate with him, especially in this weekend. They have no cards to play right now. They have no Hezbollah to commit terrorism. They can't launch 20,000 rockets like they have against Israeli civilian centers. The Houthis are kind of emasculated for a while and Israel's ready to go. But Israel doesn't have the wherewithal for a one week strategic campaign with 20,000 pound, 30,000 bombs. They don't have the delivery system, at least in terms of aircraft. It would be better if we did it. But I think he's not, he's run on the idea we don't do optional wars in the Middle east anymore. I don't know if he defined that as aerial or ground. So I think he's looking, not for pretext, but trying to tell the Western world, I, I exhausted every avenue and I have no choice. So we'll see. But I'm, I'm worried.

[David Mamet]

Yeah, we will see, won't we?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And same thing about Ukraine is even more interesting because today they hit the Kirsch Bridge. That's the lifeline from Russia to Crimea. And then these drones that were delivered all the way to these Arctic bases. And a brilliant, they've destroyed 35% of the nuclear delivery bombers and everybody is ecstatic. But until this happened, they were being ground down. They've lost 12 million people to refugees. So the country's 28 million out of 40 million people are still there and they don't have the wherewithal to keep fighting. They were being ground down. So now they've done this and everybody's euphoric, but you don't know what the reaction is going to be and what our counter reaction to their action should be. Because we had kind of a rule in the Cold War when we faced the Soviets that we didn't allow the proxy of either side to attack or threaten the homeland of the rival. So when they armed Cuba to hit us, Kennedy, Curtis, LeMay and that whole bunch said to Khrushchev, you broke the rules, you're using a proxy to threaten the homeland. When we were in Vietnam, we had just started to have troops. We don't, we didn't threaten you. We were in a proxy third. So it's kind of a rule, you don't do that. So, and I don't know if those rules still apply, but everybody thinks that there's never going to be an escalation on the planet. Part of the Russians and all these threats are empty. But when you lose 30% of your strategic bombing fleet by a proxy. And I, I know that they said that we had no help, but I doubt that, that the Ukrainians had the intelligence or the satellite capability to know whether without us or the European. That's pretty scary. And I mentioned it in this recent book. The end of everything that it was getting the, the, the unimaginable becomes imaginable and then likely very quickly without warning.

[David Mamet]

Well, that's, that's for certain.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. So are you, what, where are your emphases right now in. Is it movies, plays, writing, or all together? David?

[David Mamet]

Well, as I say, I finished this movie. I'm, I'm planning a new movie that I hope to shoot in the fall with Shia. With John Malkovich.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

John Malkovich, Is he still active? He's such a great guy. I didn't, you know.

[David Mamet]

Oh yeah, you know, I did a play, I guess it's already like three years ago. We did a play on the West End. John starred in a comedy I wrote about a fellow very much like Harvey Weinstein. It was, it was pretty freaking funny. And he's working all the time. He's directing a lot of opera and he's doing a lot of acting, so. And Al Pacino is going to be in that and Patti LuPone too.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He wrote that. Did he do direct that movie in Latin America about the ballerina upstairs? You know, and he had, it was a great, that she was, it, she was a communist or she was a terrorist and this guy, the police guy falls in love with her and it was a great movie. I think he directed it.

[David Mamet]

I don't know if it's very possible. He worked, works all the time.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I didn't know that. I didn't know. I don't see him in, I don't, I don't see him as much on the screen as I used to.

[OpenPhone Representative]

Let's face it, our health care system is no longer serving the people it was designed to help. Appointments take weeks, only to end in a rushed five minute consultation. Prescriptions are delayed, bureaucratic red tape gets in the way, and treatment options are limited to what some agency deems acceptable. It's inefficient, impersonal, and increasingly untrustworthy. That's why all family pharmacy is different. They believe in medical freedom. Your right to choose what works best for your health alongside a doctor who respects that choice. No interference from government regulators or insurance companies. Ordering a simple and direct skip the waiting rooms and the long pharmacy lines. Just go online, place your order and your medications are shipped right to your door. They carry over 200 medications, including trusted names like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, mebenzadol, antibiotics and other essential treatments your family may need. You can also order emergency kits, customize your supply or buy in bulk to be fully prepared. Over 100,000Americans have already made the switch to All Family Pharmacy. Perhaps now is the time for you to do the same. Visit allfamilypharmacy.com Victor and use the promo code Victor10 to get 10 off your first order. That's all familypharmacy.com Victor take back control of your health on your terms I'd.

