Here’s something you don’t often see: a big name in Hollywood condemning America’s ongoing lockdown.

In an interview with Breitbart News, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and mammoth playwright David Mamet went all in for the Constitution.

The way David sees it, our shutdown state is absolutely senseless. In fact, the insanity’s downright historical:

“It just doesn’t make any sense. It’s the first time in history that an entire economy has been shut down because of an infection.”

And the science isn’t settled:

“[O]bviously, everyone gets to pick his or her own experts and say whom they believe in.”

Mamet suggested decisions about one’s health should be left to them, not government officials:

“But that’s what you’re supposed to do with your health, right? We’re supposed to make our own decisions about our health.”

He pegged a parallel — feminists’ insistence upon women’s rights where their bodies are concerned.

“Now that can be argued either way, just as the virus can be argued either way. But the argument and the terms under which we undertake it are the essence of American democracy.”

The legendary writer and director asserted America’s current clampdown is suicidal. He believes the sheeple have lost sight of our founding principles:

“What we’re seeing is a populace that’s gone nuts, and I’ve got a new book coming out called Journal of the Plague Year where I try to reason my way through the way that the west is committing suicide. What we’re doing to commit suicide is we’ve forgotten the Constitution.”

It’s baaaaad:

“Basically, we human beings have the capacity to be sheep.”

You’ve gotta stand for somethin’, or you’ll fall for anything:

“If we don’t believe in God and if we don’t believe in our country, we’re going to believe in any mumbo jumbo that comes along. And by the time we look around, it’s too late. … “You don’t want to put the woman behind the counter at the auto registry in charge of your life. And that’s what we’ve done.”

The Pulitzer Prize winner also torpedoed officials who’ve been caught violating their own edicts:

“Of course they’re whores and hypocrites, fools, thieves, and thugs, as are almost all politicians. They don’t think it’s going to kill them. Because if they actually thought it was going to kill them, they’d be wearing the masks however protected they are. So for whatever reason, there’s a herd mentality to wear the masks, and there’s a herd understanding that to the largest extent, it’s a bunch of nonsense.”

If you’re unfamiliar with David, you should know him by his massive amount of work. The man wrote both the play and screenplay for the fantastic film Glengarry Glen Ross, served as co-screenwriter for Wag the Dog, wrote Jack Nicholson’s heavy hit Hoffa, and wrote the 1974 play Sexual Perversity in Chicago — the basis for the 1986 and 2014 films About Last Night, starring Rob Lowe and Kevin Hart, respectively.

A few more screenwriting/ credits:

Hannibal (2001)
The Untouchables (1987)
Ronin (1997)

If you’re in the mood, check out 2001’s Gene Hackman crime drama, Heist, which David both wrote and directed.

And if you really want something to chew on, take a look at my personal favorite — 1997’s The Spanish Prisoner, starring Steve Martin and written/directed by Mamet.

Back to the lockdown, it’s not his first time speaking out.

As noted by the The Daily Wire, he penned a November 27th op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in which he pinpointed a virus other than corona:

“The virus here is government — or at least the incompetents who advise our rulers and cannot admit the legitimacy of dissension. Absent intervention, this virus may eventually kill the host organism.”

So what’s the Hollywood heavy doing these days? David recently taught an online masterclass, which he said he enjoyed. Apropos, he pointed to non-traditional learning — because school stinks:

“The colleges have been dead for decades. There’s no reason to go to college. You used to say there’s no reason to go to college unless you want to study medicine or law. But medicine and law have now been corrupted by the Left. And I’m sure that they now have ‘socially justice-ly’ friendly engineering. … I’ve taught at a lot of colleges. I’ve seen it from the inside out. As far as liberal arts goes, they’re not only a joke, they’re a complete scam.”

What advice, then, does he have for aspiring writers?

It doesn’t involve earning a degree:

“Get your devices and make sure they’re all updated. And lock them where you can’t get to them. Go someplace else, sit in a park, take a piece of paper and a pencil, and go [bleeping] nuts.”

That sounds great — but while you’re baring your soul, make sure and wear a mask.

-ALEX

See more pieces from me:

Students Try to Deplatform University’s College Republicans, and You’re Probably a White Supremacist

Lincoln’s Name Yanked From California School: He Didn’t Prove ‘Black Lives Ever Mattered’ to Him

Cartoon Network Schools Kids on Pronouns: They Define You and Make You Feel Safe

Find all my RedState work here.

And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter and Facebook.

Thank you for reading! Please sound off in the Comments section below.