Recessional, de David Mamet

David Mamet es un dramaturgo y guionista de cine bastante conocido. Entre sus obras más famosas está Glengarry Glen Ross y la película Los Intocables del Eliot Ness. Son obras de diálogos brillantes y situaciones ensambladas con absoluta precisión en que todo parece encajar. Aunque no había leído nada de él, si he visto pelis y hasta teatro, y no es difícil adivinar que escribe bien.

Este Recessional, que no es una obra de teatro, me daba la oportunidad de leer a Mamet y sobre temas más interesantes y actuales de los que podría encontrar en una obra de teatro. Así que según me enteré de su existencia, me hice con él y tampoco tardé mucho en leerlo. Y me he encontrado algo raro.

Se trata de una colección de ensayos cortos, muy cortos, que Mamet debió de escribir mayoritariamente durante el confinamiento del COVID. En ellos, se muestra muy crítico con las obligaciones que nos pusieron los Estados, pero también extrapola la situación al ámbito más general de la Izquierda en los EEUU, y su responsabilidad. Como colofón, tiene buenas palabras para un tipo tan denostado por los de su oficio como es el mismísimo Donald Trump, a quien de hecho considera como el líder de esa izquierda repleta de idologías, pero incapaz de encontrar alguien que las concilie (algo perfectamente lógico; otra manifestación la tenemos recientemente en España con la ideología de género y la ley trans).

Pero, claro, Mamet no es un filósofo ni un sociólogo divulgador. Así que lo que nos ofrece son sus pensamientos, a veces sin coherencia o sin una construcción lógica que los hilvane, pero casi siempre con la brillantez del dramaturgo que conocemos. A mí me resulta incómodo leer con este estilo, si se quiere, "oximorónico", pero eso no evita que reconozca la profundidad de algunas de sus frases, o la claridad con que expresa cosas que mucha gente piensa.

Asimismo, son interesantes las referencias literarias y cinematográficas que da, que me parecen valiosísimas para cualquier amante de ambas artes, específicamente las desarrolladas a principios del XX en su país de origen. Señalo unas cuantas que serán posiblemente objeto de pronta atención: the most transformativeâ American play, The Front Page; Virginia Faulkner's three novels: Friends and Romans, The Barbarians, My Hey-Day); Matthew Josephson's Robber Barons (1934) as a practical guide to the same depredations today.

Un último aspecto referente a su estilo es que todo el ensayo está sapilcado por chistes, bien suyos, bien citados, lo que permite que la sonrisa se asome frecuentemente en medio del fragor de desolación por el futuro de los EEUU. He aquí uno de tantos: "The old joke had it that money can't buy poverty, and indeed it can't." Otra observación: "a jar of peanut butter carries the warning that it was processed in a facility that might have processed peanuts."

Vamos, que es una lectura amena aunque sea anárquica para mi gusto. Yo creo que, dado que además es un libro corto, se puede recomendar su lectura, todos encontraremos algo que nos guste. Cierro con una selección de opiniones y frases brillantes.

Sobre el futuro de EEUU y en general los problemas de la multiculturalidad: "The three engines of cultural cohesion, those evolved to air and help adjudicate differences, are upon their death couch. Education, and the universities in particular, have long been beneath polite notice. Their cupidity, cowardice, and greed have been evident and decried for a hundred years.(...) Politicians have always been a confederation of whores, now betraying, now colluding with that opponent now promising gain, both in league, finally, against the electorate. But the newspapers. What words can convey my sorrow at their transmutation into organs of state propaganda? Worse than that, they have become unashamed merchants of hatred and panic." Que se puede completar con esta cita a Jefferson con brillante colofón: "Jefferson said that given the choice of government without newspapers or newspapers without government, he would unhesitatingly choose the latter. Now we have newspapers insisting on the infallibility of the state and calling out dissent as heresy."

Educación y las migroagresiones: "Bullying is the unlicensed application of power. Of old, it consisted, among boys, in shoving, punching, and beating. Of late it allegedly includes mocking, name-calling, slander, and rough speech and, reappearing as "microaggression" can now be alleged by those who have affronted only by the color of their skin, or by "cultural appropriation""

Seguida por "Or was, until the algebra of microaggressions allowed the weak to enjoy bullying the strong, and thereby court not harsh instruction but reward."

Y esta también digna de recordarse: "The children in the park are learning more than they would in school. What are they learning? Something. How could they not? They are mobile engines of curiosity."

El COVID y las manifestaciones de la izquierda (no en España, claro, que aquí gobernaban ellos): "The COVID hysteria isolated Western citizens, under the threat not only of the virus but of governmental penalty. But leftist protest and riot were exempt. The state thus prescribing the only acceptable mode of congregation; to question the phenomenon was to invite censure and retribution."

"Public officials mandated the wearing of masks, then openly flouted their own regulations. Why did the Left not object? If the masks were essential to preservation of life, even the most depraved and corrupt of officials would, one would think, obey that law. If they are, thus demonstrably, not necessary to preserve life, why did the solons pass the laws?"

Concepto de justicia social: "See also a concern for that phantasm called social justice, a concept, like "wellness" of which one can never have enough and so may be sold any amount." "We Jews were schooled in justice (which is to say making difficult decisions based upon divine law) before it became "social justice" (that is, "following your feelings because they, belonging to a superior being, will always be right"). "

Wokismo y la izquierda: "Now our country is being eviscerated by the Marxist Left. Each battle they win emboldens them to escalate their activities: shaming becomes blacklisting; picketing becomes destruction; demonstrations become riots. Just as with taxes, all they want is all we got, and who could stop them?" Y esta sobre Broadway: "Today, one after one, beloved classics of Western thought are trash canned because of the race, sex, or purported sexual preference of their creators."

Shareholder vs Stakeholder: "I will remind my readers that a stakeholder is an onlooker to a gambling event."

Término con el encomio de Trump, bastante presente en el libro. Me quedo con estas dos frases, la segunda de las cuales coincide con la apreciación que yo tengo del personaje, obtenida desde mucho más lejos y con muchas menos interacciones:

"Trump was vilified with greater vehemence than anyone in Western memory. He was hated because he was feared; because he held that prosperity was to be enjoyed as the legitimate reward of sacrifice, struggle, patriotism, and the American culture that was their conjunction."

"Donald Trump was vilified by the Left because "he lied"; in fact, he was at a disadvantage because he did not lie. He was, by inclination and experience, a superb director (that is, one who achieves a goal through inspiring employees) but he had neither the inclination nor experience to rule, which is to control disparate groups through false promises, stealth, deception, propaganda, and lies." Me encanta: Trump dirigía, no gobernaba.