Did Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell - who was routinely wrong about everything during the election - really say that Arizona’s Janet Napolitano was qualified to lead the Department of Homeland Security because she had no family, and thus, no life? And even if he did say something so blindingly stupid, he couldn’t possibly have been dumb enough to say it near a live microphone, could he?
<a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/02/campbell.brown.rendell/?iref=mpstoryview”>Oh, he did?</a>
The Wire was surely the greatest television show to ever be aired. Radley Balko, amongst others, has loved the show. But today, he delves into its alleged critique of capitalism, linking to Connor Friedersdorf’s work as well.
1. Both agree that capitalism isn’t Baltimore’s problem. Rather, the bureaucracy is. There is no doubt that, at almost every turn, the bureaucracy is shown to be an inhibitor in people’s lives, in no way benefitting everybody and seeming to undercut people.
2. That said, there are moments when in fact the bureaucracy does seem to help people - perhaps the motivations are wrong, but there are plenty of times in the show when bureaucratic actors do clean the streets, arrest the bad guys, provide for the kids, and generally exist in a manner beneficial to the citizenry.
3. To ignore the fact that Marlo, Avon, Proposition Joe Stewart and The Greek are capitalists, however, is to ignore reality. All are offering a product, wanted by thousands. All are working strictly for profit, caring little for what happens to their customers. All maintain their positions through power, violence, and the ability to create monopolies. Friedersdorf, at first, hilariously claims that this doesn’t represent true capitalism, because true capitalism is free from all of these things.
Later, he acknowledges that the idea of perfect capitalism exists only in books, and requires its participants to operate free from greed. Does anybody really believe WalMart wouldn’t completely shutter its competition if it could? Or if Microsoft could have forced itself onto everybody, it wouldn’t have? People pursuing money will often go to outrageous lengths to make it, steal it, have it, or earn it. If that means playing outside of the rules, so be it.
Turning around and claiming that what we see there isn’t real capitalism is changing the rules after the game.
4. Finally, there’s this from Balko:
And that is how two brilliant men like Ed Burns and David Simon … call themselves men of the left, which implies a kind of default support for massive government intervention to solve or alleviate suffering, poverty, crime, and other social ills.
If The Wire attempted to communicate anything, it was that our monolithic understanding of things is wrong. Criminals can be good (Cutty). Addicts can be friendly (Bubbles). Police can be assholes (Dozerman). Politicians can be awful (Clay Davis) or slightly less awful (Tommy Carcetti). Gunmen can have hearts of gold (Omar) and love their children (Chris Partlow) or just be out and out killers (Snoop).
Being a liberal doesn’t mean that you necessarily want the government involved in everything. In fact, as somebody who has flirted enough with libertarianism to know that I’d rather call myself a liberal, I can be pro-market, pro-freedom, and still believe that government agencies should be responsible for fixing the roads. I would imagine that the authors of The Wire deeply believe that the government can help to fix some of these problems, if they’d just do things differently. Take, for instance, Season 3’s “Hamsterdam.” The government backs off, its various agents step in, offering condoms, clean needles, information about treatment, and education, a situation which appears to be working. (Would it in real life? Perhaps. Libertarians against the drug war seem to believe so…but some of those people doing good work in Hamsterdam were government functionaries of various sorts.)
Meanwhile, I would also offer that The Wire’s authors might believe that some solution is necessary for suffering, poverty, crime, and other social ills, issues which libertarians rarely spend any time on, choosing to instead claim that, “the market will solve everything!”
No solution is perfect. No solution is right. The Wire was a searing indictment of everybody’s politics. To claim it as a bastion of libertarian thought is ignoring the message as much as claiming it as a bastion of anybody else’s thought.
Update: This is the sort of capitalist behavior that I’m talking about. Greedy people do awful things, as evidenced by this sort of behavior, all completely legal in Balko’s libertarian dreamscape.)
One nomination, for writing. One wonders what exactly Emmy nominators are looking for. The Wire received just two nominations during its five season run, which is odd considering that it is probably the greatest television show ever done.
I would go on, but my head would probably explode.
Update: I just read the best actor/actress nominees:
Best actor in a drama nominees are Gabriel Byrne (”In Treatment”), Bryan Cranston (”Breaking Bad”), Michael C. Hall (”Dexter”), Jon Hamm (”Mad Men”), Hugh Laurie (”House”) and James Spader (”Boston Legal”)… Glenn Close (”Damages”), Sally Field (”Brothers and Sisters”), Mariska Hargitay (”Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), Holly Hunter (”Saving Grace”) and Kyra Sedgwick (”The Closer”).
I mean, really? Mariska Hargitay? Kyra Sedgwick? James Fucking Spader?
People keep asking me, “Well, why do you support Obama? You don’t like Hillary, I get it, but why then Obama?” And the answer is above. He recognizes bullshit when he sees it, and then he calls it out. Observing that Hillary Clinton has won less popular votes, less delegates, and less states indicates exactly the sort of chutzpah his opponent is showing in suggesting that he’d be good vice-president material.
