The Secret Knowledge is a book by playwright David
Mamet that was published last week and that is highly relevant to our job
training system and employment world in California.
The
book has nothing in it about WIA funding in California, or individual training
accounts, or management information systems. Its relevancy is how it addresses
the broader meanings of economic growth
and individual freedom in our evolving global economy.
Several
of Mamet’s plays, particularly American Buffalo and Glengarry
Glen Ross depict the harshness of capitalism in America, and particularly
the harshness for individuals at the margins of the market economy. In Glengarry
Glen Ross, Shelley Lavene and George Aaronow are aging men who have no place in the
economy, whose skills have become obsolete, who are portrayed as being
discarded by capitalism.
In The
Secret Knowledge, though, Mamet celebrates capitalism, building on a series
of articles and talks he has given over the past five years. He discusses the
ability of the market economy to generate jobs and prosperity; its ability to harness the
creativity and energy of people in a way that no other economic system in human
history has been able to. In a recent interview for the book, Mamet does not
distance himself from his previous portrayals of capitalism; rather he speaks
of his own evolution of thought
Mamet
addresses a wide range of other cultural issues in the book including the
culture of American universities, the rise of militant Islam, the liberal arts
education. Most of us in the job training community will likely agree with
some, disagree with others. What is important is not that Mamet is "right" on
any particular issue, but the seriousness, boldness of thought, and willingness to break from
conventional wisdom-exactly the qualities needed in job training and other
government activities today.
What
a contrast with the superficiality and buffoonery of most of popular political discourse today, perhaps best represented by the
sneering, nasty liberalism of Bill Maher and his clueless celebrity guests–
who rush to sneer with him. Mamet is the proverbial man among boys, when
compared with others in our Southern
California entertainment industry who are holding forth on economics or politics.
Of
course, no discussion of Mamet would be complete without bringing in the
resources of You-Tube. Many scenes might be chosen. I’ll take the familiar (but
still entertaining and illuminating) sales techniques scene from Glengarry Glen Ross. Here is Alec
Baldwin (despite his own sometimes empty politics) on success in sales–"ABC,
Always Be Closing" (with usual Mamet adult language advisory).