[Sponsor Representative]

Like to welcome back our sponsor Quince. Frankly, I'm not big on trends, but I am big on clothes that feel good and last. That's why I keep going back to Quince. Their lightweight layers and high quality staples have become my everyday essentials. Quince has all the things you actually want to wear this summer like organic cotton silk polos, European linen beach shorts and comfortable pants that work for everything from backyard hangs to nice dinners. The best part? Everything with Quince is half the cost of similar brands. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quince gives you luxury pieces without the markups. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes. Quince products belong among the classics in my closet and any closet. Beautifully fabricated, easy, comfortable wear, great for any occasion and great prices. The recent linen vest I purchased is another case in point. Dress it up, dress it down. It goes anywhere and looks and feels great. Stick to the staples that last with elevated essentials from quince. Go to quince.com Victor for free shipping on your order and 365 day return. That's Q-U-I-N C-E.com Victor to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Victor and we'd like to thank Quince for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hanson Show.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Let me ask you another question. Maybe it's a little bit personal. The more that you are over overt in your disgust of this progressive project or whatever you want. Is it Are there seams within Hollywood or the film industry that don't care, they just want to look at talent or is the majority? Is it? Have you seen Roadblocks to you personally, professionally, career wise?

[David Mamet]

Well, it's hard to say. You know I've been hing around this business for 4050 years and the business very much changed and the. I came in to movies at the end of the studio system where there were still people, there were guys in power and you had a cup of coffee with them and they said, oh yeah, Dave, I know you work. What are you making? I said, blah, blah, blah. What's it going to cost? Okay, who's in it? Okay, good. Go make it. The contract will catch up with you later. The guys who actually had the capacity to make a decision. And those were the people I talked to. XDX years later, it's nothing but committees who are terrified of making a wrong decision because so they don't make a decision. So everything becomes mush, it becomes compromised and is always in the. Where there's nobody in charge. It's Gresham's law, right? And the bad decisions turn up. Throw out the good decision. So I aged out a. And I'm. The business changed be. And people don't want to touch me because I'm a conservative. Okay? So this movie I just made, we just found the money independently and as we're going to with the next movie and because the movie industry as we see is. Is dead. They're making a lot of decisions to make a lot of movies nobody wants to see.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Nobody wants to see them.

[David Mamet]

Then they make a couple of. They make a couple of, you know, of tentpole films. And God love Tom, Tom Cruise, God bless him. They're. They're betting he's going to live forever, but that, that business is. Is gone. And part of the reason it's gone is the theaters are gone, right? The brick and mortar theaters are gone. So if people aren't going to the theater, they're going to download the movie. But if you're going to download the movie, you don't need the studios. Yeah, right. You got to catch their attention. You got to figure that out. But other than that, there's no difference. There's no reason. Listen, the studios that used to have parking lots full of working people, craftspeople that were the lower middle class, the white, the. The kind of light blue collar of, of Los Angeles, they're all taken up by bureaucrats now. That's, that's, that's. If you go to Paramount and one is blah, blah, blah, there, there are, there's nothing there but bureaucrats who make nothing. Right?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. The whole thing is fragmented, isn't it? With streaming and online and POD and everything. It's is, is, is it. Is that encouraging that there seems that you can. Or is it just so discombobulated when you don't have the studio.

[David Mamet]

Well, people spend their whole lives in Hollywood saying, I had one more meeting. I think I'm getting there. I think I'm. Blah, blah, blah. They'll spend 20 years literally saying, I had a really good meeting today or I had a really good audition today once. I was saying to some people the other day, go and make the movie yourself. You make a movie on his iPhone, it's not going to be worse than the technology of, of Top Gun. Well, I don't know how to do that. They'll say, that's true, but you better off to spend 10 years figuring out how to to do it than to spend 10 years going to meetings and smiling at people who don't have the capacity to say yes.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Let me ask you another question before we end. You live in Santa Monica. What is your. Every time I go down into Los Angeles, maybe I go to the wrong places. Downtown, it seems like I'm going in the ninth ring of the inferno. Yeah, it's just this, the homeless. Are you optimistic? Is there changes or. When I see Venice beach in Santa Monica, in the downtown. I teach at Pepperdine sometimes and I go into. I had a daughter that lived in Santa Monica and she was there. And I can't believe pre Covid and post Covid, has it recovered the LA area, Santa Monica, is there any hope that it'll renew or what?

