Free Goldberg Street by David Mamet Page A

The dialects are different. Customs change. Their lives are different. Some of them died violent deaths . . . some are disfigured . . . they've been decomposing . . . . Now: listen to this: At what point do you bring them back ? ( Pause .) Right before they died ? What if they were ill ? What if they were infirm ? And so you don't do it then, when do you do it? At what point? You see what I'm telling you? Someone wants to come back at age twenty , so you bring him back at fifty- five . . . is he allowed to change ? And who's to say if he can or he can't? What if he never wanted to come back?
    Caller: . . . Greg . . . ?
    Int: What about people who killed themselves. Because they didn't want to live? Some of them we know. We could leave out . What about ones that we don't know? Who's going to pass on this? You and your group ? Well, then you're talking about something very much like fascism. Is that what you want? Because I'll tell you what you get very quickly is a State where only the Pure can come back. Or the good-looking . . . or whatever the people in charge that day seem to feel is the ultimate good . . . and tickles their fancy. Or do you just press a button and everyone comes back? And what do you have then? I'll tell you what you have: wars . You've got wars. Unless you think that that being dead improved them. You see what I'm saying? You've got the same jealousies and . . . misunderstandings you had the first time. And how do you explain the technology to some guy who's just come back from 1565 and all of a sudden he's in some space suit and he's alive again . . .
    Caller: He wouldn't be in a space suit.
    Int: . . . whatever. And who governs this august group? Or do they just “get along"? Not in this lifetime, friend. What do you think? Because they're on a foreign planet that it's going to be cooperation and good will ? They're going to forget about their human nature and just live in joy? You're talking about heaven , my friend. Heaven doesn't exist. You think the fact that they've come back is going to make them all philosophers? I don't think so. For a day , yes . Maybe . A week, a month later, and I'm going to tell you something: It's going to be worse than it was before, and you know what you've got? Chaos. And any time you get a State like thatyou have a populace that thinks the world owes it a living. And you've got a tragedy. It doesn't hold up. Even as a dream. It's not thought out. And what do they eat?
    Caller: Toynbee says we can bombard the atmosphere with oxygen and reclaim the soil.
    Int: Does he? And what if he's wrong . . . ? ( Pause .) You see what I'm saying? ( Pause .)
    Caller: I . . .
    Int: You see what I'm telling you?
    Caller: I . . .
    Int: Listen to me: The world is full of histories of people trying to live in Utopias . It doesn't work. We wish it did , it doesn't . ( Pause .) Alright? ( Pause .) Alright?
    Caller: Um . . . yes.
    Int: Alright . Thank you for calling. ( Loudspeaker goes dead .) Let's move along:

The Power Outage

     

    The Power Outage was first published in the New York Times on August 6, 1977.

     

    I: The thing which I'm telling you is no one enjoys being equal.
    2: Yes. Yes. I agree with that. We have our fictions. And what did you do when the lights went out?
    1: Stumbled around in the dark. ( Sotto voce .) . . . taking goods away . . . they took the goods away. ( Full voice .) Goods cannot take away heat.
    2: No.
    1: As if, if they were stolen, they could take the dark away.
    2: No. I agree with you.
    1: A flashlight runs on batteries, as does a candle, if you follow me.
    2 ( Sotto voce ) : No.
    1: But here we find electric light has a connection .
    2: Yes. I see your point. Yes.
    1: Like a road, eh?
    2: Yes.
    1: It is the same road. One for all. A dirt path in the Hinterlands, of some worn blacktop in the Ozarks. It is all the same. One road.
    2 ( Sotto voce ) : One road.
    1: Now we see the same of electricity. Why do we need these things?
    2: The goods?
    1: Yes. (