Then, Obama eviscerates the ludicrous notion coming out of the Clinton campaign that he isn’t ready to be president. He wonders how it is that he would be an excellent vice-president, even after they’ve claimed that the most important qualification for the vice-presidency is readiness, something which he lacks and is a reason to disqualify him from presidential consideration.
What does the Clinton campaign have in response? Predictably, nothing. Because in reality, all they’ve got is the smear, and the best way to counter a smear isn’t to run from it (as John Kerry and Al Gore did continually, for no good reason) but confront the thing head on, as Obama has done. He looks Clinton supporters in the eye and says, “This is what she’s saying, and this is why it doesn’t make a damned bit of sense.” And he’s right.
So why support Obama? Because there’s something about him that seems to be different, some sort of evolutionary step forward for politicians, wherein he says what he means, cops to his mistake, and has a willingness to walk across the aisle if it’ll get something done. The forces at work may ultimately slow him down, or stymie his ability to accomplish his goals - it was, after all, the ultimate lesson in The Wire (Sorry Haku) - but he seems to be something very, very different. And at this point in American politics, something different is good enough for me.
-Meanwhile, the less said about Eliot Spitzer and his prostitutes, the better, except that he represent the worst of politics: the man who makes his life seem to be one thing, when it reality it is something else altogether. You can’t campaign against prostitution if you love the prostitutes. The rules apply to you the same way they do to everybody else, jackass. It’s no different than Larry Craig being so against gay marriage - hell, gay anything - while at the same time soliciting blowjobs in airport bathrooms. And of course, there are countless political examples of politicians saying one thing while doing another.
The fear, I suppose, is that Obama will be like this, but so far, nobody can stick anything to him other than the Tony Rezko nonsense which is, at best, incredibly thin gruel. And Obama’s already come forward and described his purchase as “bone-headed” which is more than can be said for most lying politicians. Until somebody sticks something on Obama that makes him seem like Spitzer, I assume that he’s different.
And again, that’s enough of a reason for me to support him.
And thus it ended, the greatest show in television history. With tonight’s final episode of The Wire, the response to the ending might be muted. Marlo walks? McNulty walks? Michael walks? Freamon walks? Levy walks? Daniels walks? Everybody walks?
When Homicide: Life on the Streets ended, it did so as it began - with officers entering a dark space with flashlights. The Wire, in its own way, was circuitous too. We began with Avon, with Omar, with Bubbles, with Jimmy. And in the end? We’re given Avon (Marlo), Omar (Michael), Bubbles (Dookie), and Jimmy (Leander). When the show began, hacks ran the police department, and as it ended, a hack - Prez’s uncle (ed. note: Valcheck is Prez’s father-in-law, not uncle - thanks Tom) - takes the reins. People who have no business in police work, like Rawls, are instead promoted up the ladder. Good men face tough decisions and ultimately, their only salvation is in themselves: Bubbles walks away from heroin and Daniels walks away from policing.
There are quibbles with the end. Gary, the corrupt lawyer? Marlo going back on a corner despite pocketing $10 million? Kima being forgiven so easily? Beadie taking Jimmy back so easily? And, perhaps, Templeton’s Pulitzer was over the top too. But ultimately, those are tiny complaints on a show that ran 60 episodes, which featured well over 100 characters, and managed to logically finish precisely where it began.
And of course, there were the truly transcendent moments:
-Cheese getting taken down out by Slim Charles, immediately after announcing that “There ain’t no back in the day…there ain’t no nostalgia to this shit here.” Fat Face Rick taking the rap by leaving his cigar at the scene? And the small dealer announcing that Slim Charles had cost the group money, instead of celebrating the end of Cheese’s idiotic posturing. He never knew when to shut his mouth. The scenario in this episode and in Cheese’s interaction with Brother Mouzone in Season 2 was exactly the same - he never knew when to shut up.
-Alma getting sent to the boondocks because she did what was right? See: Jimmy and the boat. We get the same message, over and over and over - the right thing doesn’t matter. Pleasing (or displeasing) the bureaucracy does.
-And finally, Kavanaugh’s and Jay Landsman’s goodbyes to Jimmy and (belatedly) Lester. In the end, these people recognized the talent and they recognized the recklessness, and all past anger was forgotten in the name of the drinks, the jokes, and the Pogues “Body of an American.” Even in this we learn that the bureaucracy can ignore whatever it pleases, whenever it pleases.
The fifth season may be criticized by the same people who think that the second season was largely unnecessary. (I myself used to think that, before seeing the final three seasons. They made the second season necessary.) They may object that we didn’t see the shocking action of seasons one and three, or the searing social commentary of season four. They’d all be mistaken. This one rates as well as any of the others precisely because it went out of its way to hammer home the point: bureaucracy corrupts. Doesn’t matter who. Doesn’t matter where. Doesn’t matter how. It is going to corrupt its participants, and there is nothing to be done about it.