[David Mamet]

Well, I mean, they just burnt down the Palisades. That was cute. I actually went to see a Movie at the 3rd Street Market Mall in the brick and mortar theater we used to call movie theater because I wanted to see this guy. There was nobody there at the theater. And the third Street Mall, which is like five blocks of the most expensive pretty real estate in the country. Three blocks from the beach, tens of millions of tourists come there. The third Street Mall is empty. There's like, it looks like about maybe 30% occupancy. Everything else in these shops is for lease. Because of COVID because of the riots that came with COVID and because of homelessness. So the city of Santa Monica, they aren't making very, very smart decisions. So there's that.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I wonder if it's going to change because when you look at the Palisades, the mayor was in Ghana. The vice mayor was arrested for throwing in phoning in an anti Israel bomb threat. He was under house arrest. I think they've just indicted him. Yeah, the head of Water and power was getting $700,000 after failing at PG&E and they hired her and the hydrants were not working. The reservoir was empty under her direction. Then the fire chief was bragging about her DEI hiring the assistant woman was the one that said if I see a man I can't lift in an emergency, he's in the wrong place. They didn't let people clean this hillsides because of endangered vetch or whatever. It was a complete breakdown of every aspect of radical environmentalism and DEI and the people. Not that all of them were culpable. But I have a feeling even though that the times I've been to Pacific Palisades they seem to be a little bit more conservative than other places. But they voted for all this. Is there a change in the attitude that I don't know. I mean would they keep doing this again and again and again? Or is there how many times we've talked about you have to keep beating them back. But when you lose these beautiful homes and they're not being quickly rebuilt and you add this to all the other stuff. I live five miles from high speed rail. This $30 billion. Not one track laid graffiti on all the overpasses. They had a sign on my street that was shut down. We hire their disabled di. They were bragging about the state. And it's just. It's like Stonehenge when you look at it. There's just nothing there but overpasses and no track. After 15 years and the whole state, it seems to be dysfunctional. And you're wondering after the Palisades fire and high speed rail, finally people are going to. I mean LA got rid of Mr. Gascon. That was a good sign. And the mayor. So I don't know if how much more the state can take before it either becomes dysfunctional. Half of all the accidents in Fresno county, the person that commits them runs away. Illegal aliens. And I live out in an area here that I grew up in. I'm speaking in the house where I grew up. It's. My great great grandmother built it in 1870 and nobody had a key when we were growing up. Nobody even knew where the key to the house was. And all these. And all these farms are gone. An agribusiness concern about 10,000 acres rinse all the land. The old farmhouses are rented out mostly to people here illegally. I just got back on my morning walk. I saw three refrigerators, two dryers thrown in the orchard, a bag of garbage car seats and a stripped down car that somebody stole and was had dismantled. And it's almost apocalyptic. And maybe I'm being too dramatic but I'm really. I really think that California is sort of the first example of a dystopia or decivilization that's happening across. And I don't know how you can arrest it. It just, it just seems the more we get worried about it and say we're going to do it doesn't change and it's dysfunctional. And I drive to Stanford once a week or once every two weeks and when I was a graduate student I could do it when we had a population of 18 million in about two and a half hours and the roads are unchanged and we have 40 million people. And it's crazy, it's like Road Warrior, you know, the roads, the people, it's fit 40 million people for everything you look. I don't see any encouragement anywhere. And that's why I'm pretty pessimistic. And then all the people that I meet that are talented and could have offered construct, they've all left, they've all gone to Nevada, Tennessee, Florida, every. I never see people. I went to Boise not long ago to speak and I was walking by, about five people said hi Victor. I said I know you. And they said yes, I'm from Fresno. And the next I, I said, well what happened? He goes, well there's a bunch of us from Fresno, we love Boise, we all left, we never told anybody. Nice.

[David Mamet]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

So I don't want to end on a pessimistic note, but I need some optimism from you, David, on Los Angeles or the state, anything.

[David Mamet]

That's a very interesting question. You know, Dennis Prager always used to say that. First off, he said 30 years ago, we're in a civil war. And I said yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. Again, I understand we're in the prodromo of a civil war, but not even that yet. But we certainly are now. He also said he divided the left into liberals and leftists. And he said, he, he said because he had no fight with the liberals, but he did have a fight with the leftist. And I always thought he was absolutely wrong. I thought he had it absolutely upside down that the leftist couldn't exist without the liberals. And that's what I, that's what I think now.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I think you're right. I think they're the ones that empower them.

