The problem with forming an identity that is genuine and compassionate for these four men is that genuineness and compassion may make for decent human beings but they make for a cash-poor salesman who does not successfully close enough leads to win a Cadillac or to secure their job. They are superficial actors who live in the moment in the worst way. They live each moment dependent upon whether or not it will be materially profitable for them. If it is not materially profitable, they will change their actions, speech, or principles to become profitable. We see this quite clearly when Roma offers his philosophy for selling to Lingk, the same philosophy that makes a super successful salesman but a spectacularly unsuccessful human being: “I do today with what draws my concern today. I say this is how we must act. I do those things which seem correct to me today. I trust myself. And if security concerns me, I do that which today I think will make me secure. And every day I do that, when that day arrives that I need a reserve, (a) odds are that I have it, and (b) the true reserve that I have is the strength that I have of acting each day without fear” (Mamet 49). It is not so much that Roma’s situational ethics and identity are intolerable as it is that they are situational based on material gain without consideration of any other aspects of being a human being.Roma: Then I’m over the top and you owe me a Cadillac. Moss: Well, to the law, you’re an accessory. Before the fact. Everyone is this office has their own brand of anxiety which manifests itself mainly from the inhuman environment in which they make a living. Aaronow is filled with anxiety also, but he would never be as reckless in his disclosures as Levine. In fact, he sublimates his own identity to that of Moss’s who succeeds in manipulating Aaronow like all of the men do their clients. Aaronow can never quite be himself because he wants to be accepted by the others too much to risk ventu |