-Good lord. Tomorrow’s a big day, isn’t it? Or is it? I can’t tell. We do know that important primaries are happening in Texas and Ohio, and that as things stand, Obama and Clinton may split these two. They may also split Vermont and Rhode Island. Here’s crossing fingers for Obama, but I’m losing my confidence. I’d like to see Obama surge through, but rampant talk of Republicans crossing party lines to support Hillary, whom they know they can easily defeat, has me nervous, as does Clinton’s Rasputinian ability to apparently dodge bullets. Why won’t her campaign fold?
-Meanwhile, we’re down to a single episode left for The Wire. This week’s? Absolutely unbelievable: it was arguably the greatest single episode of the show, which is ridiculous high praise. Consider…
1. Michael realizing he was being set up, and shooting Snoop at point blank range. He has ice water running in his veins and intelligence to an incredible degree. Also, did Snoop’s speech to him before getting done sound familiar? It should - it was every speech everybody ever gave McNulty. “You’re not enough like us and we cannot tolerate that difference.”
2. Bubbles’ (Reginald’s) speech at Narcotics Anonymous was heart-breaking and uplifting, simultaneously. We know he’s been through hell. No less than Jay Landsman said so when deciding to put Bubbles back out on the street after Sherrod’s accidental overdose. We’ve watched him experience every bit of indignity possible, and we’ve seen him come out on the other side. The message was clear: only you can do this. Don’t rely on anybody else. Bubbles triumphed, ultimately, when he realized that there was nobody for him to reach out to and he still decided not to get high.
3. Meanwhile, Dukie’s descent in Bubbles world is concerning, if not entirely unexpected. Clearly he was comfortable with the Araber Junkman. Michael warned him, but Dukie knew that it was a life he could survive.
4. Kima crying while admitting to Daniels what McNulty had been up to? Geez. If Jimmy had let her in on things earlier, would she have stayed quiet?
5. And Landsman ripping Jimmy while praising “the Buuuuunk.” Priceless.
6. The bust was perfect. Everybody going down was perfect. And the fact that Jimmy’s arrogance has ultimately led to that takedown getting completely fucked up? Essential.
7. There is Marlo’s howl in jail, that his name is his name. That’s ultimately all he cares about. Money? Strength? Authority? Nothing drives him more than his name being recognized on the streets as the man. How does anything combat that mentality?
8. The veteran? The newspaper foul-up? The Walter Reed? “How are you doing Marino?” The veteran asks. The man hobbling by on two prosthesis? “Outstanding!”
9. Finally, the appearance of the drunk cop from season one, Augie? It’s little things like that the make the show worth watching, and worth missing. “Beats working,” he says, about his job on evidence storage.
One episode left. Does Jimmy go down? Is Rhonda Pearlman the inside source? Does Michael shoot Marlo? Six days left, and they cannot pass quickly enough.
There are plenty of recaps of last night’s episode of The Wire available today. Here’s one, if you’re interested. However, I received at least one text message last night asking if that was how Omar had to go out. Like the sender, I think we all wanted a scenario in which Omar gets four or five guys before finally meeting his maker, but in end, as close as he got was Avon’s Savino, which doesn’t even count. Marlo, Chris, and Snoop are all left standing, and Omar himself gets misidentified at the lab.
I was going to be an English major when I first went to college, but I bailed on that after one semester. It wasn’t for me. However, there’s enough of that left in me to think that last night’s episode was a cautionary tale to all of us who lionized Omar beyond reason. In the end, it seemed to be saying, this mythic hero of the streets who perfected the “rip and run,” who embarrassed Avon’s attorney in the Bird trial, who survived prison and a ridiculous jump from a five story building, who stole an entire shipment of Baltimore’s heroin, and who inspired enough fear on the streets so that packages were given to him without so much as a fight, was in fact just a man. In the end, his shattered ankle slowed him down. In the end, his fury at Butchie’s death clouded his judgement. In the end, he was alone and weak and vulnerable. That a kid - Kenard? - was the shooter probably the perfect way for him to go.
Then, when his body is incorrectly identified at the morgue, the point is made clear: we might remember this man and all of his doings, but the bureaucracy certainly doesn’t, and neither will anybody else. Heroes die. Good characters die. And everybody moves on.
The entire episode was homage to that idea. Beadie’s well-deserved lecturing of Jimmy about who will and won’t remember him when he dies was the same idea packaged differently. Ultimately, all of this drama doesn’t matter.
You could make an argument that the show is actually a vehicle for that message: that ultimately, none of this suffering matters, because nothing changes it. My favorite scene in The Wire occurred in Season 3. Prez goes out for Chinese food with McNulty. He opens his fortune cookie immediately and McNulty looks at him aghast. “You do that first?” Prez says, “It doesn’t matter. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen.” That’s the show. It’s a narrative we tolerate when bad endings come to bad characters - Stringer’s death, inevitable as it was, felt good. Unfortunately, it’s a narrative we have to tolerate when bad endings come to good characters.
The message is clear: none of this matters. Wallace’s intelligence didn’t stop bullets. Frank Sobotka’s corruption couldn’t save his union. And Omar’s exploits couldn’t stop a child from shooting him.
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