[David Mamet]

Sure. So what we're looking at in California is some brain dead liberals who say that they can afford to sail border because it doesn't affect them. And then when it does affect them, the question is, do they change? I don't think they do. I think they leave California.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I Think that's it. They have their ideology. I think we're all lab rats or guinea pigs and they experiment on us. And they're assumed that they're always exempt from the consequences of their ideology because of their zip code or their money or their titles. But they do things like gas. When I go to Palo Alto, it's $6.50. I was in Michigan not too long ago, it was $2.50. And I see all these poor Mexican American people and illegals here paying $5.50 a gallon when California has the fourth largest oil reserves and they can't afford it. So I go to this gas station. It's a big line because it's a discount gas station. They pay $20, they fill up and they think, I got another $10. I'll go back in and give them $10. And I talked to all these people and said I can't afford $140 for my truck. But the people who did that policy of not drilling or driving out refineries or special blends, they don't care because they either have enough money or they don't drive 50 miles a day or something. And that's true of the school system. It's true of natural resources. It's all a coastal elite from San Diego to Berkeley, about 15 million people that are some of the wealthiest, most powerful people in the world. And they dictate for everybody else in the state, and they never have to expand experience what they do to the schools or the infrastructure or race relations. And they reminds me of a passage in Tacitus's history when this tribal chieftain goes to the Romans. You know, that. That passage, I think he says, I can't negotiate with you people because you make a desert and call it peace.

[David Mamet]

Anyway, Elon got it right. He said it's the most expensive weather in the world.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I hadn't heard that.

[David Mamet]

Yeah, it's good. It's true.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Let me just ask you your final thoughts, because I so respect. What do you think about Elon? I think he's a Renaissance guy, and I really appreciate it.

[David Mamet]

I'm crazy about him. Here's the thing that the perfect example of these idiots who say we have to have electric vehicles, we have to have, in effect, it's praying to the sun God, oh, God of wind power, my house. Oh, God of a sudden power, my house. Elon comes along with an electric car and they say, thank you, thank you, because we're going to ban the internal combustion engine. He goes to work for Trump and they say, kill Him.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah.

[David Mamet]

I mean, do we need to know anything more about the Left?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I was thinking, to try to be dispassionate. I was thinking, I went back and looked at Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, but he's not even like those people because he's revolutionized. I'm speaking to you on Starlink and I'm out in the middle of nowhere. He's brought Internet to the world at an affordable price to inaccessible locations. He revolutionized the ev. My wife has a Tesla and she swears by it. And then we've got neural link, but we. He opened up social media and this. These rockets are incredible. He's got more. More. I was listening to a talk by Larry Ellison, another guy that I had never heard, and I have so much respect for him. He was absolutely brilliant. He went through the entire. One of the questions was, what do you think of Elon? And he, he said something I never thought. He said, how? To the audience, how many satellites does the EU have in China have in the United States government? He said, whatever they are, times two. That's Elon. Yeah. So he's done things that nobody, Henry Ford didn't. He's in so many different fields and he's, he's changed the life of so many million people. That's almost sacrilegious to say, do what they say about, what they say about him and what they do to his, his branding.

[David Mamet]

Well, it's, it's, it's savagery.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It is, it is, it's. It reminds me, you know, being on a campus, what they say about Israel too. You know, when you look at Israel, what it did, it, it really, it really empowered the United States by getting rid of Hamas and dealing with the Houthis and Hezbollah and taking out the air defenses of this pernicious Iran and then their Texas system. And every time I go to Israel, I cannot believe it. I mean, Haifa looks like San Francisco did in Vertigo, that Hitchcock movie. It's. It looks clean, it's functional, everybody's happy. And, and it's almost like Elon. They hate. They hate. They hate it because it's so talented and successful. And I don't know what it is about.

[David Mamet]

It's, it's a hatred of modernity, which is why a lot of the left embraced Islam.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Because it's pre. Civilizational, I suppose. But they, they seem to like, they like. Every time I see somebody who doesn't like Israel, I always ask them, where did you stay? Have you ever been to Israel? And once in a while, they say, yes, and they always say the same thing. Four Seasons, King David, of course. Why don't you say in Ramallah, why don't you go to God's the city? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's the same thing with, with Elon. I think that's why they. All these people are shocked. There's always a story in the, the news that some guy's very left wing and he's shocked that somebody attacked his Tesla. So anyway, we covered a lot of ground. David, where can we get your book on the disenlightenment? Amazon.

[David Mamet]

Hold on. Yeah, you can get it on Amazon. Absolutely. So. And you can look at my movie, Henry John Johnson, movie dot com. And I think, I think you'll enjoy it. It's kind of. It's kind of an homage to maybe Ivan off by, by check off. It's a guy who's. Who thinks so well that he ends up on a descent into hell.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

When did, when did you. When did it get online? When. When did it.

[David Mamet]

I think just, just now, as we just now.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

So we can get it now.

[David Mamet]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, did you know that the president endorsed my book? Did you know that?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

All I knew was that he called you after. Was that in June or when. When you were on Bill Maher?

