The Revolution was Televised...for 5 Seasons

It happened a few Sundays ago. The committed few knew it was coming, but like true soldiers we marched to the inevitable end, heads and spirits high, without any comfort of what the future would hold. Honestly, we could not and still can not imagine that it’s over. It’s really over!!

If you don’t know what happened a few Sundays past, I hate that I feel compelled to clue you in. After all, you made a conscious choice to ignore it. Hell, you ignored it for five years. In reality, you have chosen to ignore it all your life, and maybe that’s why me and the rest of the committed few aren’t really concerned that you missed it. With any luck, maybe some of its integrity will be preserved. But, for the sake of this reflection, I guess I have to share or what’s the point, right? HBO’s, The Wire ended its five-season run. And in case you really want to know what you missed, you slept on the most important television show ever!! Bar none. No, not Seinfeld. No, not Cheers. No, not Friends. No, not The Cosby Show. No, not The Dave Chappell Show. None of those shows, as important as each is to its genre, are nearly as significant as The Wire. These shows are mere cartoons in comparison. In fact, The Wire may be the most important display of moving image art every produced, Spike Lee joints notwithstanding. Thankfully, the show has ruined me for all others.

Like any good Wire-head, I felt the rush through my veins every week, and even watched previous seasons on DVD in the off-seasons of the show, to take the edge off. Bloggers far and wide openly admit their addiction; take pride in it in fact. Why wouldn’t we take pride in our hunger for the show? We knew, and know, that we experienced a historically relevant, smart and critical enterprise into post-industrial urban America. We allowed ourselves to enter into the world of Baltimore, Maryland knowing full-well that it wasn’t only B-More that was under examination. We know, and always knew, that it was America taken to trial before the court of public opinion. And you chose to ignore. You dismissed it as another violent cop show. You even probably thought you were doing the responsible thing for not supporting the continued exploitative stereotyping and negativity that comes with drug-related shows. Some may have even thought the show glorified drug-trafficking. Well, let me wake you from your slumber, in all of its infinite wisdom. The Wire, according to David Simon one of the show’s creators, is about post-industrial America, the society we currently endure, and how “raw, unencumbered capitalism” devalues human beings. (see “Stealing Life” in The New Yorker, Oct. 22, 2007)

The Wire held a mirror up to this very nation and asked that we consider what has occurred in our urban spaces as a function of industrial decline. (These devastating effects are equally as grave in rural America.) Just a simple question folks: Where are people supposed to work now? Castigate drug dealing; shake your heads at hoop dreams; proffer the possible but improbable, “people should start their own businesses”; encourage more service related jobs to further emphasize your class arrogance; but when you get done with all the excuses, dare yourselves to find an effective answer to the dwindling labor sector of this country. No problem, I’ll wait. In the meantime…

The Wire held a mirror up this very nation, and dared us to face the overwhelming economic chasm that has emerged as a function of this wide-scale industrial decline. While the immediate response is to suggest that each person has the same chance to compete for socio-economic gain, to suggest so at this moment in this nation’s history is the baldest assertion one could wager. Instead of reinforcing this long fabled idea, like many shows and movies do, The Wire placed at least some of the truths regarding socio-economic disparities on the table, and welcomed viewers to consume a healthy plate of reality. The show explored the widening gulf between the “haves” and “have-nots” as a function of many broader systemic and structural insufficiencies, minus the absurd, politically fashioned arguments given to so much of our popular media.

The Wire held a mirror up to this very nation and asked us to stop lying about the War on Drugs. Note to the Drug Czars past and present; it’s not working fellas. Recent acquittals of crack cocaine offenders given the blatant racial disparities between users of the powder and the rock form is evidence of that, though the impact of decades of racialized drug enforcement policy can never be reversed. Plus, drugs enforcement efforts aimed at street level dealers has been about as effective as diet pills aimed at trimming fat while doing nothing to halt the consumption and digestion of high fat foods, all without any physical activity. Urbanites have long questioned who the people are that help to flood urban spaces with drugs; the very people who rarely appear as the target of law enforcement efforts. Interdiction at the nation’s borders is still policy and practice, right? But for those who are “natural police,” The Wire taught us not to blame you. You are merely mid-level players in a high stakes game from which you to will never benefit or see substantial results. Thank you for service, for you too are pawns in this sickening game of get the next politician elected. No other show has been as fair to police and drug dealers alike. Choices aside - politics aside - there are human beings on both sides.

The Wire held a mirror up to this very nation and asked us to stop lying about our racial attitudes. The show refused to cast African Americans, for example, only as criminals or only as flat, singular dimensioned characters. Instead, here was a show that offered a range of humanizing images whereby blacks emerged as, well, people. Rarely, if ever, has this nation been exposed to black and white characters displayed in all of their splendor and shortcomings. No one is all good or all bad – whatever either o f those mean. And in case we forget, addicts are people too; myself and fellow Wire­-heads included.

The Wire held a mirror up to this very nation and asked us to admit to the institutional ineffectiveness inherent in many of our organizations, but especially in the structures that matter most: political organizations ( local, state and federal); our educational system; our criminal justice system; and law enforcement. But the shining light in this commentary is that the show did not dismiss the possibility of effectiveness in either arena. Instead, The Wire carefully crafted a five-season story line that reminded us repeatedly of what was possible when resources were allocated with some sense of fairness and with some attention paid to making sure the talented people in these organizations are fully equipped to do their jobs. Contrary to the notion trumpeted by “supervisors” that “employees” must maintain or even increase production with stagnant or dwindling resources, to quote Simon again, “You never do more with less... ou do less with less.”

Some may suggest the show is hardly artistic enough for this kind of acclaim, given, if viewers aren’t careful, they may come away completely void of hope that humans will, can or even care to change themselves or their circumstances. After all, it is humans who help to maintain the dysfunctionality of so many of our organizations. Nonetheless, The Wire even gave some clarity to the age-old adage of whether “art imitates life” or if “life imitates art”. Maybe, just maybe, art imitates life with some hope that life might, in return, imitate the infinite possibilities art discovers and rediscovers over and over. A colleague reminded me that social change is rarely instigated by TV. And as much as I know he is correct, I remain hopeful that HBO's The Wire, might encourage us to imitate just a few of the options this artistic rendition dared us to consider. Of course, the other extreme is possible. Maybe the revolution was televised this time, but most of us didn’t give enough of a damn to even turn the channel.