[David Mamet]

No, this was a couple of years ago. He called me when he was out of office. When I was on Bill Maher.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah.

[David Mamet]

And he said, I saw you on Bill Maher. I thought you were great. But P.S. he, he, he maneuvered you with the saying, you don't know whether the election was stolen or not. David. The election was stolen, though. He talked to me for 20 minutes. But it was great. No, but this new book that just came out, the Disenlightenment.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes.

[David Mamet]

He tweeted, you gotta. This is a great book. You gotta find.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That's great.

[David Mamet]

It's amazing.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That's great.

[David Mamet]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't think I was just thinking the other day about something. There were two things about him that I hadn't seen remarked about. And when he ran before, I wrote about it, but it had. Nobody paid any attention. And he was the only candidate when he went to the Rust Belt or farming. He used the first person personal pronoun, our. He said, I love our farmers, I love our workers, our, our, our. And I never heard a politician say our. And the other thing is, I was curious about what he says about Ukraine. So I went back and I looked. I Googled, slaughter, bloodbath, catastrophe, tragedy, plus Obama, where they, you know, they invaded during 2004 on his watch. Then I looked Biden, nothing. And then you look at Trump. He always talks about the human tragedy. He always says, this is horrible. These young people are being destroyed. It's horrible. This killing, we gotta stop. But nobody else has ever said that. It's always, we can emasculate Putin or we've got to put. It's always geostrategic gobbledygook. But he's the only one that talks as if it's a Verdun or Psalm are Stalingrad, 1.6 million dead, wounded and missing. And it's going on and on, but it really, I don't know if it's because he's a builder and he likes to build things and it doesn't make logic to destroy it or I think it's more, he actually, for all of the attacks on him is being cruded and he's actually much more sensitive to the loss of human life than any other president that we've had. It's on the record and I don't think people appreciate that about him.

[David Mamet]

Yeah, I love him. I'm crazy about. Yeah, he speaks English.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He sounds like a character in a.

[David Mamet]

Lot of your plays, David, now do you do?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes, I loved him.

[David Mamet]

I loved me too. He wrote a book called Language and Thought and Action.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He's a great San Francisco State linguist.

[David Mamet]

That's right, San Francisco State. It was about semantics and the early introduction to semantics. And I get time for a quick story. He says, here's an example. He says a guy talking about talking to the people. He says, a guy from Oxford is campaigning for electoral reform in Yorkshire, right? And the guy in Yorkshire says to the Oxford guy says, what does all this mean? One man, one vote. What does that mean? One man, one vote. And the guy from Oxford says, well, quite simply, it means one bloody man, one bloody vote. Yorkshire man says, well, why the hell can't they say so.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was, he was, he had that little, what was they called it, that little tamer sham or something.

[David Mamet]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And then he ran for Senate and he would, they call him Sleeping Sam. He would take a nap and they criticized him. He's a one term senator. And he said, listen, I'm not going to go so easily. My mom lived to be 97. I think he almost did too. But he was from, he was on San Francisco State. I think he was the provost or something. And he walked by that free speech that said no. Loud music and they were yelling kill. I don't know all of you. And he got up and he. He pulled out all the cords on the. And that made him famous. Everyone was waiting for that moment, and he gave it to them.

[David Mamet]

Yeah. Good for him.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. Anyway, David, it's been fascinating, and I hope everybody goes out and buys David's book. And David is sort of like Elon Musk. He really is on playwright, author, director, screenwriter. He does it all, and he does it with grace and humble. He's humble and he's an American, I don't know, an American fixture, American treasure. And we really appreciate it.

[David Mamet]

David, great talking to you. Victoria.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Thank you. Take care.

[Sponsor Representative]

Honestly, like most of you, I avoid the doctor, blood work, lab results, the weight. So I have to take care of my health and so should you. There's one simple lifestyle upgrade we can all make, and I have Field of Greens. Enjoy a delicious glass of Dr. Formulated field of Greens each day and you're gonna feel amazing. Plus, your doctor will notice your improved health or your money back. One Field of Greens customer wrote the best blood work I've had in a decade. My doctor said, whatever you're doing, keep doing it. Another said, for the first time in years, my cholesterol numbers are normal. And this mom said, after Field of Greens, my hair, nail, energy and blood work are all better. How can a fruit and vegetable drink promise better health? Each fruit and vegetable in Field of Greens was doctor selected to support vital organs like heart, liver, kidney, metabolism, immune system and healthy blood cells. Let me get you started. With 20% off and free shipping, visit fieldofgreens.com and use use my code Victor. That's fieldofgreens.com code Victor. And we'd like to thank Field of Greens for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hanson show.